Liberty senior Emrick Leshko danced across the finish line in his cross country victory last Tuesday afternoon when the Hurricanes, along with Bethlehem Catholic and Freedom, competed against Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg South, and East Stroudsburg North at Louise Moore Park in Easton.

“I held up to the front. I didn’t really want to lead today, and I was thinking about going behind everyone and then it just happened like that. I wanted to win, but I was anticipating staying on them and running past them and outkicking them in the end,” Leshko said.

Fellow Hurricane Owen Reilly, who placed second (17:05 to Leshko’s 17:04), also gave some thought to his race prior to the meet.

“The Freedom kid (Dylan Boyle) beat me last meet, so I wanted to stick with him for as long as I could, so I didn’t have much of a time plan. It was more of a placement plan to stick to the front as much as possible,” Reilly said. “What I noticed he was doing was, on a lot of the downhills and uphills, he was really striding forward and getting ahead of me, but for the most part, he was right on my hip the entire time. It was nice to have him right behind me to know there was no wiggle room, and I had to just keep going.”

Boyle came in third (17:10), and Joe Bauer, also for Freedom, placed fourth (17:47).

East Stroudsburg South’s Liam Davis took fifth place (18:01), Liberty’s Cole Ruhf came in sixth (18:11), Stroudsburg’s Andrew Huntsberger was seventh (18:22), Freedom’s Ryan Parkin placed eighth (18:29), Stroudsburg’s Ian Demarest came in ninth (18:44), and Becahi’s Mekhi Britt was tenth (18:48).

Said Parkin, “Today, I decided not to run with a watch because it’s been messing with my head the last couple races, so I took it off and I just ran my race, and I felt really good. I was passing a lot of Stroudsburg kids and keeping them behind me. I just had one in front of me and at the end I tried to catch up to him, but he started kicking and at that point I couldn’t pass him. Overall, Coach (Bob Thear) said it was a great race, and I thought I ran really well.”

A competitive yet friendly fight-to-the-finish developed between Liberty’s Luke Daignault (11th in 18:51) and Freedom’s Ryan Haas (12th in 18:52), going back-and-forth until Daignault outstepped Haas with Liberty’s Ryan Alberto (13th in 18:53) and Hurricane teammate Spencer Sabo (14th in 18:55) right behind them.

“Our number five, six, seven, and eight boys are working super hard to fill out the rest of those places for the guys team, and they’re making tremendous improvement and doing the little things,” said Liberty head coach Kelly Bracetty. “Emrick (Leshko) has improved by well over a minute from last year. He’s really made a statement this season, and he wants to be one of the top boys in the district and even in the state, and that’s really what I enjoy the most about him, that intrinsic motivation and his willingness to always give 110 percent. It really rubs off on the rest of the guys, and they follow that lead which is really cool to see.”

Liberty’s boys team defeated East Stroudsburg South, 15-50, East Stroudsburg North, 15-50, and Stroudsburg, 19-41.

Freedom’s boys defeated South, 15-50, North, 19-36, and Stroudsburg, 25-32.

Becahi’s boys defeated South, 15-50, but lost to North, 31-24, and Stroudsburg, 45-18.