Southern Lehigh sophomore Alec DiCesare broke away from three Liberty runners to win the season’s first cross country scrimmage for Liberty, Freedom, Whitehall, and Southern Lehigh last Thursday at Freedom.

“It feels amazing. This is my first high school win. Even though it’s a scrimmage, it still feels great,” DiCesare said.

DiCesare finished the race in 17:31.

Liberty’s Darlyn Fermin placed second in 17:46, and Liberty’s Cole Frank was third in 18:03.

“I know Darlyn likes to take it out faster. I knew if I stayed ahead of him, I would have burned out the rest of the race, so I tried to stay right behind him. And I know Cole is fast, and his older brother Casey, but Casey dropped off a bit, and then Cole dropped off a bit, so I just stuck right behind Darlyn,” said DiCesare.

“Right about with 400 meters left, he slowed down dramatically, but then he did kick at the end. I could hear him, and I could hear his coach yelling behind me, so I knew I just had to go for the last hundred, two hundred meters.”

Southern Lehigh’s Alex Fillman placed fourth in 18:23, Southern Lehigh’s Marc Ramson was fifth in 18:34, Liberty’s Phillip Bezas came in sixth in 18:41, Liberty’s Ryan Wycherley was seventh in 18:44, and Freedom’s Nick Bauer was eighth in 18:48.

Soleh’s Alex Wentling came in ninth in 18:53.5, and teammate Liam Fitting was 10th in 18:53.8. Eddie Jeitner, also from SL, placed 11th in 19:12. Liberty’s Casey Frank was 12th in 19:18, and teammate Sam Graybeal was 13th in 19:23.

Whitehall’s Caleb Staub was 14th in 19:35.

This was the second year Freedom coach Bob Thear held the scrimmage.

“Some people are where they should be. Most are not,” Thear said. “I think we need to do a lot of hills and get some people back to where they need to be. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but like I said, it’s a good tune-up.”