Mady McCartney went into this season, and last week’s state meet, looking to improve on last year’s performance at the PIAA Cross Country Championships.

She wanted to improve by 10 places on her performance from last year. But instead of thinking about her past success as motivation, she wanted to stay in the present.

“I wanted to go top 15,” said McCartney. “I was 25th last year and I wanted to improve. I didn’t think about it being 10 spots ahead, I just said ‘lets do top 15.’”

The Hornet junior and two-time District 11 and East Penn Conference champ did even better, taking 13th place in 19:02 Saturday in Hershey.

“I was really nervous, but I know I’ve trained really hard for this since track ended in June,” she said. “This was my goal, to make it to districts and from there make it to states. I put a lot of effort into my training and I just trusted my training. I set some goals for myself and I achieved them.”

McCartney also hit her goal time while helping her team to a 14th place finish at the meet.

Senior Payton Campbell finished 42nd (19:56) at states, followed by senior Isabella Scarlata in 171st (21:37); sophomore Grace Nosal in 172nd (21:37) and senior Addison Johnson also contributed to the team score, finishing 192nd (22:15). Sophomore Isabella Alwine-Balliro (202nd. 22:29) and senior Ava Palamara (219th, 23:56) were also part of the Emmaus state championship team.

The Hornet boys team made its first trip to states in 23 years and was led by senior Conor Fisher, who finished 176th in 17:54. Senior Richard Will (208th, 18:18) senior Jared Petre (210th, 18:19), freshman David Hearn (221st, 18:32) and freshman Michael Carwell (223rd, 18:32) were also part of the team’s top five at states, while junior Ryan Fach (230th, 18:40) and freshman Sullivan Hochbein (249th, 20:00) also competed at Saturday’s state meet.