It was no surprise that Liberty junior Elizabeth McClarin won the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Girls Cross Country Meet on Oct. 20 at DeSales University, but teammate Katie Drabouski’s second place finish may have caught a few spectators off guard.

“Honestly, I did not feel good coming through the first mile, and I was like, oh, this is gonna be rough, and then everybody started coming back to me, and I was like, I have a shot to do something good today,” said Drabouski, who had been struggling with an iron deficiency this season. “Every week I’m getting better, every week I’m feeling better, so, coming up the hills in the middle section, I started picking off some of the girls, and then coming in the cornfield, I felt bad, but still good enough to go. I passed those final girls, and I was like, all right, I am in second place. Let’s make something happen.”

McClarin crossed the finish line with a time of 18:43.1, Drabouski’s time was 19:40.2, and Parkland’s Harshita Keerthi placed third in 19:47.8.

Said McClarin, “ I just wanted to run controlled today. I knew that there were a lot of hills on this course, so I wanted to keep my form the whole time so that I had a strong finish. It was honestly an enjoyable experience.”

Liberty’s Cali Sobrinski placed fourth in 19:52.2.

“We kind of let it up to them in terms of seeing how that first lead pack goes out and then seeing how they feel with that first mile,” said Liberty coach Joe Spang. “You know, you don’t want to get caught going out too fast, but also, you don’t want to be left behind with a lot of work to make up, and so I thought they balanced that really well today and had a great finish.”

Freedom senior Taylor Vidumsky took seventh place with a time of 20:18.3, and teammate Hannah Brodhead placed eighth with a time of 20:26.7.

“Hannah was in front of me, and I ended up passing her during the last maybe, like, quarter mile, going downhill in the cornfield, and then I was just trying to keep up in front of her for the rest of the race, which I did,” Vidumsky said. “This is, I believe, my best season time, and beating Hannah was definitely a big challenge. I never did last year, and I’ve only done it once this year, so I’m pretty happy to be able to keep her in my sights and beat her again, even though she’s my teammate.”

Freedom coach Bob Thear said that this was a breakthrough race for Vidumsky.

“Yes, my coach always talks about how this is my course, and even on the way here, I was talking about how excited I am to run,” she said. “This has always been, and today was, I think, my eighth time running this course. It’s definitely one of my favorites.”

Alexis Bucherer, Alexa Holden, Alexis Chlebowski, and Reghan Glavin also competed for the Patriots.

Alexandra Yerk, Remy Weagly, Luna Rivas-Alarcon, Avery Ferullo, Deanna McCann, Elena Yerrington, and Layla Hernandez competed for the Hurricanes.