Bethany Brown was seeded third for the East Penn Conference 300-meter hurdles championship race.

The Emmaus junior knew she could go faster than her 48.6 seed time, the best she ran all season. She did just that, posting a career best 46.78 to edge Easton’s Autumn Ford (46.8) for first place last Monday at East Stroudsburg South High School.

“I was hoping I could get on the podium and I did that,” said Brown. “I was hoping to get a state time and I also did that. I have to run that next week, but it’s great to know I can do that. I was super happy with how it turned out.”

Brown is one of several Emmaus athletes that performed well at leagues and will look forward to this week’s district meet in hopes of qualifying for states.

The Hornets crowned one individual champ in Brown, one relay champ in the girls 4x800 team, along with 10 other individuals and one relay team that earned EPC medals with top-four finishes last week.

Brown, who also finished fifth in the 100-meter hurdles, got off the block first in the 300-meter event and was able to hold off Ford as the two beat the third-place finisher by nearly a full second.

“I had a really great start,” said Brown. “I got out of the blocks fast and I was glad that I could keep that lead and stay strong throughout the rest of the race”

The Hornets’ 3200-meter relay team got the team its first gold medal of the day, winning the event in 9:45.17 to beat second-place Parkland (9:58.31).

The foursome of seniors Ashleigh McNellis, Kera Reinhard and Keerstin Augustin along with junior Hailey Reinhard was seeded two seconds behind top-seeded Parkland.

“We knew we could do it, but to have it finally come together after piecing it together throughout the season is a really special moment,” said McNellis. “All of our hard work was recognized and rewarded, so that was really cool.

“We knew Parkland was seeded ahead of us. We wanted to get them because they beat us in the regular season.”

The team was able to gain a little satisfaction after last season was canceled. Emmaus had a deep and talented team last season, led by this group of distance runners, but wasn’t able to compete as the season was canceled.

While nothing will make up for the lost season, the league relay title does provide some satisfaction.

“I’m just beyond happy to be out here,” said McNellis. “It’s sometimes almost shocking to me that we’re out here.

“It was heartbreaking last year. Our team was very strong with the seniors we had. We were going to be a powerhouse team. Definitely disappointing we didn’t have last year, but for not having much of an indoor winter season this year and very few practices before the meets started, I’m really proud of how everyone has done.”

The Emmaus girls team finished tied for fourth place at the EPC Championships with Nazareth.

Other Emmaus girls medal winners were Hailey Reinhard (second place in 1600 at 5:20.05), McNellis (third in 800 at 2:23.84), Isabella Lees (third in 3200 in 11:47.39), Tayah Mehrtens (fourth in 100H at 16.92), Addison Kleinle (fourth in 1600 at 5:26.05) and Morgan Belisle (fourth in PV at 8-0).

The Emmaus boys team didn’t have any gold medalists at leagues, but it did have two second-place finishers and junior Tristan Schmidt had a hand in both.

Schmidt took second place in javelin at 194-10. He was also part of the Hornets’ second-place 4x800 relay team.

In the relay, Schmidt joined up with teammates Matthew Norton, Geoffrey Kleinberg and Oscar Felegy to run the event in 8:31.82, finishing behind Liberty (8:14.89) for the silver medal.

In javelin, Schmidt took second to Nazareth’s Collin Burkhart, who heaved his javelin 197-1 for first place.

Schmidt, who has thrown as far as 198-11 and is shooting for the school record of 201 feet, said he was pleased with his performance at the league meet.

“I’m happy with how I threw,” he said. “I wanted to win. Collin Burkhardt and I were the same seed and the 4x800 affected me a little bit.”

Schmidt, who also placed 10th in discus at 110-1 last week, looks forward to this week’s District 11 meet, where he’ll again be among the top seeds in javelin.

A distance runner during his freshman season, Schmidt took up javelin during his sophomore year and improved greatly over two years. While he ws disappointed that he was unable to perform last season, he feels like the training time, spent mostly on technique work, allowed him to perform even better this year.

