Bethlehem Catholic, Freedom, and Liberty harriers took a trip to the Poconos to compete against Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg North, and host East Stroudsburg South on Sept. 26.

In the boys race, Freedom had five runners in the top 15, Becahi had two, and Liberty had one, all under 19:00.

And in a change of pace, East Stroudsburg North had four runners, also in the top 15.

“North ran really well. They’re very similar to us,” said Freedom coach Bob Thear. “The only difference is they don’t have a real front-runner like we have with Dylan (Boyle). I knew they’d be tough. It was nice to sneak [a win] out, 26-29. They’ll be a formidable team in Class AA.”

Boyle took first place (16:28) followed by two runners from North, Isaiah Sorge (17:31) and Gustavo Mora (17:34).

Freedom’s Brayden Boyle placed fourth (17:38), Stroudsburg’s Aiden Nieman came in fifth (17:39), and another North runner, Olivier Galicki, was sixth (17:45).

Ryan Parkin finished in seventh place (17:55), and Ryan Haas came in eighth (18:00), both for the Patriots.

“It was a really good race,” Parkin said. “I went out with a pretty hard start. I wanted to establish placement, and I was feeling really competitive today, so I was making a lot of moves. I started to pick it up at the end to prevent people from trying to pass me. One guy from Stroudsburg did, but I don’t think that’ll make much of a difference on the results.

“It was a wider start that kind of narrowed in a little bit, so I went on the side and picked up my pace to pass five or 10 people, and I settled in with some teammates for a little bit, but I was competing with some other runners, so I was pushing to stay ahead of them. There were a couple turns, so I was using them to my advantage.”

Becahi’s Mekhi Britt was ninth to finish (18:04), and Stroudsburg’s Nathan Fritz placed 10th (18:14) in a foot race at the finish line with Beca’s TK Kraus (18:14).

A short bridge preceded the finish where runners were welcomed by two boulders.

“I don’t know if I was a big fan of the bridge because it comes up really fast, so I didn’t have much time to get a big finish in,” said Parkin. “It was hard because [the rocks] were blocking my view from the finish line, so I had to cut over to the right a little bit more.”

Stroudsburg’s Kaidin Hein came in 12th (18:20), Freedom’s Eric Wu was 13th (18:30), Liberty’s Spencer Sabo placed 14th (18:41), and North’s Takai Francis was 15th (18:47).

Freedom’s boys topped all three Pocono teams, Becahi and Liberty beat South, and North and Stroudsburg beat Becahi and Liberty.