Lorna Rae Pierce led the Junction City Lady Jay cross country team with a 19th place finish in the Manhattan Cross Country Invitational. The freshman at JCHS turned in a time of 23:11.9. Murin Burkett finished in 36th in 25:04.5, Katelyn Atkins 39th in 25:27.9 and Ashlynn Shea 43rd in 26:20.1.&nbsp;Manhattan won the varsity team title with the low score of 21 points while Junction City with only four finishers did not finish with a final team score.&nbsp;In the boys competition Manhattan won the team championship with the low score of 36 points. Junction City did not have a final team score with only three finishers.In the boys varsity competition Tyler Atkins captured third place with a clocking of 16:45.6 while Neil Naputo was 41st in 19:35.0 and Hayden Diestelkamp 45th in 20:14.9.

Blue Jay cross country opens the season