The Whitehall Zephyrs competed in the Eastern Pennsylvania Cross Country Championships on Oct. 17 at DeSales University where Tessa Hopkins (24:16.60) and Aiden Borkenhagen (20:31.70) were the first Zephyrs to cross the finish line.

“I think today went really well. The girls didn’t luck out with the weather, but we had a lot of people [get personal records] or come close,” said Whitehall coach Brandon Hampton.

Borkenhagen described the last mile in which he was neck and neck with Northampton’s Krystian Komlani.

“The second mile is always slow, and then the third mile, I try and do my best around the cornfield,” Borkenhagen said. “I passed a kid from Northampton. He was like, ‘Come on, man. Keep going.’ And I’m like, ‘Don’t worry about it, man. Just go for it.’ And then I caught back up to him, and he was like, ‘Dammit,’ and we started sprinting. He beat me by like two inches. He comes after me, and he’s like, ‘Great job, man, but don’t ever do that to me again.’ He almost fell over at the end.”

The girls, who raced after the completion of the boys meet, were caught off-guard by a sudden downpour that changed the conditions of the course to the detriment of many runners, including Hopkins who took a spill.

“From the boys race, I saw they started out too strong, too quick, so I told myself I’d go out quick but at a pace I knew I wasn’t gonna burn out, and it worked,” said Hopkins. “Compared to September at the DeSales Invitational, I burned out at the hills. This meet, I passed a lot of girls and was happy with it. We’ve done a bunch of speed workouts on the track, and those have been super beneficial, and we had a light practice yesterday, so I had fresh legs all week.”

Coach Hampton was pleased with several of his runners.

“Jackson (Rozycki) came out of nowhere, fourth at the mile (for Whitehall) and then at the two mile. Next time I saw him, he was second and really closed the gap between him and Aiden which was great to see. Tessa fell in the woods back there and came out a little muddy, but I did tell her if she didn’t fall, she probably would’ve P.R.ed, but she ran really, really well. Our second runner was Felicity Coulthard and she ran a really strong race. Grace (Tsamutalis) ran her best race of the year.”

The top 12 finishers were awarded conference medals.

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

Pocono Mountain West’s Kaya Meler came in second (19:34.3) followed by Freedom’s Ava Fihlman (20:01.9), Parkland’s Lana Hurwitz (20:20.1), Emmaus’s Payton Campbell (20:28.5), teammate Brooke Miller (20:32.7), Parkland’s Gracie Trexler (20:34.5), Emmaus’s Addison Johnson (20:36.2), Easton’s Faith Belote (20:36.7), teammate Lama Mahmoud (20:45.0), Freedom’s Anya Johns (20:51.0), and Northampton’s Liv Jusinski (20:51.8).

Nazareth’s Gio Mastromonaco won the boys race (16:10.80) and was crowned EPC champ.

Parkland’s Paul Abeln came in second (16:22.00) followed by Ethan Willard, also from Parkland (16:32.00), Freedom’s Dylan Boyle (16:32.60), Parkland’s Colin McGuigan (16:50.20) and teammate Jacob Barnes (16:51.50), Easton’s James Vigilanti (16:58.70), Allentown Central Catholic’s Duke Ebert (17:01.40), Easton’s Aaron Marcus (17:07.60) and teammate Evan Guydish (17:09.10), Emmaus’s Ryan Fach (17:19.20), and Nazareth’s JT Cunningham (17:25.30).

Boys team scores were Parkland (32), Easton (63), Emmaus (89), Nazareth (89), Allentown Central Catholic (136), Freedom (159), East Stroudsburg North (236), Northampton (263), Stroudsburg (266),

Liberty (274), Bethlehem Catholic (294), Pocono Mountain East (311), Pleasant Valley (350), Pocono Mountain West (405), East Stroudsburg South (460), Whitehall (466).

Girls 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).