Hoping to follow its stellar performance at the Meet of Champions on Nov. 4 with an even tastier finish at the New England Championships, the Manchester West girls cross country found its showing hard to swallow Saturday, Nov. 11.

Despite boasting two All- New England runners, the Blue Knights’ 13th-place finish at the 30-team competition at Ponaganset High School in North Scituate, R.I., was disappointing, West coach Paula Schulz said.

Sophomore Kelsey Hunt, in 21st with a time of 19-minutes, 21 seconds on the 5K course, and junior Kristin Johnson, in 23rd at 19:23, each earned regional accolades, but running their third large meet in as many weeks affected others, Schulz said.

Senior Julianne Quinn finished 100th in the 262-person field with a time of 20:37, Brittany Thomas was 198th at 21:51, Kaitlin Allen was 209th at 22:02, Grace Ouelette finished 219th at 22:11, and Becky Hersher was 237th at 22:30.

As a result, West finished behind eighth-place Kearsarge and ninth-place Manchester Central, two teams it beat a week earlier at the Meet of Champions.

Hanover, New Hampshire’s top team, rolled to the New England title as well, placing its seven runners in the top 40, including Georgia Griffin, who placed first in 18:31.

“Many times it’s just hard for girls in particular to run races like that three weeks in a row, and the body has to recover,” Schulz said. “And for some people, that’s harder for others.

“We didn’t have a goal, but it wasn’t a great race for the girls,” she added. “It wasn’t the high note we wanted to finish on.”

The New England invite was West’s second straight – a first in program history – but the Blue Knights couldn’t improve on last year’s 13th-place showing. West had made the regional meet as a team twice, Schulz said – first in 1982 when it finished in seventh and again in 1992 when it finished 11th.

West loses Quinn, Hersher and Haley Lydstone to graduation, but it still has high hopes for next season when it returns junior Jess Royal, who missed all of this season with an inflamed growth plate on her hip, Schulz said.

She was the Blue Knights’ fifth runner as a freshman.