One week removed from beginning its season with a win at the Manhattan Invitational, the Manhattan High cross country team once again placed in the top two last Saturday and finished second at the Emporia Invitational.

Head coach Susan Melgares chose not to run her girls Varsity team, as a portion of the team would be absent for the meet.

The boys Varsity team, meanwhile, finished second behind Maize with a team score of 53. The Indians beat out Washburn Rural, Haysville Campus, Lawrence, Blue Valley North, Emporia and Wichita Northwest.

Melgares held out sophomore Alex Henton and seniors Alex Martinez and Ethan Levin for rest, and said that the meet served as one for her runners to relax at.

“[The Emporia Invite was] not quite as intense,” Melgares said. “You can let off the pedal a little bit as we get ready for the next couple meets, which will be pretty hardcore…. This was a good meet to just relax and run.”

Top 5A teams St. Thomas Aquinas and Bishop Carroll were slated to participate in the meet, but their Varsity boys were no-shows. Levin said they weren’t the team’s first concern.

“[Aquinas] girls Varsity apparently swept, but they’re a 5A school, so we’re not worrying too much about them,” Levin said.

The Emporia course differed in a few ways from Warner Park in Manhattan, one of which lied in a hill named Champions Hill.

“Most of the course is downhill, to be honest,” senior Austin Telck, who finished seventh on the team, said. “It feels like a downhill course the entire race. When you finish after Champions Hill, you’re just like, ‘let’s find that next gear and finish.’”

Senior Sam Morgan, who finished fourth on the team in the J.V. race, said there wasn’t anything challenging in particular, and that the course was friendlier than the Manhattan Invite.

“Besides having a bunch of runners out this Saturday, it was actually probably better because the conditions were nicer,” Morgan said. “It wasn’t as hot.”

The team now turns its attention to the Missouri Southern Stampede on Saturday in Joplin, Mo., a perennial challenge for teams. Melgares said preparation will be much the same as for other meets.

“We just need to put the work in and get some miles run,” Melgares said. “And get excited — that’s the main thing.”