Putting in the hard work – especially in the offseason – really pays off.

Just ask Northwestern’s Matt Santana.

On Wednesday, the Tiger senior put all his hard work to the test over the 3.1-mile DeSales University cross country course in the Colonial League championships.

Santana came away with his second straight silver medal - finishing behind only three-time defending league champion Thomas Smigo of Palisades.

Santana wasn’t just celebrating his strong individual performance, however, he also got to enjoy being part of Northwestern’s third straight team championship.

“I’m very excited right now,” said Santana, who finished 21 seconds behind the leader. “We had to work hard this year because we lost three out of our top-five from last year’s team.

“So some of our other guys who were in the back of the lineup last season had to work a bit harder in the summer and they did. It turned out well for us.”

In addition to Santana, the Tigers got strong performances from Samuel Bower (4th), Sean Kershner (19th), Xander Giandomenico (21st) and Zachary Santana (23rd) to edge second-place Palmerton for the team title.

Matt Santana knew it would be tough to be Smigo, who captured his fourth straight league title last week. The Tiger senior wanted to beat the 16:59.8 that he ran at last month’s Centaur Invitational at DeSales, which he did by over nine seconds as he finished in 16:51.11 in the league meet.

“I thought I ran very well,” Matt Santana said. “I pushed the uphills and tried to recover on the down hills. I was looking for second. Tom is a very good runner. The time was just to beat the invite and I got that.

“I just pushed my way up. I wanted to hold top three at least and I managed to hold second for the whole duration of the race.”

With a Colonial League three-peat taken care of, the Tigers will now look for a fourth straight District 11 title next Wednesday.

“It’s definitely going to be tough, but there’s that chance,” Bower said. “We know teams like Palmerton are coming for us. But we just have to stay focused and be ready.”

Both Tigers will be looking to be the first across the finish line at districts as Palisades drops to Class A while Northwestern will compete in the 2A classification this year. The two train together and have run on the same team for all four years of high school. They’re looking forward to their final race in the Lehigh Valley at a course they’re both very familiar with.

“I’m looking for the win at districts,” said Santana. “Sam’s also going to be very good. This is his course. He always does very well here, but I’d like to get the win.”

Bower, who won the Centaur Invitational in early September, is motivated to run faster this week.

“I will definitely be ready for next week,” Bower said.

In the girls Colonial League Championship race, Moravian Academy’s Virginia Kraus captured the individual title.

Northwestern’s Angelina Klein led her team with an 11th-place finish.

“I really wanted to be in the top 10,” said Klein, who finished in a time of 20:48.84. “But I can’t be too upset with my finish since I did set a new PR. I didn’t get a medal today, but I still feel happy I was able to come here and PR today. So it was all good.”

The Tiger girls took third as a team behind Notre Dame (Green Pond) and Southern Lehigh. Rounding out Northwestern’s top five was Sophia Cornell (20th), Kellcey Pedron (24th), Haley Dubois (28th) and Ava Smedstad (35th).

BOYS

Team standings and legend

1.Northwestern (NW) 64, 2. Palmerton (Palm) 71, 3. Southern Lehigh (SL) 74, 4. Notre Dame Green Pond (NDGP) 77, 5. Wilson (W) 90, 6. Moravian Academy (MA) 157, 7. Bangor (B) 206, 8. Salisbury (S) 221, 9. Saucon Valley (SV) 233, 10. Catasauqua (C) 292.

INDIVIDUAL

1.Thomas Smigo (Pali) 16:30.14, 2. Matthew Santana (NW) 16:51.11, 3. Owen Hibell (Palm) 17:02.23, 4. Samuel Bower (NW) 17:13.29, 5. Connor Hibell (Palm) 17:18.39, 19. Sean Kershner (NW) 18:24.98, 21. Xander Giandomenico (NW) 18:35.63, 23. Zachary Santana (NW) 18:41.53, 39. William Gruen (NW) 19:32.09, 48. Jonathan Fornauf (NW) 20:35.40, 50. Carson Mesics (NW) 20:47.10.

GIRLS

Team standings and legend

1.Notre Dame Green Pond (NDGP) 39, 2. Southern Lehigh (SL) 48, 3. Northwestern (NW) 106, 4. Saucon Valley (SV) 108, 5. Wilson (W) 141, 6. Northern Lehigh (NL) 187, 7. Catasauqua (C) 214, 8. Bangor (B) 229, 9. Palisades (Pali) 232, 10. Moravian Acad. (MA) 250, 11. Pen Argyl (PA) 288.

INDIVIDUAL

1.Virginia Kraus (MA) 18:54.56, 2. Avery Errico (W) 19:36.96, 3. Maura Lenhart (SL) 19:46.06, 4. Ella Schweitzer (NDGP) 19:58.49, 5. Katherine Koons (NDGP) 20:07.54, 11. Angelina Klein (NW) 20:48.84, 20. Sophia Cornell (NW) 21:56.34, 24. Kellcey Pedron (NW) 22:15.65, 28. Haley DuBois (NW) 22:27.18, 35. Ava Smedstad (NW) 23:10.10, 37. Sophia Penny (NW) 23:18.66, 40. Maci Fisher (NW) 23:30.978, 46. Kathryn Griffith (NW) 24:13.24, 49. Devon Heinly (NW) 24:48.83.