MAINE – In back-to-back Southern Tier Athletic Conference meets, the Norwich boys’ and girls’ cross country teams had a strong showing – both for team and individual performances.

In Saturday’s STAC Championship meet, the girls’ team placed 12th as all six of the runners placed within the top 100 of the big conference field.

Hannah DeBates was the first Lady Purple Tornado to cross the finish line running the 5k race in 24:08.4. DeBates placed 64th overall and teammate Adrienne Vedder was four runners behind. The two have raced to nearly the same pace all season.

Another two that have been running side by side throughout the year are Grace Bookamer and Robyn Diehl. They finished within seconds of each other in the conference championship 5k. Bookamer crossed the tape at 26:42.9 for 83rd place, while Diehl finished at 85th overall.

Maria Pomares and Lexi Slate ran to a pace just two-tenths of a second apart as Pomares placed 87th with a time of 27:41.9 and Slate came in at 27:42.1.