By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Seven lanes of track were part of the deal. The eighth will be a bonus. Last November, the USD 428 Board of Education approved up to $2 million for track and turf replacement at Great Bend High School's Memorial Stadium. During the process, Hellas Corporation, the contractor doing the work, informed the district an eighth lane could be added to the track at a cost comparable to laying turf in that area. Panther Track and Field Coach Lyles Lashley said it's a big win for the community.
"You can host a region even with seven lanes but it's kind of frowned upon," he said. "At our home meets, especially the JV and middle school meets when you have a ton of entries, when you throw an extra person out there each race, you eliminate four or five heats. It just speeds up the meet itself. The nice thing for the community is we can host the region meet and bring in 9-10 teams again that will eat here in Great Bend and spend money here."
Additional shot put and discus rings will also help attract a regional meet. Installation of the new turf is expected to be complete before the first home football game though the track may take longer. The track will be red with black exchange zones, and a new "D zone" on the north end of the stadium will better accommodate high jumpers better than the pit previously used on the south end.
"It was such a small thing, and we had a sewage thing right in the middle of it, so it was hard to justify hosting a region meet with that high jump mat," Lashley said. "You get those big high jumpers out there, they need a nice, big approach. For our junior high meets, we can set up two pits on that end and run that junior high meet faster."
The new lane should add approximately four feet of width to the inside of the track. Once the track is installed, a company will come out to hand-paint all the lines and markings. "He can lane that track in like an hour," said Lashley. "When you do the other stuff, like the markings for the hurdles, that takes a long, long time."