The Parkland girls cross country team improved on its 2019 showing in district competition during last Wednesday’s District 11 Class 3A Championship, held at Blue Mountain Ski Resort in Lower Towamensing Township in Carbon County.

The Trojans finished third overall with 72 points and an average 22:14 finishing time. Emmaus won the race with 39 points and in the process earned a trip to state competition. Southern Lehigh finished second.

“Our girls ran a great race,” said Parkland head coach Stephen Ott. “I am so proud of their effort. They were determined to compete with Emmaus. We wanted a better showing than our dual race with them.”

The girls battled the terrain, weather and competition to earn their third place showing and surpass last year’s fourth place finish with 103 points. Further, in 2019 Emmaus placed no medal winners in the top ten. This year the Trojans had three medal winners - sophomore Elena Wenger, senior Brooke Labenberg and senior Ava Bendetti, who finished eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively, overall. Wenger will represent Parkland in the PIAA championships, scheduled for Nov. 7 in Hershey.

“All three would have made the state race in a normal year,” the coach noted.

With the PIAA taking a smaller field this year, only the top five finishers who were not part of the winning team earned a trip to states. In past years, the top finishers who were not part of state qualifying teams (top two) made it to states, meaning fewer than half as many runners advanced from districts this season.

Freshman Gracie Trexler finished 23rd overall and was the top freshman runner in the race. She was followed closely by senior Lauren Williams in the 24th slot, and sophomore Jessica Price, who ranked 31st.

“All of our girls had a successful season,” Ott said.

This year’s district competition was unusual before it even began. For one thing, there was no East Penn Conference Championship race - typically an opportunity for schools to trim their runners before narrowing it to the eventual district team. Second, the districts were completed in two heats, meaning many runners were racing virtual competition.

“Instead of focusing on all the negatives I kept hearing, I chose to focus on the positives,” he said. “I stressed those to our student-athletes. I believe this made a big difference in our approach to the race and performance on race day. We went into the race confident to show the district who we are.”