All it took to make Manhattan High School history was four seconds.

Sophomore Jackson Schroeder’s finish last Friday at Rim Rock Farm came four seconds ahead of senior Michael Melgares and Blue Valley’s Joseph Gorthy. That made him MHS’s first ever State champion for boys cross-country.

“I can’t believe it. At the beginning of the season, I never really thought I had a chance for it,” Schroeder said. “But as soon as I finished, I was just really excited.”

As soon as the race had started, the “smooth criminals,” as Melgares and Schroeder are nicknamed by their teammates, trailed the leading runner Gorthy throughout the race to let him do the work and allow them to keep pace throughout the course.

“They ran very smart to let [Gorthy] take the lead,” coach Susan Melgares said. “They may make it look easy, but they push so hard and to watch them succeed was big. We’ve not had a cross country State champ going in, and having two people finishing first and second was huge.”

It was in the last kilometer of the race that the lead shifted to Melgares and Schroeder and the final charge began.

“When I passed the front runner, it got really quiet for the last 400 meters,” Schroeder said. “I didn’t know how far ahead I was of anyone else. As soon as I crossed the line, I was just so excited. And was really excited that Michael was the next top runner.”

“He had beaten me at every other race this season, except for this one. He worked so hard.”

Their first and second place finishes helped the MHS boys secure third place overall with a combined team score of 101 points at an average time of 16:40.38. The girls team stepped up in their 4K race with a solid fourth place finish overall at an average of 16:12.16 with senior Megan Ochoa and sophomore Cara Melgares both medaling in the top 10 in the race.

“Everybody gave their best and ran strong,” Coach Melgares said. “Nobody started bad at all and everybody competed very well.”

With the cross-country season completed, the team will now look forward to a period of rest followed by running to keep themselves ready for the spring track season they have ahead of them. Coach Melgares described the team’s start of the season after several runners graduated creating a tough challenge for them that they ended up overcoming to have success in their season.

“We had some adversity this year within the guys,” Melgares said. “We had some personal battles to fight and to see them on the podium is a huge accomplishment. I’m just really proud of the team. There were a lot of challenges and it wasn’t easy. I’m just really proud of them. There were a lot of challenges and it wasn’t easy. As a coaching staff, we couldn’t ask for more.”