After relaxing on the beach of Milford Lake this past Saturday, the Manhattan High Cross Country Team and 13 other schools from the area put their bodies to the test to run the Junction City Invitational. Hosted by Junction City High School, this course overlooks Milford Lake, at the Milford State Park. While the scenery was calming, the cross country teams for Manhattan High pushed through all barriers and came out as first for all teams that competed on Saturday.

Six out of the seven Varsity girl runners from Manhattan placed in the top 15; there were 66 total Varsity girl runners. Junior Cara Melgares led the Manhattan girls with a time of 19:28 giving her  a second place victory. Senior Anna Keely wasn’t too far behind with a time of 19:29, coming in third. This gave the girls first place overall.

“I was expecting to run a little bit quicker today, but time doesn’t really matter at this point in the season,” Melgares said.

The girls have seen much success this season and hope to continue this trend.

“So far we’ve come back with a trophy or a plaque at every meet and we are going to try to keep that rolling,” Melgares said.

One of the Manhattan Varsity boys needed just a little longer than most to get ready mentally and physically for the race. After winning state as a sophomore, junior Jackson Schroeder ran his first meet of the season, with the overall winning time of 16:16. Sophomore Cooper Schroeder fell in third place, not too far behind with the time of 16:32. These performances gave the boys team a first place overall finish as well.

Due to some over workings, Jackson had not competed in any of this season’s meets before this one.

“[I] worked myself into the ground over the end of track season — beginning of summer — and I got into really good shape, and it all started affecting my body negatively” Jackson said. “Just a little bit of over training, I would call it.”

The rest of the team is benefiting from Jackson being able to run again.

“He helps our team score way down and just overall a better team together,” Cooper said.  “But we have lots of guys that are working really hard at practice and its just awesome.”

Both teams hope to hold a strong lead throughout the rest of the season.

“Hopefully we can go out and win league, and then keep it moving to regionals, and state, and then try to get podium top three at state,” Cooper said.

The team hopes to cut down on the overall pack time leading into the Haskell Invitational next week.

“I think we are gonna keep getting better and keep progressing,” Jackson said. “[We’ll] try to, hopefully, work on our packed time — get it down a little bit,” Jackson said.