The Emmaus cross country teams used the league meet as a tune-up and gauge to see where the Hornet teams stood heading into last week’s District 11 meet.

At districts last week, both teams unleashed their full potential with the boys team earning its first District 11 championship since 2000 and the girls team running to second place and qualifying for states as a team.

Within all the team success, Hornet senior Mady McCartney won her third straight individual district race and will look to earn another state medal next weekend.

McCartney took the girls title in 18:02.5, which was nine seconds faster than she had run on the same course a week before at the league meet.

“I’m pretty happy,” said McCartney. “After last week I was like ‘OK, I ran 18:11,’ I wanted to see if I could run into the 17s [at districts]. I just missed it but I still ran faster than last week so I’m happy.”

McCartney, who will run at the University of Kentucky for the next four years, was one of several Emmaus runners that cut time from their league meet race to help the team finish one place high at districts.

Emmaus’ girls line up includes just two seniors and two juniors along with two freshman and a sophomore.

“We’ve been working really hard this year,” said McCartney. “Our team is really young this year. After last week we talked about different things like positivity and focus and everything we can and placements so that we could get number 2. It worked out.”

All of the Hornets’ top five runners at districts dropped time from their league meet.

Junior Grace Nosal was the team’s second finisher at leagues in 20:12.8, which was 32 seconds faster than her league meet time. Nosal finished 14th overall last week.

Senior Olivia Fleck finished 17th overall in 20:12.8, a drop of 24 seconds from a week before.

Junior Isabella Alwine-Balliro cut 27 second off her time at leagues by running districts in 20:29.8 for 19th place.

Freshman Myla Felegy capped the Hornets’ team scoring with a 33rd-place finish in 21:35.6, a drop of 18 seconds from the previous week.

Sophomore Aubrey Kazmierczak (34th, 21:41.4) and freshman Nitzana Jamaica Romero (40th, 21:54.9) also competed in the district race for Emmaus.

The Emmaus boys team also saw time drops from nearly its entire line up at districts. Three Hornets finished in the top 10 at the meet, with sophomore Roen Woolf taking the runner-up spot overall and senior Ryan Fach finishing fourth.

“We knew that after leagues we did have to fix some things,” said Fach, a four-year member of the team who earned his second straight individual district medal last week. “So we made a little adjustment and were able to execute that. We’ve been really focused on getting to this point. I’m glad all the hard work paid off.”

Emmaus’ top five boys runners all dropped at least 10 second from the time they ran a week before at leagues.

Woolf ran 10 seconds faster than he had a week earlier, finishing in 16:34.5 at districts for second place over.

Parkland’s Colin McGuigan went out fast at leagues and left Woolf behind. At districts, Woolf stayed closer to McGuigan while finishing second to him for the second week in a row.

“That was the goal,” said Woolf. “We wanted to stick with him for as long as possible and see how they went. I feel pretty pleased with how I did.

“Today it was 100 percent about the team. I was really trying to get the most points possible to help the team. That was my No. 1 priority today.”

Fach, who has seen the EHS boys team get stronger each year he’s been a part of it, dropped 16 seconds from his league time with a 16:43.9 at districts for fourth place overall.

“It wasn’t the individual race I wanted,” said Fach. “But I’m really pleased we got first as a team. I’d rather have that.”

A pair of sophomores dropped the most time. Michael Carwell slashed 38 seconds from his league time, running districts in 16:52.4 for seventh place overall. David Hearn cut 24 seconds from his league time with a 16:55.4 at districts for eighth place.

Freshman Luke Harris (17:19.8) ran the district race 19 seconds faster than he ran leagues and finished 12th overall to round out the Hornets’ team scoring. Juniors Zachary Zappile (20th place, 17:45.8) and Matthew Sirignano (26th, 17:55.4) were also part of the Emmaus boys district team.

The district meet performance earned both Hornet teams qualification to the state championship meet next weekend in Hershey.