One runner made a victorious Bulldog Invitational debut. Another capped three years of great performances at Northern Lehigh's annual cross country meet.

Pottsville freshman Paige Stoner won the girls varsity race in a course record time of 18 minutes and 14.4 seconds.The boys race saw Exeter's Zach Greth win his third straight Bulldog title in 16:10 while leading the Eagles to a team title Saturday morning in Slatington.Greth beat Easton's Bernard England (16:29.6) by a comfortable margin after taking a late lead."I took the lead with three quarters of a mile to go," he said. "I just pushed it up the hills and made a little bit of a gap."Exeter put its top five runners in the top 22 spots to earn the team win over Easton.Northwestern's Kyle Stelmack was the top local finisher. A sprint over the last 200 yards was enough for the Tiger sophomore to edge Easton's Tyler Caul for fourth place."I was just trying to focus on the other three kids up in front of me," said Stelmack, who ran the race in 16:42.2.In his first year running cross country, Stelmack holds down the No. 1 spot in the Tigers line up and could be a factor in this year's Colonial League and District 11 Class AA championships."Stelmack is just a stud for us right now," said Northwestern head coach Chris Stitzel. "I knew he was going to be good, but being his first year and being a sophomore...what he's doing right now is just phenomenal. He's just an animal. He doesn't give up at all."Stelmack, who is still experimenting with different race strategies, looks foward to leagues and districts, but he won't be disappointed if the titles don't come this season as he's got a bright future in the sport for the next few years."I'm going to try to get as far as I possibly can and do as good as I can," he said of winning titles this season. "I think about it. I try to work for it. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, it doesn't."Stelmack wasn't the only rising star at Saturday's Bulldog Inivitational. Stoner finished well ahead of Exeter's Sarah Brzostek (18:57.6) in breaking the course record.It was just the second invitational of her high school career as she took third at last week's DeSales Invitational."That was my first big invitational," she said. "I was happy with that. And I'm really happy today."Tamaqua's Amber Carroll (19:02.3) took third place Saturday, just five seconds behind Brzostek and well ahead of Honesdale's Summer Hill at 19:58.5."I'm happy with how I did," said Carroll. "I was with her for the first mile and then she started to break away."Carroll was the defending Bulldog Invitational girls champion heading into the race.Honesdale won the girls team title, edging Pleasant Valley 61-75. The Lady Bears placed five girls in the top 20, led by Samanth Klingel and Dan McAllister in 12th and 13th place, respectively.Northwestern girls were third and Tamaqua was fifth.The highest-finishing boys team from the TIMES NEWS area was Northwestern in seventh place.Bulldog InvitationalBOYSTeam scores1. Exeter 58, 2. Easton 61, 3. Northampton 126, 4. Wilson 130, 5. Stroudsburg 139, 7. Northwestern (NW) 183, 8. Pleasant Valley (PV) 236, 13. Northern Lehigh (NL) 339, 14. Palmerton (Palm) 358, 17. Jim Thorpe (JT) 435, 21. Lehighton (Leh).Individuals1. Zach Greth (Exeter) 16:10.3, 2. Bernard England (Easton) 16:29.6, 3. Mark