Manhattan High Cross Country swept the competition on Saturday at Junction City, resulting in first place for both boys and girls Varsity as well as both Junior Varsity teams and boys C team.

“I think the tribe showed a lot of grit yesterday,” Emily Keeley, senior, said. “We had a lot of people running hard and finishing at the front.”

Keeley placed third in the girls Varsity race with a time of 20:15, preceded by teammate Ella Rosenkranz, junior, who placed second with a time of 20:02, and followed by senior Maddie Purdom who placed fifth with a time of 20:18. The girls worked for an overall score of 27, taking the lead by 34 points.

“We’ve been working really hard,” Keeley said. “I think that as we begin to get our legs under us it’ll be really fun to run fast as a team and hopefully see our work pay off.”

Boys Varsity had similar success, placing first with a total team score of 41, beating Maize by just eight points. Sophomore Daniel Harkin took first place with a time of 16:22, followed by junior Matthew Pickering who placed third with a time of 16:42 and senior Carson Gros who had a time of 17:13, resulting in third place.

“Overall, there was a lot of people working together and pushing one another,” Keeley said. “The temperature was perfect. It was a great day to run.”

While the team has been celebrating their success this season, they are also continuing to improve their times and focus on progress.

“While our pack time was definitely encouraging, we still have a good amount of work to do,” Keeley said. “Our goal is simply to keep working hard and doing the right thing as we head into postseason.“

All of this extra work and practice is to help the team get to state, which is their end goal for the season. Each meet they continue to build on the skills they have already obtained, hoping that they will accomplish everything they’ve set out to do.

“We’re still building up to our goal peak,” Keeley said. “I’m really excited and hopeful about the next couple of weeks.”

They hope to carry out another victory in Lawrence on Saturday at the Haskell Invitational.