The Emmaus girls cross country program has been perfect all season. Why change now?

Placing five girls in the top 20 runners, the Green Hornets stormed to an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference title Oct. 16 at DeSales University.

The girls claimed EPC gold with 57 points, easily outdistancing second-place Liberty with 79 points.

“The girls worked incredibly hard for this championship win, not only this season but in the offseason,” said Emmaus head coach Kelly Bracetty. “To see them set their goals to go undefeated and win EPC as a team, then to watch them along their process to achieve it together has been incredible.”

Junior Keerstin Augustin paced the Green Hornet attack, and finished fourth overall in 19:49. Teammate sophomore Isabella Lees finished fifth overall in 20 minutes.

Freshman Hailey Reinhard claimed 11th with a 20:23 mark, while junior Kera Reinhard (17th, 20:42), sophomore Madison Torretta (20th, 20:51), junior Clara Kennedy (23rd, 20:55) and junior Ashley Ryan (28th, 21:15) completed the Green Hornet ledger.

“Our success has been a result of their dedication to their training and their commitment to their teammates,” Bracetty noted. “They are motivated to do well for each other and watching them back it up in races shows their loyalty to each other.”

The boys also had a memorable EPC experience, claiming third place with 92 points behind champion Nazareth with 62 points, and Parkland with 88 points.

“This was our highest finish in years,” said Bracetty. “At the two-minute mark of the race we were in contention for first place.”

The team’s top four runners all improved on their times from the DeSales Invitational held one month ago. That fifth spot, however, proved just out of the Green Hornets reach at EPC.

“That fifth spot is key to the success of any team,” she said. “We have multiple guys who can fill that spot, but we just didn’t have that today.”

Mark Magee led the way for Emmaus, finishing eighth overall in 17:06. Keshav Shankar was just two second behind his teammate, to take 11th overall. Cameron Carter earned 15th (17:23) and Colin Schaffer took 16th four seconds behind. Ian Cox rounded out the team scoring for Emmaus in 42nd place, leading a pack of four Hornet runners.

The District 11 Championships, scheduled for Oct. 23 again at DeSales, now hold the Green Hornets’ attention.

“This (districts) is the one race that counts the most and will determine if their season ends of if they move on to states,” said Bracetty.

Colonial League champ Southern Lehigh could give the Hornet girls team a challenge at districts. Emmaus was superior to the Spartans at the DeSales Invitational, where Southern Lehigh finished fifth and the Hornets were first as a team. However, the Spartans did not have all of their top seven runners at the invitational.

“We’ll go over a few tactical things for race day that can help us win,” she said. “At this point, they have to have their race strategies and they know what works. They’ll just have to execute that in order to bring home district gold and get as many runners to states as possible.”

The top two boys and girls teams at districts qualify for states, along with the top 10 individuals who are not part of state qualifying teams.

BOYS

Teams

1. Nazareth 62, 2. Parkland 88, 3. Emmaus 92, 4. Easton 115, 5. Freedom 170, 6. Stroudsburg 173, 7. Northampton 179, 8. Liberty 185, 9. Central Catholic 216, 10. East Stroudsburg South 319, 11. Pleasant Valley 353, 12. Pocono Mtn. East 358, 13. Whitehall 365, 14. Bethlehem Catholic 423, 15. Pocono Mtn. West 443, 16. East Stroudsburg North 452, 17. Allen 493, 18. Dieruff 531.

Individuals (Top 15 plus all Emmaus finishers)

1. Cole Frank (Liberty) 16:08.0, 2. Marco Cardone (Easton) 16:19.6, 3. Daniel Brunner (Nazareth) 16:45.9, 4. Ethan Warren (Parkland) 16:55.4, 5. Jack Hollar (Pocono Mtn. West) 16:55.5, 6. Alex Heidemann (Freedom) 17:00.0, 7. Brayden Graham (Stroudsburg) 17:05.0, 8. Mark Magee (Emmaus) 17:06.6, 9. Alex Hume (Freedom) 17:07.8, 10. Anthony Kositz (Nazareth) 17:08.3, 11. Keshav Shankar (Emmaus) 17:08.9, 12. Travis Lahr (Nazareth) 17:10.2, 13. Timothy Bunce (Easton) 17:14.5, 14. Benjamin Esquieres (Parkland) 17:19.9, 15. Cameron Carter (Emmaus) 17:23.6, 16. Colin Schaffer (Emmaus) 17:27.9, 42. Ian Cox (Emmaus) 18:12.0, 43. Dominic Nunez (Emmaus) 18:12.5, 44. Paul Petre (Emmaus) 18:12.5, 45. Sam Dalton (Emmaus) 18:12.8, 54. Brendan Ward (Emmaus) 18:25.2, 81. Ben Shimer (Emmaus) 19:03.3.

GIRLS

Teams

1. Emmaus 57, 2. Liberty 79, 3. Parkland 91, 4. Northampton 130, 5. Easton 160, 6. Central Catholic 209, 7. Pocono Mtn. East 222, 8. Freedom 224, 9. Nazareth 239, 10. Stroudsburg 242, 11. East Stroudsburg South 256, 12. Whitehall 307, Bethlehem Catholic 316, 14. Pleasant Valley 381.

Individuals (Top 15 plus all Emmaus finishers)

1. Emily Jobes (Liberty) 19:14.7, 2. Ciara Conboy (Stroudsburg) 19:39.2, 3. Georgia Wiswesser (Northampton) 19:45.1, 4. Keerstin Augustin (Emmaus) 19:49.5, 5. Isabella Lees (Emmaus) 20:00.1, 6. Belle Weikert (Liberty) 20:01.9, 7. Isabel Devos (Central Catholic) 20:06.7, 8. Lauren Charboneau (Freedom) 20:09.1, 9. Amber Poniktera (Northampton) 20:09.6, 10. Brooke Labenberg (Parkland) 20:14.7, 11. Hailey Reinhard (Emmaus) 20:23.9, 12. Caitlin Voloshen (Nazareth) 20:03.9, 13. Margaret Burke (Bethlehem Catholic) 20:29.9, 14. Eva Bendetti (Parkland) 20:30.7, 15. Elena Enger (Parkland) 20:34.4, 17. Kera Reinhard (Emmaus) 20:42.1, 20. Madison Toretta (Emmaus) 20:51.3, 23. Clara Kennedy (Emmaus) 20:55.6, 28. Ashley Ryan (Emmaus) 21:15.3, 31. Ashleigh McNellis (Emmaus) 21:23.9, 32. Kaia Berrio (Emmaus) 21:17.5, 52. Olympia Curley-Katrishen (Emmaus) 22:18.1.