Both Emmaus cross country teams ended last season in Hershey after both qualified for the state championship meet.

The Hornet girls team won its sixth straight District 11 title last fall, led by two-time league and district champ Mady McCartney.

The Emmaus boys team took second place at districts to qualify for states as a team for the first time in 23 years.

Heading into the 2025 season, both teams will have a lot of graduates to replace from last year’s line ups.

The Hornet girls team, which went 17-1 in dual meets last fall, has McCartney returning for her senior season. She earned her second state medal last season with a 13th place finish in Hershey.

Four seniors graduated from the Emmaus girls line up in Payton Campbell, who finished third at districts last year, along with Isabella Scarlate, Ava Palamara and Addison Johnson. All four graduates were part of the Hornets’ district and state teams last fall.

Juniors Grace Nosal and Isabella Alwine-Balliro both return this season after running in leagues districts and states in 2024.

Nosal was the team’s third runner at districts with a 16th place finish, while Alwine-Balliro finished 30th overall.

Senior Olivia Fleck, who finished 17th in last year’s East Penn Conference Championships, along with senior Amanda Gulliver and junior Julie Murphy Peterson, who were both part of the Hornets’ league championship team last season.

The rest of this year’s girls roster includes senior Lexie Doemling, Riley Finck, Emma Gerhart, Sarah Longbons and Morgan Schuler; juniors Leah Pulcini, Leah Schweyer, Kendall Shriver and Ella Weikel; sophomores Clara Baker, Angelina Bast, Kiley Decker, Aubrey Kazmierczak, Arianna Lutz, Samantha Reidnauer and Chloe Timmins; and freshmen Joyce Danial, Myla Felegy, Nitzana Jamaica, Mia Moyer and Cora Ramirez.

The Emmaus boys team went 14-3 in 2024 and finished in third place at the league meet before a second-place finish at districts propelled the team to states.

The Hornets will graduate their top two runners from last season and three of the seven runners from their district team last year.

Conor Fisher (District 11 runner-up), Jared Petre and Richard Will all graduated after four years on the team.

Returning from last year’s district team are senior Ryan Fach, sophomores David Hearn and Michael Carwell and junior Zachary Zappile.

Fach was a top-10 finisher at districts last year and a top-20 finisher in leagues, placing third on the team at both events.

Also returning this year are sophomore Sullivan Hochbein and juniors Matthew Sirignano and Maximus Miller, who were part of last year’s team for league championships but did not run at districts.

The rest of this year’s Emmaus boys cross country roster includes seniors Anthony Ciccoonetti, Adriano Clements, Noah Edge, Jackson LaRussa and Eric Reichenbach; juniors Ethan Brown, Evan Busse, William Fessler, Henry Klinetob, Brady McKechnie, Gavin Morris, Aaron Sallash, Calvin Schucker, Max Trach and Ethan Yang; sophomores Julian Borkowski, Christopher Eck, Tyler Eid, Ivan Felegy, Kyle Gamler, Blake Hackman, Christian Hazlett, David Hearn, Sullivan Hochbein, Kaden McCartney, Nathan Mecouch, Patrick Molitoris, Michael Roosa, Aston Sabo, Maxwell Socci, Eli Theodore and Roen Woolf; and freshmen Ronan Bash, Aaron Baum, Adam Busse, Owen Cannon, Owen Fisher, Luke Harris, Mason Hipp, Gabriel Marrero-Bernal, Ishan Patel, Caleb Rosario and Jack Seeley.