“It’s great to be able to compete,” Schmidt said. “I would have liked to compete last year, but I wouldn’t have been as good as I am this year so it’s not too unfortunate.”

Other Emmaus boys medal winners include Jarrett Lysek (third place in the 400 in 51.95, Aidan Hurlburt (third in pole vault at 11-3), Luke Rautzhan (tied fourth in pole vault at 11-3) and the 4x400 relay team of Lysek, Dylan Bassett, Shep Henseler and Geoffrey Kleinberg, which took third place in 3:31.76.

Other Emmaus boys finishers were Geoffrey Kleinberg (7th in 800 at 2:06.83), Kyle Ryan (8th in 300H in 42.53; 18th in 110H at 17.19), Owen Mont (tied 10th in pole vault at 9-3), Shep Henseler (11th in 400 at 53.61; 14th in long jump at 19-2 1/4), Alex Harmon (11th in 300H in 43.14), Ethan Strzempek (11th in 1600 at 4:44.67; 19th in 3200 at 11:08.56), Devonte Hinds (12th in shot put at 38-10 1/2), Nicholas Buonanno (12th in 3200 at 10:26.66), Aidan Dougherty (13th in 200 at 23.7), Matthew Norton (13th in 800 at 2:08.65), Samuel Dalton (14th in 3200 at 10:38.61), Dylan Bassett (14th in 400 at 54.23), Gabe Trexler (17th in 100 at 11.71), Owen Felegy (20th in 800 at 2:11.44), Alec Ward (21st in 300H in 46.0), Colin Byrne (22nd in 100 at 11.94), Tyler Finck (22nd in 800 at 2:12.27), Holden Brown (23rd in 400 at 56.21), James Manley (23rd in 1600 at 5:19 and Andrew Cho (24th in 110H at 2.72).

Other Emmaus girls finishers were Kera Reinhard (fifth in 800 at 2:29.83), Molly Lineberger (Fifth in discus at 94-11; 12th in shot put at 29-2 3/4), Clara Kennedy (sixth in 3200 in 12:14.69), Mackenzie Bruns (tied 7th in pole vault at 8-0), Peyton Rautzhan (tied 7th in pole vault at 8-0), Lillian Shields (7th in shot put at 31-5; 20th in javelin at 88-1), Claire Engel (8th in 3200 in 12:23.15), Keerstin Augustin (9th in 1600 in 5:42.87), Sarah Jane Waterman (9th in 300H at 50.31), Sheldyne Pierre (9th in high jump at 4-7; 17th in long jump at 14-8; 22nd in triple jump at 30-1 3/4), Lauren Sharp (10th in high jump at 4-7), Samantha Walkiewicz (11th in 200 at 27.57), Isabelle Russo (11th in 100H at 17.35; 21st in 300H in 53.56), Sachiko Price (11th in triple jump at 31-8 1/2), Madison Toretta (13th in 1600 in 5:47.99), Catherine Sirignano (14th in shot put at 28-4 1/2), Elizabeth Samer (14th at high jump at 4-5), Olympia Curley-Katrishan (17th in 300H 51.9), Nicole Nosal (16th in 3200 in 13:11.88), Addison Shank (17th in 3200 in 13:13.11), Halle Jannett (19th in 200 at 28.29; 21st in 100 at 13.73), Ashley Ryan (19th in 3200 in 13:14.49; 20th in 1600 in 6:09.29), Krissy Heilenman (21st in 400 at 1:05.75), Sopia Kovalski (22nd in 3200 in 13:16.07).

The Emmaus girls 4x400 relay team, with the same four runners that won the 4x800, took seventh place at 4:20.05. The Hornet’s 4x100 team placed 13th at 55.63. That team included Olivia Sullivan, Heather Augustin, Brogan Roth and Jena Luck.

See next week’s Press for coverage of this week’s District 11 Championships, which is scheduled for Wednesday, April 19 at Blue Mountain High School.