Before the Whitehall cross country team embarked on its EPC season this week, the Zephyr runners took the course at the 39th DeSales Centaur Invitational over the weekend. And a number of runners had impressive showings on the tough course.

Juanita Flores led all Whitehall runners with a 39th-place finish on Saturday afternoon, clocking a time of 22:19.46 in the team’s first race of the season. A number of other Zephyr girls followed close behind, beginning with Devon Roberts (55th) and Rachel Herr (65th).

“I wasn’t too happy with my time because I know the year before I did a lot better,” Flores said. “But I think it wasn’t too bad for the beginning of the season.”

The only race Whitehall had prior to Saturday’s DeSales Invitational was a warm-up scrimmage earlier in the week. A year ago she ran the course in 22:00.

One of the toughest areas of DeSales’ course lies in the midway portion and second-half part of the terrain. A number of steep hills make it difficult for runners to sustain momentum after a fast downhill mile to open the race.

But Flores is one of those runners who can take advantage of the hills and the challenges they present to most runners.

“It is challenging with the hills it has,” Flores said. “It’s not just little hills that you have to get over; they are pretty big. And especially the cornfield part of the course is the toughest part for a lot of the runners. But other than that it goes by pretty quick.

“I like them in a sense because I use it as a time to pass other runners next to me. But it’s kind of tough at the same time.”

After a couple of juniors and a sophomore passed the finished line first for Whitehall, senior Casey Cunningham (91st) and junior Audrey Fedor (113th) rounded out the Zephyrs top five scorers.

Madison Gatson (114th) and Caroline Martin (117th) also ran the course and finished in respectable times.

On the boys’ side, Trevor Sargent was the only Whitehall runner, placing 156th in a time of 23:38.64.

Marian Catholic’s Tina Capparel won the girls’ race in 19:20.93, over a minute faster than second-place finisher Autumn Sands of Owen J. Roberts. Owen J. Roberts did, however, capture the team championship with its top five runners all placing in the top 18.

Their teammate on the boys’ side, Liam Conway, won the event in 15:59.23. Stroudsburg captured the title with all of its scorers finishing in the top 25.