TOWANDA — Towanda boys cross-country kept their perfect dual meet season intact only by the hardest, as NEB gave them all they could handle in their 25-30 win during NTL action Tuesday.

The Lady Knights won 22-34 to stay unbeaten in the league, as well.

"It was a good race by Northeast, they came, they showed up, they made us work for it," said Towanda coach Mike Maurer. "We needed to be a little bit more prepared with our group today."

The Knights got strong finishes out of Emmett Klees and Phillip Spinney, who took first and fifth, to pull out the win.

"We were kind of hanging on through the middle, but we did finish strong," said Maurer. "I was really proud of the kids for the way that they did that. Phillip did exactly what he was supposed to, we thought if we could get him on the track we'd maybe have the kick, so that's was fun to watch, I haven't seen a dual meet finish come down like that in quite a while."

Klees (17:34) passed NEB's Jackson Martin (17:35) in the final turn to take the top spot after running behind him the whole race. Both runners broke the course record.

NEB's Levi Dewing (18:46) was second with Towanda's Boom Thompson (18:59) taking fourth.

Spinney (19:14) was behind NEB's Xavier Lockwood (19:14) until the final quarter mile as they took fifth and sixth.

Towanda's Brayden Cox (19:26) and Hagen Jones (20:08) were seventh and eighth, with NEB's Kegan Netherton (20:14) and Josiah Russell (20:25) taking ninth and 10th.

Both teams beat Sayre 15-50.

Towanda went 1-2-3 on the girls side, led by Maris Cob (22:05) taking first. Izzy Larson (22:44) and Mary-Kate Eberlin (22:45) were second and third.

NEB went 4-5-6 with Sophie Bennett (22:54), Julia Laudermilch (22:56), and Ruth Laudermilch (23:35).

Towanda's Kenzie Brown (23:56) was seventh, while teammate Leila Cobb (26:07) took ninth to round out the Knights.

Charlotte Martin (24:05) was eighth, and Bella Russell (29:00) took 11th for the Panthers.

NEB's Zeb Laudermilch (11:03) and Rory Manning (12:38) won the boys and girls races. NEB topped Towanda 15-50 for the boys, while the Panthers edged the Knights 26-29 in the girls race.

Starting next week things pick up for both teams with another set of dual meets followed by an invite that Friday at Owego.

"We're going to concentrate coming back to having fun, and trusting the process," said Maurer. "We are kind of hitting that midpoint of the season where you're tired, things are starting to be sore, and stuff like that. We just talked about it, we're going to refocus, and start to get that push to the postseason."

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