Great teams have a way of pulling out victories even when not at their best.

Parkland’s boys cross country team might not have run as fast it planned to at last week’s District 11 Championships. But the Trojans were plenty fast enough to secure their third district title in four years.

Coming off last week’s East Penn Conference team title, Parkland scored 40 points at districts to beat second-place Easton by 15 points.

“As a team we weren’t exactly pleased with things,” said Parkland senior Jake Barnes, who has been part of the varsity line up for two of the team’s last three district titles. “We did win, but individually we could have definitely done better. We’re confident moving into states and hoping we’re going to have a record performance at states.”

The Trojans finished eighth at last year’s state meet, a program-best finish. They plan to move up in the team standings when they run the Parkview Course Saturday in Hershey.

“That was the top team finish last year and we want to improve on that,” said Parkland head coach Stephen Ott. “But there’s a lot of good teams in the state. Take nothing away from Easton and [third-place] Nazareth. They have great runners too. That’s good. I love to see the success from District 11. I hope we all run well next week and get some medal winners. And I hope we do a great job as a team.”

Senior Paul Abeln, the defending District 11 boys individual champ, led Parkland with a second-place finish at this year’s district meet, which was held last Wednesday at DeSales University. Abeln ran a 16:23 to finish behind only Nazareth’s Giovanni Mastromona (16:00.01).

The two runners also finished 1-2 in the EPC Championships a week earlier.

“It was all right,” said Abeln of his district race. “Same as last week. I wish I could have run with him, but didn’t have it. Gio pushed the second mile like 10 seconds faster [than at the EPC meet]. I think I blew up from that. It’s all right. I think I have a lot to prove at states.”

Parkland senior Ethan Willard took fourth place overall last week, with freshman Colin McGuigan fifth, Barnes 10th and junior Jorge Rinker rounding out the scoring in 19th place. Freshman Brycen Smith (20th) and senior Tyler Rothrock (24th) were also part of the Trojan district team.

Abeln, Willard, McGuigan and Barnes earned individual district medals for their top-10 finishes at districts.

The Trojan boys team lost just one dual meet all season, but responded by taking both postseason meet titles.

“The boys ran as a team,” said Ott. “They worked together. Really cool for the seniors because they got three out of four.

“It’s team first. The team is stronger together than individuals. I’m proud of them for taking care of business. They’ve had a bull’s-eye on their back since last year and they responded.”

Barnes said the Trojans’ performance at districts is only going to motivate them for this weekend.

“It opened our eyes a little bit,” he said. “We have some work to do, but I think we can finish out our season well.

“We have a lot of experience. The whole team has experience and we’re ready to go. We’re hoping to come in top five at states, which will be a Parkland record.”