Pfaeflle (Stroudsburg) 16:39.6, 4. Tyler Stelmack (NW) 16:42.2, 5. Tyler Caul (Easton) 16:44.2, 6. Ricky Sturz (Exeter) 16:46.5, 7. Brett Gubitosi (Notre Dame ES) 17:01.7, 8 Rory McAtee (Wilson) 17:01.9, 9. Dan Rose (Pleasant Valley) 17:07.4, 10. Anudeep Alberts (Southern Columbia) 17:11.4.Other local runners25. Alex Larkin (PV) 17:47.4, 26. Austin Danish (NL) 17:54.9, 36. Patrick Strobel (NW) 18:12.5, 37. Aaron Papay (Palm) 18:14.5, 42. Cody Reinert (NW) 18:23.7, 44. Ryan Cerrone (NW) 18:29, 52. Tim Landes (PV) 18:42.2, 58. Tyler Malay (NW) 18:48.5, 60. Tom O'Leary (PV) 18:51.1, 62. Josh Williams (JT) 19:02.5, 64. Mike Horvath (Palm) 19:08.5, 66. John Achtermann (Palm) 19:11.3, 68. Scott Showak (NL) 19:13.6, 76. Philip Christman (Tamaqua) 19:21.5, 78. Adam Dachoowicz (JT) 19:25.2, 85. Zane Heller (NL) 19:34.6, 90. Dave Magyer (Leh) 19:42.6, 95. Zach Williamson (PV) 19:47, 96. Cody Eckhardt (Palm) 19:48.4, 98. Cody Wagner (NL) 19:54, 99. Joey Duffy (NW) 19:54.3, 100. Zachary Nace (JT) 19:55.3, 101. Brett Volk (NW) 19:55.7, 102. Chris Boyd (JT) 19:55.9, 103. Rudy Joseph (Tamaqua) 19:56.3, 104. David Fitzpatrick (Palm) 19:57, 106. Christian Fields (JT) 119:59.8, 110. Daulton Radler (20:05.5, 112. Nathaniel Flick (JT) 20:16, 117. Jacob Percey (PV) 20:29.8, 118. Vaughn Reese (NL) 20:33.2, 121. Jeremy Gornick (Leh), 123. Ernie Klingel (PV) 20:47.5, 124. Josiah Evans (Leh) 20:50.6, 126. Matt Curran (JT) 21:05.4, 129. Travis Hill (Tamaqua) 21:17.1, 136. Cole Zeigafuse (Palm) 22:09.8, 137. David Fredrick (Tamaqua) 22:37.4, 139. Michael Hofmann (NL) 22:55.3, 143. Brian Piekarski (Leh) 24:31.3, 145. Jeremy Rehrig (Leh) 26:23.9.GIRLSTeam scores1. Honesdale 61, 2. Pleasant Valley (PV) 75, 3. Northwestern (NW) 117, 4. Exeter 125, 5. Tamaqua (Tam) 130, 12. Northern Lehigh (NL) 284, 14. Palmerton (Palm) 326.Individuals1. Paige Stoner (Pottsville) meet record 18:14.4, 2. Sarah Brzostek (Exeter) 18:57.6, 3. Amber Carroll (Tam) 19:02.3, 4. Summer Hill (Honesdale) 19:58.5, 5. Nicol Leskowixz (Exeter) 20:10.9, 6. Kiana Tucker (Stroudsburg) 20:14.1, 7. Erin Craig (Honesdale) 20:19.1, 8. Haley West (Honesdale) 20:19.1, 9. Haley Yost (NW) 20:19.4, 10. Abby Ross (Poconon Mt. East) 20:20.1.Other local runners11. Emma Kemmerer (NW) 20:21.9, 12. Samantha Klingel (PV) 20:30.8, 13. Dan McAllister (PV) 20:30.8, 15. Stacy Wojy (PV) 20:51.6, 16. Kaitlyn Smith (PV) 20:1.6, 17. Schuyler Schmidt (Tam) 20:58.1, 18. Andrea Stevko (Palm) 21:06.5, 19. Stephanie Palmer (PV), 25. Anna Fricchione (NW) 21:31.8, 27. Colleen Rorke (Tam) 21:38.2, 32. Cecily Kohlmeir (Tam) 21:51.9, 33. Abby Kaspszyk (PV) 21:52.2, 35. Natalie Boehm (NW) 21:58.4, 36. Kayla Susko (JT) 22:01.5, 38. Erin Ondush (NW) 22:03.9, 43. Samantha Corcoran (NL) 22:09, 50. Emily Oldt (Leh) 22:20, 51. Brittany Dunay (PV) 22:24.7, 54. Dana Ansbach (Tam) 22:32.2, 57. Emily Bumbulsky (Tam) 22:38.9, 63. Erin Bucci (JT) 23:05.5, 64. Jessica Leiby (Tam) 23:06.7, 65. Bryanna Tomkins 23:30.3, 68. Courtney Desiderio (NW) 23:27.3, 69. Rachel Barnett (NL) 23:40.3, 71. Leah Heffelfinger (Palm) 23:50.8, 76. Aimee Oertner (NL) 24:16, 81. Lauren Oertner (NL) 24:26.7, 84. Megan Rex (NL) 24:48.1, 85. Rachel Hendrix (NL) 24:50.7, 90. Kayla Strohl (Palm) 24:15.3, 91. Brianna Gehres (JT) 25:17.4, 92. Megan Dailey (Palm) 25:18.4, 105. Jill Farkas (Palm) 26:33.3, 109. Caitlyn Henninger (JT) 27:26.