With the regular season winding down, Whitehall’s cross country team continues to raise their bar.

Both the boys’ and girls’ squad recently defeated Northampton, both by a 25-33 score. However, both teams lost to Nazareth and Easton at Allentown Central Catholic’s recent home meet.

Both teams also participated in the prestigious and ultracompetitive Paul Short Run at Lehigh University.

The boys finished 33rd out of 38 teams there, and the girls finished 27th out of 32 teams. Their finishes were the best finishes of the program at the event since the Zephyrs initially participated at the invitational since in 2023.

“We have been running really well,” beamed Zephyr’s head coach Brandon Hampton. “We were able to come away from our recent meets with some wins and some of their season best and personal record times.”

Hampton has looked to Habib Leyos, AJ Marakovits, Daniel Tran, Dihan Resto, Derek Berg, and Gabe Unangst on the boys’ side.

“Habib Leyos continues to lead the way and has looked stronger the last two meets,” said Hampton. “Hopefully, he is peaking at the right time.

“Daniel Tran, Derek Berg, AJ Marakovits, Kihan Resto, and Gabe Unangst have also been running really well lately.”

On the girls’ side, Hampton has been impressed with the contributions from Isabelle Daigle, Emma Druckenmiller, Holly Kotch, Janelle Kies, and Julia Elseify. All of them hit their personal records at the Short meet.

“Isabelle Daigle continues to lead the way for the girls and improve every meet,” said Hampton. “Emma Druckenmiller has also stepped up in her first year with the team, running some strong races the last week or so, and finishing as our number two runner.”

Heading into their final meet Tuesday at Emmaus, the girls were 7-5, and the boys were 6-6.

Hampton expects his team to continue to improve in the upcoming league and district meets.

“We are peaking at the right time,” said Hampton. “We’re looking forward to the postseason.”