Freedom harrier Dylan Boyle moved up a place from his finish at the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference meet and clinched a bronze medal at the District XI Class 3A Boys Cross Country Championships on Oct. 25 at DeSales University.

“Last week, he thought he should’ve beat Ethan (Willard, Parkland). He just started too late, so I told him, ‘Don’t let that happen again. Make a move earlier, a decisive one, and put him away,’” said Freedom coach Bob Thear. “That’s what he did. He helped himself move up. Coming out of the woods, he was in third. He was up, probably about 20 meters coming out of the woods, and he looked strong.”

Boyle also changed tactics at the starting line.

“You lose more energy leading the pack than trailing behind others, so I trailed behind for the first mile. I stuck with [Ethan] in the whole cornfield and everything. I wouldn’t let him go. We were playing a little cat and mouse game the whole time,” Boyle said. “Then, coming up the hill out of the cornfield, I took off. I was just feeling it and started sprinting and sprinting and sprinting. Right when I got away from him, I felt like he was still on me. Mentally, it’s like, he’s still behind me, you’ve still got to keep going for it. You don’t want to slow down because if he is behind you, he’s gonna catch you.”

Willard never caught up to Boyle and finished in 16:48.28 to Boyle’s time of 16:36.73.

Nazareth’s Gio Mastromanaco was the boys district champ with his time of 16:00.01, and Parkland’s Paul Abeln placed second in 16:23.66.

Parkland’s Colin McGuigan came in fifth in 16:50.92, followed by three Easton runners: Aaron Marcus in 17:08.72, James Viglianti in 17:10.25, and Evan Guydish in 17:10.79.

Nazareth’s JT Cunningham placed ninth in 17:11.21, and Parkland’s Jacob Barnes was 10th in 17:19.46.

The top 10 boys received district medals and will compete at the PIAA Class 3A State Cross Country Championships on Nov. 4 in Hershey along with the teams from Parkland and Easton.

Liberty’s Joshua Cazares came in 39th out of 102 runners with a time of 18:53.72 and was first for the Hurricanes.

Team results were Parkland 40, Easton 55, Nazareth 69, Emmaus 99, Southern Lehigh 165, Freedom 184, Northampton 224, Stroudsburg 227, Liberty 248, Pocono Mountain East 282, Pleasant Valley 298, Bangor 332, Pocono Mountain West 367, and Whitehall 389.

In the Class 2A boys race, Bethlehem Catholic’s Brandon Andrews placed 64th out of 100 runners with a time of 20:35.49 and was first for the Golden Hawks.

Beca’s top runner Mekhi Britt became injured halfway through the race and could not finish.