The training portion of the NHIAA cross-country season is in the rearview mirror starting Saturday, Hanover High School coach Eric Picconi said.
Derryfield Park will be filled with some of the best harriers from New Hampshire and across New England for the 50th Manchester Invitational that day.
After a morning of freshman and JV races, the varsity competition will begin at noon with the girls small school division race.
The meet serves as a helpful trial run for NHIAA teams. The NHIAA Divisions I-III championships will be held at Derryfield Park on Oct. 26 -- five weeks from Saturday.
"You get a preview of not only the course ... but also to face for the first time teams that you'll face not only at states but we are also looking beyond states to the Meet of Champions and New Englands," Picconi said. "We expect we'll see some of those teams there as well. To match up against them, that's a rare opportunity and we're going to take advantage of it."
The Hanover boys are the defending NHIAA Division II champions and Picconi said he thinks they are even stronger than they were last year. The Hanover girls finished runner-up to Oyster River at both the Division II and Meet of Champions meets last year.
The Bears, who will compete in the large school division at the Manchester Invitational, are currently ranked as the top boys team and the No. 2 girls team in the state by New Hampshire Cross-Country. The website ranked Oyster River as the state's top girls team this week.
The Hanover girls feature prolific junior Lea Perreard, who won the Division II and Meet of Champions races and was the top New Hampshire female finisher at New Englands (seventh) last year.
Perreard's performance helped Hanover place fifth at New Englands. Oyster River was the girls New England runner-up to Champlain Valley Union of Vermont, while defending NHIAA Division I champion Pinkerton Academy placed third.
All four teams will be at Derryfield Park on Saturday.
Picconi said Perreard has been sick and unable to compete much so far this season, but she ran at Hanover's home meet last week.
"I think she's over the hump and ready to finally use as much as her body will give her," Picconi said. "She's prepared to feel uncomfortable for about 18, 19 minutes on Saturday."
Defending Meet of Champions and Division I champion Nashua South, Hopkinton, last year's D-III champion, and other top New Hampshire boys teams like Salem, Pinkerton, Bishop Guertin, Coe-Brown Northwood Academy and Londonderry will also be on hand.
The Pinkerton boys won the Nashua North Invitational last weekend. BG senior Matthew Giardina, who won the boys Division I and Meet of Champions races last year, was the individual boys champion at the Nashua North Invitational.
Perreard loves the hilly and challenging Derryfield Park course, a sentiment Picconi said he thinks many share.
"This is quite possibly everybody's favorite course just because it offers everything," Picconi said. "You've got a hill for the people that run the hills, you've got a downhill, you've got some nice flats. You've got the best competition concentration of athletes that one could hope for ... so you have a heavy dose of adrenaline to work with as well."