(courtesy of Hannah Manetsch)

The Manetsch sisters smile after the Conference Invite at Adler Park

The Manetsch sisters, Hannah and Melissa, have repeatedly left their competitors in the dust during their cross country and track seasons, leaving one question on everybody’s mind: How do they Manetsch to do it?

It seems to be that running runs in their blood — this season more than ever.

Melissa, a freshman, and Hannah, a junior, have been known for their speed for a while, but both claim that running first sparked their interest back in middle school. By sixth grade, when Hannah first started track at Highland, the two started to go hard core on the weekends by running one to two miles together each week. The sisters are each others’ biggest supporters and have gone through this journey together.

“We run together when out of season all the time. During cross country, we ran together for long runs, but for workouts, Melissa is faster,” stated Hannah.

Not only are the girls huge supporters of each other, they also play huge leadership roles on their team through their supportive and optimistic nature.

Two of the cross country coaches, Coach Kristen Kuceyeski and Coach Mary Kate Schoenbeck, agreed that the first word that came to mind when they thought of the Manetsches was positivity.

Hannah served as one of the captains on the team this year, along with fellow junior Mia Bertaud and senior Kristi Del Prato. Both cross country coaches agreed that the girls were the backbones of the team this season.

“Hannah was definitely more of a vocal leader and was there to help pick anyone up, whether it was physically help them or just give them a positive word of encouragement,” stated Coach Kuceyeski.

Both coaches also concurred that the sisters often put their teammates before themselves.

“If Melissa had a bad race, the first thing she would do would be to go around and congratulate the other opponent’s team and also our girls,” Coach Schoenbeck shared.

The sisters’ work ethic and talent seems to be paying off, as they are some of LHS’s fastest runners. The Manetsches helped bring their team to victory on Oct. 18 at the recent Cross Country Conference Invite while breaking their own personal records. At conference, Melissa not only came in first, but also ran the fastest time trial in school history by running three miles in a time of 17:37. As usual, her sister Hannah was not far behind with a time of 19:12. Both of the girls’ times qualified them for the all-conference team.

“We were the Manetsch Sandwich,” Hannah joked, “because we got the first and last possible spots to get all-conference.”

But the insaneness of the girls’ speed doesn’t stop there. During regionals, at LHS’s home course, Adler Park, Melissa took a wrong turn around the first half mile during one of her races and still managed to catch as many as 40 girls to come in second place with a time of 19:02.

“Kristi and I started screaming at her in the middle of the race,” Hannah said while laughing. “By the end of the race, the only girl that was ahead of her was ahead by 10 seconds.”

The power duo will be one to watch this spring as they will be key runners for Libertyville’s track team.