On a seemingly perfect day for the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Girls Cross Country Championships, the skies opened up soon after the starting gun fired and poured rain on 101 racers on Oct. 17 at DeSales University where the top 12 finishers were awarded conference medals.

“By the time we got to the hills, that’s when it got muddy, and it was really difficult to find spots that were not slippery,” said Freedom senior Ava Fihlman, who finished in third place (20:01.9). “I wasn’t balancing on the hills very well or in the cornfield, and the cornfield was really, really muddy.”

Emmaus’s Madelyn McCartney won the girls race (19:08.5) and was crowned EPC champ.

Pocono Mountain West’s Kaya Meler, Fihlman’s annual adversary, placed second (19:34.3).

“Ideally, I was hoping Ava would be second, but the West girl ran great,” said Freedom coach Bob Thear. “It’s not like Ava ran poorly and she beat her. The West girl just ran really good and beat her.”

Fihlman beat Meler comfortably in a tri-meet on Sept. 19.

“I was in a great mood, very pumped to race, really ready, excited,” said Fihlman of the EPC championship meet. “I was gonna try and go out with Madelyn, and at the start, I was with her and felt very comfortable and didn’t feel like I was gonna fall back or anything....I really think I needed spikes on this course. I don’t feel good in spikes, but I probably needed them today because of the conditions. It was very, very difficult to balance a lot of parts. I couldn’t pick up my pace, and I couldn’t catch myself going downhill.”

Parkland’s Lana Hurwitz took fourth place (20:20.1), Emmaus’s Payton Campbell was fifth (20:28.5), and Emmaus’s Brooke Miller placed sixth (20:32.7).

Gracie Trexler from Parkland was seventh (20:34.5), Emmaus’s Addison Johnson came in eighth (20:36.2), Easton’s Faith Belote was ninth (20:36.7), and teammate Lama Mahmoud finished 10th (20:45.0).

Freedom’s Anya Johns, who took an unfortunate spill on the course, was still able to medal with an 11th place finish (20:51.0), and Northampton’s Liv Jusinski placed 12th (20:51.8).

“I saw her coming out of the woods and noticed a fair amount of mud, but for Anya’s first championship meet, it was good,” said Coach Thear. “I was hoping she’d finish a couple places higher, but it’s good to get the experience, have something happen to you over the course of a race, and see how you respond to it.”

Liberty’s Lilah McClarin placed 39th (22:27.5) and first for the Hurricanes.

Bethlehem Catholic’s Aliyah Brame placed 46th (22:50.5) and first for the Golden Hawks.

In team scores, the Patriot girls surprised their coach with a fourth-place finish overall.

“I don’t think I ever had a girls team that placed that high,” said Thear after predicting their sixth-place finish.

Team scores were Emmaus (33), Easton (60), Parkland (74), Freedom (137), Stroudsburg (163), Allentown Central Catholic (174), Nazareth (181), Northampton (194), Liberty (215), East Stroudsburg North (297), Whitehall (308).

The District XI Girls Cross Country Championships are scheduled for Oct. 25 at DeSales University.

“I’d rather have them do OK today, not great, only because I’d rather leave them a little hungry for [districts],” Thear said. “We could beat them 10 other times- I don’t care- I want to beat them on one day. That’s the only day I want. That day I want to do well.”