All season long, Freedom harrier Alex Heidemann craved competition and finally got a heaping helping from Southern Lehigh’s Dominik Lisicky at the District XI Class 3A Cross Country Championships where Heidemann prevailed as district champ last Thursday at DeSales University.

“I was so relieved and so ecstatic that I got him,” said Heidemann, who threw his arm up in the air and let out a shout as he crossed the finish line in 16:28.60. “With a mile to go, he had me by 10 seconds. He had me by a huge lead up in the hills, and I genuinely was running for second place at that point, and then we got to the hills, and my natural stride let me gain some ground on him, and once we came out of the forest with 400 meters to go, (Freedom assistant) Coach Devon (Harris) was like, ‘Get him. Go.’ I just went for it, and, I got him.”

No doubt Heidemann had a target on his back, placing first in every dual meet this season and winning the East Penn Conference Cross Country Championship on Oct. 19.

“I ran with a strategy and executed it as well as I could’ve. I didn’t expect Dom to run that well, but credit to him, he ran phenomenal,” Heidemann said.

Leading up to a mile-and-a-half in the district race, Heidemann and Lisicky became neck and neck. Through two miles, and according to Freedom head coach Bob Thear’s watch, Heidemann was where Coach Thear wanted him to be, but according to what Thear saw, Heidemann wasn’t in control of the race like he thought he would be.

“I saw Coach Bob, and he saw me kind of fading and slipping, and I could tell he was worried, and I was not happy at that point,” Heidemann said. “Then [Lisicky] slowly kept pushing and I couldn’t hold him. I thought it was over.”

But Thear wasn’t so sure.

“Once I looked at my watch, I realized it was more a testament to Lisicky, as opposed to Alex not running that well,” Thear said. “The only thing I was concerned about is it looked like there was a little bit of a gap opening up, and I wanted to make sure he would keep it tight, and obviously that didn’t happen over the next half mile.”

What did happen couldn’t be seen by anyone except Heidemann and Lisicky.

“I can tell when they’re going back into the woods, that section where we can’t see them for pretty much the last mile, I could see that was going to be a battle for him,” said Assistant Coach Harris. “Lisicky looked pretty strong and Alex always looks strong, so it was hard to read, but I was preparing, pretty much thinking, coming out, that there’s a chance that he’s behind. And when I saw there was a gap, I was like, we just need to get him focused on catching him because I know he has the kick.”

Coach Thear acknowledged his own heart sank at that point.

“I’ll be totally honest, coming out of the woods, I thought it was over. That’s four-tenths of a mile, seven or eight seconds, and that’s a lot,” Thear said. “I was standing at about a little more than a quarter mile to go, and I told him, ‘It’s less than five seconds. Make your move now.’ Next time I saw Alex, he passed Lisicky with 100 meters to go.”

In those last 100 meters, Thear was visibly sweating, almost as much as Heidemann. Harris was reeling in the other Freedom runners, not knowing how the race ended.

“I almost passed out,” Harris said. “Alex had such a great season, so motivated, such a good kid.”

Freedom teammate Luke McClure, who didn’t run on Thursday, was screaming, “Go! Go! Go!” louder than the cheers of the crowd. Heidemann, as always, was smiling.

“Credit to Alex, he went for it,” Thear said. “He’s the one who has the heart to fight at the end.”