Liberty’s girls cross country team earned double honors with Elizabeth McClarin’s first place finish as well as a second place finish in team results at the District XI Class 3A Cross Country Championships on Oct. 28 at DeSales University.

McClarin broke the tape with a time of 18:30.1, more than one minute faster than Parkland’s Harshita Keerthi, who placed second.

“I knew they did it at states, and I wasn’t sure it happened at districts, but my friend told me before the race, so I was like, OK, that’s my goal. I want to break that tape,” McClarin said. “I tried to run a better second mile and charge up those hills a little faster....and reminding myself to give it an extra push.”

Teammate Cali Sobrinski placed third in 19:36.5, and Katie Drabouski, also for Liberty, placed fourth in 19:39.4, but it was Alexandra Yerk and Remy Weagly’s finishes in 31st and 35th respectively, that pushed the Hurricane girls into second place.

“We knew we had a chance, and we especially needed really great races from our fourth and fifth runners, and they stepped up big time and helped us with that team score,” said Liberty coach Joe Spang. “We kept watching the scoreboard updating, and then once all the runners came in, we were in second. Believe it or not, this was something we talked about the whole season.”

The Hurricanes knew that Parkland and Emmaus would be in the mix for the top two spots, but Southern Lehigh, which is a Colonial League team, would also be a contender in Class 3A.

“We figured it was gonna be a good battle, and luckily we came out as the state qualifier,” Coach Spang said.

Southern Lehigh clinched first place with a score of 63.

Liberty’s score was 72, Emmaus had 74 points, and Parkland tallied 76 points.

Deanna McCann and Luna Rivas-Alarcon also raced for the Hurricanes.

Freedom’s Taylor Vidumsky won the sixth place medal with a time of 19:59.7.

“Today, my goal was to be near Katie and Cali from Liberty, and I did pretty well with that,” Vidumsky said. “They did end up beating me, but I was fighting with them in the back a little bit. I was a lot more aggressive going out. I felt exhausted [at the finish], but I had enough in me to push it to the end and have a little kick in there.”

Vidumsky ran 20 seconds faster at districts than she did last week at the conference meet.

“She ran great,” said Freedom coach Bob Thear. “She sort of had not the greatest season, but I just said to her you can correct all that right now. Run a couple good races at the end, and everything else is forgotten, and that’s exactly what happened. She just has a lot of confidence running here (at DeSales). Maybe that was the magic elixir that helped her.”

Patriot teammates Alexis Bucherer, Alexa Holden, Alexis Chlebowski, and Reghan Glavin also competed in the district meet.

Vidumsky and Liberty’s girls team will race one more time at the PIAA Class 3A State Cross Country Championships on Nov. 7 at Big Spring High School in Newville.