Cross country claims sixth straight Centennial title

Greg Woods, Online Editor-in-Chief

The Manhattan High cross country team walked into Stateland Park on Saturday having won five straight Centennial League titles.

The team promptly made it six.

With team scores that beat out second-ranking opponents by more than 20 each, the boys and girls sides of the team claimed their sixth-straight League title at Topeka High. Head coach Susan Melgares said she appreciated the title.

“It’s really something we don’t want to take for granted,” Melgares said. “We’re really pumped up to bring back the trophies and get them back in our trophy case.”

On the girls side, Manhattan finished first with a team score of 23. Behind MHS was Seaman with 76, Junction City with 95, Shawnee Heights with 111, Washburn Rural with 147, Emporia with 161, Topeka High with 181, Topeka West with 199 and Hayden with 207.

Three MHS runners cracked the top five on the girls side: junior Cara Melgares, who finished first with a time of 19:00.26, senior Anna Keeley, who finished second with a time of 19:03.26 and freshman Madeline Purdom, who finished fifth with a time of 19:26.60.

Cara said her mindset for the meet was the same as previous ones.

“Basically, we just treated it as every other meet,” Cara said. “We try to go out there and go as hard as we can for as long as we can.”

On the boys side, junior Jackson Schroeder took first and set a school record with a time of 15:38.47. He said both the record and League championship will benefit the team moving forward.

“It means a lot,” Schroeder said. “It gives me, personally, confidence, and I think with the six straight titles, it gives the team confidence as well.”

The last meet Schroeder ran at was Oct. 3 at Junction City, as he was sidelined with an injury. He said coming back wasn’t as difficult as he expected.

“It went a lot better than expected,” Schroeder said. “I thought it was going to be a really tough race, and I was going to have to grit it out, but it went a lot smoother than I thought.”

Manhattan finished first on the boys side with a team score of 41, followed by Washburn Rural with 68, Seaman with 82, Hayden with 102, Junction City with 112, Emporia with 152, Shawnee Heights with 188, Topeka West with 225 and Topeka High with 247.

The Indians return to action Saturday at the Regional meet at Milford Park at Junction City. Susan said resting before the meet will be key to having success.

“We’ll work early in the week, and then rest up a little bit late in the week,” Susan said. “They should be good to go.”