The Northampton Invitational was held this past weekend to open up the cross country season for Northampton as well as several other area teams.

“Both the boys and girls ran well with many new personal best times. It was a fast start to our season before we head into our first regular season EPC meet on Sept. 12 against Central, Emmaus, and Whitehall,” said head coach Dan Benner.

Pope John Paul II won the boys A/AA event with 54 points while Central Bucks East won the AAA event with 54 points. On the girls side, Boiling Springs won the A/AA event with 68 points while it was Council Roch South winning the AAA event with 31 points.

The girls overall winner was Rebecca Snyder of Oley Valley with a time of 18:05.18. The boys race was won by Avery Lederer of Penncrest in 15:43.72.

For the Kids, the girls top-five girls were made up of Georgia Wiswesser (Fr - 20:08), Magen Perelli (Jr - 20:28), Amber Poniktera (Fr - 20:42), Beth Albright (Sr - 20:59) and Hannah Flaven (Sr - 21:46).

“Overall that group ran an impressive 20:49 average,” said Benner. “Georgia earned a medal with her 21st place finish establishing a new Northampton freshman course record. Magen, Amber, and Hannah all established new personal best times, with Beth running very close to hers as well.”

Lauren Pague (Jr - 22:35) and Olivia Rigo (So - 22:44) rounded out the top-seven runners.

“It was an exciting and successful start and because of that expectations have really increased,” Benner said.

The boys top-five consisted of Vince Gallagher (So - 16:57), Isaiah Tyler (So - 17:56), Evan Gillette (Jr - 18:28), Owen Nahf (Fr - 19:04), and Nic Quinones (Fr - 19:16).

“The boys ran really well considering how young we are,” Benner said. “The team is made up of mostly freshmen and sophomores, with only a few juniors and seniors. So it was encouraging to see them get some big race experience early in the season. It will be exciting to watch this team mature, not only this season, but for the next few seasons.”

Gallagher established a new Northampton sophomore record with his time of 16:57, Benner said. The top-seven boys were rounded out with Kolton Bates (Fr - 19:20) and Sam Arnold (Sr - 19:54).

The Kids also had several middle school runners medal at the invite. The boy award winners were: Ben Vegliante (3rd place), Jay Perelli (5th place), Ayden Spence (10th place), Liam Galicki (12th place), Joey Confer (17th place), and John Breslin (18th place).

Overall the boys middle school team won the team competition for the third straight year.

The girl award winners were: Madelyn Hurst (2nd place), Olivia Szerencsits (10th place), Sarah Mele (17th place), and Brianna Tyler (18th place).