Great Bend Post Sports
The wait may have been worth it for the Lady Panther track and field team. The Bob Camien/Claudia Welch meet at Topeka Seaman was originally scheduled for Friday but pushed back to Monday due to weather concerns last week. Needing certain marks to enter the meet, Great Bend scored 76 points to win the 22-team field. Manhattan finished a point behind in second and Blue Valley West scored 63 points for third.
The Lady Panthers set one, almost two school records. The 4x800 team of Eliana Beckham, Addy Nicholson, Kate Welcher, and Reese Bullard ran second in 9:39.52, more than a second behind the winners from Washburn Rural but 11 seconds faster than a season-best and six seconds under the record set by the Lady Panthers in 1997. Great Bend’s time ranks No. 2 in Class 5A this season, three seconds behind St. James Academy. The time is fourth best in Kansas this spring.
Senior Macy Nachtigal has led Class 5A in the javelin for much of the season. Monday, she reached a new personal best to beat the field by more than 13 feet at 141-4, the third-best throw in Kansas this spring. Rachel Komarek set the old school mark at 150-3 in 2000.
Senior Sadie Spray finished second in the high jump at 5-2, missing the gold by two inches. Junior Cassie Ellegood cleared 5-0 for fourth. Spray collected another silver in the 300m hurdles in 48.56 to miss the gold be less than a second. Spray’s time ranks No. 11 in Class 5A.
Beckham ran half a second off a season best in the 800m run to finish second in 2:22.00, nearly four seconds off the pace. Sophomore Sienna Smith ran seventh in 2:28.40, and Welcher placed 15th in 2:35.16.
The 3200m run Friday likely would have featured two of the best ever in Kansas. They were not in the mix Monday with Junction City freshman Anna Fontaine taking the gold in 11:28.90. Nicholson led a trio of Lady Panthers in second place in 11:46.77 to move to No. 11 in Class 5A. Junior Marissa Boone finished fifth in 12:04.41, and senior Morgan Beckwich placed sixth in 12:05.16.
Smith cut three seconds from a season-best in the 1600m run to place fifth in 5:36.42, 11 seconds behind the bronze. Freshman Bella Long ran 15th in 5:48.69, and freshman Teah King finished 19th in 5:54.50.
Great Bend’s 4x400m team of Spray, Beckham, Bullard, and Daizy Gomez finished sixth in 4:10.47, the best time of the season by more than a second. The Lady Panthers now rank No. 7 in Class 5A.
Great Bend had three competitors in the discus. Sophomore Kimberly Hofflinger paced the team in fifth on a throw of 115-0 to miss the bronze by five feet. Sophomore Natalee Daniels placed 13th at 102-7, and sophomore MacKenzie Lindberg finished 17th at 99-10.
The Lady Panthers also had three competitors in the shot put. Daniels led the way in 11th place on a throw of 33-8. Sophomore Allie Gerhart placed 13th at 33-2.25, and Hofflinger placed 24th at 29-5.25.
Sophomore Kaylea McMullen placed eighth in the pole vault at 8-0, three feet shy of the bronze. Junior Adelyn Irwin and freshman Kayle Baldwin tied for seventh at 7-0.
Ellegood led a trio of Lady Panther triple jumpers in 14th at 32-10.25. Junior Kara Feist placed 16th at 32-6.5, and junior Jordyn Harbaugh finished 22nd at 29-8.75.