The Whitehall cross country season is inching closer to the post season races, and recently the team took part in their first EPC meet, which was at the Allentown Lehigh Parkway back on Sept. 11.

The girls lost three of the meets with two very close losses to Nazareth, 27-30, and Northampton 27-28.

Unfortunately, this seems to be a trend as of late for the Zephs.

“Seems like the last couple years the girls have close scores or ties with these two teams,” said head coach Mike Lelko.

The girls also lost to Easton 21-39.

Devon Roberts took sixth in 20:11 and Autumn Dragovits was 11th in 20:54 as both ran strong races to lead the girls.

Juanita Flores was 26th in 22:02, Rachel Herr 47th in 23:07, Lindsay Solderitch 48th in 23:08, Arizona Marakovits 70th in 24;25 and Daisha Hamilton was 73rd in 24:31.

The boys lost three to Easton 15-50, Nazareth 15-49 and Northampton 15-46.

Freshman Gavin Hagley was top boy at 18:40 in 29th place followed by senior Caleb Staub in 42nd in 19:25.

Grady Schmeckenbecher was 80th in 20:30, Andy Chung 100th in 21:11, Sean Connolly 109th in 21:51 and Jacob Schlosser 111th in 21:57 as they rounded out the scorers for the boys team.

The team also took part in a meet at Pleasant Valley last week.

Autumn Dragovits took fourth overall for the girls with a time of 21:20. Devon Roberts also finished in the top-10 taking ninth with a time of 22:06. Juanita Flores took 12th in 22:33. Rachel Herr took 20th in 23:01.

For the boys, Caleb Staub was the top finisher coming in 17th with a time of 19:08. Gavin Hagley took 30th with a time of 19:41.

Whitehall boys would fall to Pocono Mt. East 18-38 but beat Pocono Mt. West 18-45. The boys lost to Pleasant Valley 21-35.

The Zephyr girls beat PME 19-35, tied PMW 18-18 and knocked off the Bears 22-24

The team’s only home meet and senior night took place Sept. 25 at the Whitehall Parkway against Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg South and East Stroudsburg North.

At the meet in rainy conditions, both the boys and girls beat Eastburg North and South while falling to Stroudsburg. The girls lost a 28-28 tiebreaker to the Mounties. Emmaus and Central were also at the race.

Three Whitehall girls placed in the top-15, including Juanita Flores who was sixth with a time of 22:27, Devon Roberts who took seventh in 22:30 and Autumn Dragovits who was ninth with a time of 23:00.

The race was won by Emmaus’ Kera Reinhard in 21:03.

On the boys side, Caleb Staub was the lone Zephyr in the top-15 taking 14th with a time of 19:48.

Emmaus’ Keshav Shankar won the race in 18:33.