Freedom’s Brayden Boyle and Liberty’s Joshua Cazares qualified for the PIAA Class 3A Boys State Cross Country Championships after competing at the District XI meet on Oct. 22 at DeSales University.

Boyle and Cazares challenged each other for most of the season, and the two harriers kept each other within sight last Wednesday.

“I was sticking with Liberty the whole time,” said Boyle, who placed 13th of 124 harriers. “Hills are usually my strong point, so on that one hill, I got a Parkland kid, Liberty, and an Emmaus kid as well. Place-wise, I did OK with what I thought I could do. I was trying to get top 10. That was my ultimate goal for the end of the season and fell short, but I had a lot of setbacks this season (stress fracture), so I’m OK with it. I’m just glad I made it to states.”

Boyle’s time was 17:23.6.

Freedom coach Bob Thear addressed Boyle’s success in spite of the Patriot junior’s injury from which he’s just coming back.

“I think that should be a public service announcement for everybody that wants to do well- how important it is to put in a good summer because if you have something happen and you slip up, when you’re coming back from injury, you’re not completely starting over. You still have some base to work with,” Coach Thear said. “Also, he didn’t sit idle. He was swimming. He was on the bike. He was trying to do things to keep his aerobic base going, and then it just took some time to get his legs under him. 17:23 might be his best time of the year, so he’s running well at the right time.”

Coach Thear was hopeful that Freedom sophomore Webb Kurtz, who placed 33rd in 18:18.4, could make a run for states.

“He wasn’t that far off last week from making it spot wise, and he did well for a mile, but then he fell back and that’s OK,” Thear said. “He went for it. Sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn’t.”

Liberty’s Cazares, a senior, took 15th place with a time of 17:31.4.

“I thought he ran really well,” said Liberty coach Joe Spang. “He dealt with sickness and had to take Saturday and Sunday off, so we were a little bit nervous, but he has stayed with our training plan and then the strategy going into the race. Our kids are really coachable and it feels easy to coach them because they really do listen to what our suggestions are and try to implement that. He thought he could have qualified for states last year, so this was a goal where he was looking to get back to this race and finish the job, and I’m really happy for him.”

Parkland’s Colin McGuigan won the 3A boys race with a time of 16:20.7.

In team results, Emmaus placed first, Liberty was seventh, and Freedom placed eighth out of 18 teams.

“It was a good year for us,” Coach Thear said. “Three kids (Boyle, Hannah Brodhead, Taylor Vidumsky) going to states. Can’t ever complain about that.”