As Manhattan High cross country’s Lucas Holdren approached the final 1,000 meters of Saturday’s season-opening race at Warner Park, a host of negative thoughts entered his mind.
That might be unusual for a runner with a significant lead on the rest of the field, but Holdren has experienced firsthand how bad things can happen in situations like that.
In fact, it was last year, in the exact same race.
With 1,000 meters left to go in the 2022 Manhattan High Invitational, Holdren suddenly felt his legs go limp, his vision fade and his breathing alter. Then, he passed out. Later, he received a diagnosis of anemia, and through the rest of the season, he never quite got back to the level he was at before.
On Saturday, after a year of recovery and rebuilding his strength, those memories flooded back to him, and he began to fear something similar might occur again.
“I had to focus really, really hard, and stay out of my head and focus on my feet with every step,” Holdren said.
Those feet carried Holdren to a first-place finish in the boys’ varsity race and a personal best of 15:53.3. He won the race by more than 46 seconds.
“I’d be remiss if I didn’t say everything I have comes from God,” Holdren said. “I can’t take any of the credit myself. But he’s given me the ability to recover from last year and be able to train super hard over the winter and the summer. And on top of that, I’ve got an awesome team. … I wouldn’t be where I’m at without my team.”
His team was wildly successful Saturday morning as well. The Indians swept the whole meet, taking first place in the boys’ varsity, girls’ varsity, boys’ junior varsity, girls’ junior varsity and C-team races.
“I saw major, major toughness across the board from our kids,” said head coach Susan Melgares. “This is one of the most challenging courses in the state. I saw people getting tired in the middle — it’s a grind in the middle — but they also gained a lot of ground, they gained points on other schools in the middle. When the chips are down, and it gets hard, our kids were hunting out there in the middle and latter part of the races.”
On the boys’ side, Cooper Sturm finished sixth at 17:08.5, Will Richards was 10th at 17:28.2, Jack Spiegel was 11th at 17:31.7, Andrei Mazin was 12th at 17:38.7, Aidan Hilton was 33rd at 18:58.7 and Wilson Wesch was 42nd at 19:42.6.
Haley Hennginson led the Manhattan girls with a fifth-place spot and a time of 20:58.8. Behind her were Soleil Disney in 11th at 21:29.2, Caris Goering in 12th at 21:31.7, Rebekah Pickering in 14th at 21:42.8, Mira Gurgel in 23rd at 22:38.9, Averie Phillips in 25th at 22:45.2 and Madeline Fobes in 32nd at 23:43.0.
Melgares said she was “very impressed” by the way her team ran as a pack. Pack running, she explained, boosts racers’ performances by allowing them to receive motivation from their teammates.
Saturday was an ideal way for the Indians to begin this year after they encountered significant obstacles last season.
Despite the fact both teams finished 2022 a bit below where they had in previous seasons, Melgares said the way they confronted adversity made it a successful campaign.
The boys finished 12th at state while the girls came in 10th, keeping alive a long-standing tradition of qualifying both groups to the final meet of the year. Melgares said her runners had to “fight tooth and nail” to get there and she was proud of them for doing so.
“Given the situation, they gave everything they had to do their best,” she said. “We’re really proud. You can measure success in different ways. What shows up on the score and the results doesn’t always measure success.”
However, now it’s time for the Indians to build on the foundation they set a season ago. In Melgares’ words, the goals are “rebounding from the blows” of 2022 and “taking it up a level at the league meet and the state meet.”
Four of the seven boys who represented Manhattan in the state meet — Mazin, Spiegel, Lucas Holdren and Hilton — are back. The girls have three returners from their state team in Henningson, Goering and Regan Gaul.
But because of a number of injuries and health issues in 2022, several others had to fill in spots at varsity meets throughout the season, which Melgares said offered the chance to gain high-level experience.
As a result, the Indians should have “stronger quality depth” than they did last year.
Manhattan’s top finishers Saturday — Holdren and Henningson — are the senior leaders this year. Both of them dealt with health issues in 2022 but are looking to take advantage of their final year with the program.
Holdren said the boys want to make the podium at state and ideally race their way into the top three. Henningson said with the youth on the girls’ side, qualifying for state is the goal.
The Indians will return to action this Saturday when they run at Emporia.
