Riley Williamson and running partner Nick Bower thought they could pull off a Parkland sweep of the top two spots at the Eastern Pennsylvania Cross Country Championships last week. They came close, finishing first and third, respectively, and will have another go at it this week.

Williamson ran the race in 16:41 for the gold medal last Tuesday at the Bethlehem Municipal Course. Bower ran it in 16:53, with only Easton’s Cosmo Cardone (16:45) finishing in between.

“Nick and I were thinking 1-2,” said Williamson. “We’re really close. We both do the same workouts. We both work together and encourage each other. When we get to these meets we try to just stay with each other and work together.”

They led Parkland to a second-place team finish, while the Parkland girls team ran to first place overall, led by freshman Ava Benedetti (fourth place) and junior Maddie Zaun.

In the boys race, Williamson, who finished eighth at last year’s league championship meet, went out with the lead pack and sat behind the leaders for the first two miles while waiting to make his move.

“I believe I got the lead a little after two miles,” he said. “I knew I could just sit behind some of the guys that were up top, just relax for a little bit and then make my move near the end.”

The rest of Parkland’s top five included senior Jacob Ringer in seventh place, junior Matthew Zager in 19th and junior Matthew Santacoloma in 21st place.

The Trojans finished just four points behind Easton (47-51) for second place as a team.

“I think they’ve played their entire cards today,” Bower said of Easton. “I don’t think they have the drive to go forward, but they are a good competitor and I don’t think we should count them out. I also think Stroudsburg is a good competitor that cannot be counted out. I think districts is going to come down to Stroudsburg, Easton and us. We’re just going to have to hope that they played their hand and we haven’t ours.”

Bower said the Trojans are focused on performing well at districts, and he and Williamson are hoping to be the first two across the finish line.

“Riley and I both have a dream of being 1-2 for districts,” said Bower. “We can do it. I think all our team can do it.

“It’s just leagues so we’re just trying to stay steady, stay calm and not show our hand too early. We’re focusing on districts.”

The district meet was held Wednesday, after Press deadline. See next week’s issue for coverage.

In the EPC girls race, Bendetti performed as well in her first postseason race as she had all season long. She’s been the team’s top runner and had a few first-place finishes in regular season meets.

“I think it really went well,” said Bendetti, who finished in 19:47. “The start of the race definitely helped. I was behind the top group and I said I wouldn’t go too fast in the beginning. I stayed a good distance where I had eye sight and that way I could go up on them when they lost their power.”

Zaun ran the course in 20:04 for ninth place, followed by teammates Kiley Krasley (12th), Julianna Elsesser (17th) and Lily Goense (30th).

Zaun, who joined cross country as a sophomore, improved on last year’s finish by 10 places and ran the course over a minute and a half faster than the 21:38 she ran in 2016.

She stayed close to Bendetti and a pack of teammates most of the race and made her move when the competition tired.

“We both were behind this big group of girls and we knew they were going out too fast,” said Zaun. “We knew which girls we were supposed to be running with and we knew certain girls were out too fast and they were going to fall off.

“We tucked in behind them and halfway through the race, around two miles we started picking girls off on the switch backs.”