At four feet, two inches, Emmaus freshman Abigail Dalton was the shortest runner on the winner's stage that featured the top 12 finishers of last weeks' Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (EPC) Cross Country Meet. If not the shortest, she was one of the smallest of the entire 114 girl runners.

But Dalton was one of the top conference runners last Tuesday at Bethlehem Municipal Park. She placed fifth with a time of 19:46.8 to lead the Lady Hornets to a third-place finish as a team.

The Lady Hornets finished with 118 points, 38 behind first-place finisher Parkland. Easton rounded out the top three with 86 points.

"I didn't feel the best, but the race seemed to go really fast," Dalton said. "I think I started off too fast. I didn't know how hilly the first mile was. I tired out, and pretty much after the first mile, it was a struggle to stay up."

Katie Bacher, who was named the EPC's Most Valuable Player during the regular season, finished 19th. Jaclyn Reinbold (24), Kristen Bray (34) and Katrina Durrwachter (39) rounded out the Lady Hornets' top-five finishers.

As a freshman, Dalton may not have the typical body stature of most elite runners, but that size does provide the freshman with a number of advantages, particularly when it comes to the up-and-down portions of courses.

"I'm a hill person, but not when I didn't see them coming," Dalton said. "That's never fun to turn around the corner and see a hill. I heard it was hilly on the first mile, but I didn't know how hilly."

Despite not being able to take a warm-up lap of the course due to their team bus running late, Dalton and the Lady Hornets made the most of their performance on the tricky course. For Dalton, it was her first time running the course.

She couldn't have envisioned a better finish.

"I didn't really know where I was for the whole race until I came around a half of a mile to the end," Dalton said. "Then I realized where I was and started to pick up the speed."

Liberty's Raisa Kochmaruk edged out Central Catholic's Colleen Daday for first place. Pocono Mountain East's Rachel Davalos finished five seconds behind Daday for third.

Darren Labenberg was the top Emmaus boy finisher and came in 22nd place to position the Hornets in eighth place out of 18 teams. Ian Adams (47), Todd Moxey (52), Luke Pukanecz (54) and Tyler Corpora (63) rounded out the top runners.

Easton's duo of Colin Abert and Kevin Lapsansky, who finished first and second, respectively-led the Red Rovers to a first-place finish with 47 points. Parkland wasn't far behind with 54 points for second place, and Liberty finished third.

A number of boys and girls will compete in the District 11 Cross Country Championships on Wednesday at Bethlehem Municipal Park. The Class AAA boys race begins at 2 p.m., with the Class AAA girls scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m.