The Parkland girls harriers have had a fine season and no one was better last Wednesday at the District 11 3A cross country championship at DeSales University than Lana Hurwitz, who earned a trip to Hershey by winning the tournament.

The junior ran a spirited and strong race to finish in 19:09, eight seconds ahead of Emmaus’ Hailey Reinhard, the defending district champ. The Trojans finished with 95 points to take fourth place as at team behind first-place Emmaus, second-place Southern Lehigh and third-place Easton.

Hurwitz was competing at districts for the first time. A junior, she spent the past two fall seasons as part of Parkland’s girls soccer team. After competing in track in spring, she decided to try cross country and has been the team’s top runner all season.

“Lana had great success as a track team member,” Parkland cross country head coach Stephen Ott said. “I believe her success there helped her find success both individually, but more importantly as a team.”

Hurwitz learned from her third-place finish a week earlier at DeSales in the East Penn Conference Championship and ran a more strategic race at districts. She ran the course 38 seconds faster last week than the week before.

“My plan was to go out and relax, not go too crazy,” she said. “Last week I was a little aggressive up the hills. I made sure to hold back a bit so I could hammer it the last mile.”

Behind Hurwitz with an 18th ranking for Parkland was Gracie Trexler, who clocked in at 21:12. She will join Hurwitz at the state meet as the top 10 finishers who are not part of state-qualifying teams earn the trip to Hershey. Trexler was the 10th finisher that wasn’t part of a state qualifying team.

Talia Zurinskas claimed 23rd in 21:36, while sophomore Lucy Tobia finished 26th at 21:43. Senior Elena Wenger closed out a solid high school career with a 38th place finish. Freshman Marley Boyle continued to impress with a 44th-place finish, six seconds ahead of teammate Homare Yamashita who claimed 45th.

The PIAA 3A cross country championship is scheduled for Nov. 5 at Hershey.