Overland Park ? Once again, the top-flight runners from Class 6A schools in eastern Kansas were chasing the girl in green.

Free State High sophomore Alysha Valencia was in familiar form Saturday at the Saints Challenge Cross Country Meet at Johnson County Community College. Valencia won the girls’ two-mile race in a time of 11:48, four seconds better than second-place finisher Kristin Wolkey of Shawnee Mission North.

“I’ve been sick this whole week,” Valencia said. “I got close to my best time, and to do that in the first meet is really good.”

The FSHS girls finished fourth with 121 points; Allison Yoder was the only other Firebird to earn a medal, finishing 16th. Lawrence High was third with 93 points, propelled by Megan Johnson and Meg Gentry, who finished eighth and ninth.

Valencia credited an offseason focused on running, instead of swimming like past years, to her early success.

“I ran six days a week,” Valencia said. “There were hard days that we ran six or seven (miles). Then we had off days where we ran four.”

Four miles? On an off day?

“State champ,” Valencia said. “That’s what I’m shooting for.”

So are the Free State boys. The Firebirds finished third with 86 points, behind Shawnee Mission East and a phenomenal Shawnee Mission Northwest squad that had just 29 points fueled by four runners in the top 10.

The Firebirds had two in the top 10 — Danny Schneider placed eighth and Chris Brewer ninth — and had four more in the top 30.

“As a group, about half of our guys ran well,” Free State coach Steve Heffernan said. “Our goal this week was to try and knock down a couple of teams ahead of us in the rankings, and we caught one of them.”

LHS senior Harry Swartz was the city’s top boys finisher, placing seventh in a time of 17:02. Drew Vogel (17th) was also a medalist for the Lions, who are rebuilding after a runner-up finish at state last year.

“I thought we ran pretty well,” LHS coach Chip Anderson said. “We knew we weren’t going to be as strong, but I thought they ran well.”

Two Ottawa High runners held their own among the big schools. The Cyclones’ Dustyn Toland finished fifth, the only top-10 finisher not from the Sunflower League. On the girls side, senior Lisa Morrissey finished third behind Valencia and Wolkey, posting a time of 12:04.

LHS returns to action next Saturday at the Topeka West Invitational. Free State travels Friday to the Millard South Invitational in Omaha, Neb.