Manhattan High cross country took the leader board for the 6A Junction City Regional with the girls Varsity team placing first and the boys Varsity team placing second.

The races took place at Milford on Saturday morning, just one week before their State competition.

According to senior Ella Rosenkranz, the race was almost perfect.

“I felt great about the meet,” Rosenkranz said. “It was a really good night for the team and for us individually.”

Rosenkranz, who ran a time of 19:36.3, led the team as the first place runner. She was followed by sophomore Jenna Keeley, who placed second with a time of 19:39.1, and freshman Amelia Knopp, who placed fourth with a time of 20:06.1. They contributed to an overall team score of 37 points, putting them in first place.

The boys team ran in a similar fashion. They were led by junior Daniel Harkin, who ran a time of 16:07.1 and is now the top ranking runner in the state in 6A according to Athletic.net. 

Harkin was followed by senior Luke Wichmann, who placed 11th with a time of 17:05.3, and junior Gavin Erickson, who placed 12th with a time of 17:08.5. They contributed to an overall team score of 57 points, allowing them to take second.

“It’s encouraging [to see] us place second,” Harkin said. “Hopefully we can use that for state.”

Part of the team’s accomplishments this week include qualifying for state, which they achieved by placing within the top three teams in both divisions.

“Our main goal is to just do our best,” Keeley said. “[We] mainly wanted to advance to state and we did that, which is great.”

The team is currently in taper this week, meaning that practices will be shorter distances and things like stretching and dietary habits will take top priority. This comes as part of their preparation for state, which will be this Saturday.

“We’re taking our mileage down a little bit,” Rosenkranz said. “We’re being more conscious as a team.”

Along with their mellowed-out practices, the team is readjusting as three of the top runners for the boys team are injured: sophomore Max Bowyer, senior Matthew Pickering and Wichmann.

Despite this setback, the boys team isn’t worried and they’re confident all three runners will come back in time for state.

“We’re doing a lot of training,” Harkin said. “Hopefully we can mentally prepare ourselves for that race and rest up.”

While the team continues to practice this week, they’ll also be working on readying themselves for the competition.

“It won’t be exactly the same since the competition will be a little bit harder,” Rosenkranz said. “I think we’ll have the opportunity to do well.”

Those opportunities are carried with enthusiasm as the team grows closer and closer to state. However nervous they may feel, the excitement of running at state is even greater.

“We’re really excited,” Keeley said. “We’re really wanting to leave it all out there to place as highly as we can. We’re excited to give it our all.”