Great Bend Post Sports
Points were at a premium for the Panther boys at Thursday's Western Athletic Conference Championships in Dodge City. Hays won the team title with 121 points, followed by Garden City with 86 and Dodge City with 72. Great Bend finished fifth with 35 points.
Freshman Cooper Ohnmacht did most of the damage in the jumps. Coming off a school-record triple jump of 46-5-5 -one of just two marks beyond 46 feet this spring in Kansas - Ohnmacht won the WAC title at 45-4. Hays junior Kamani Jones, a regional and likely state competitor, took the silver at 44-0. Sophomore Kellen Brown placed fourth for Great Bend at 41-1.5 to miss the bronze by eight inches, and junior Ben Nicholson finished 10th at 37-8. Ohnmacht also won the long jump title by three inches at 20-9.25. Brown placed 10th at 18-2.
The Panther 4x8 team of Braylon Moore, Diego Pasos, Tavon Stroup, and Ismael Ramirez cut 12 seconds off a season-best to win the title by three seconds in 8:25.66. Great Bend's time is the eighth-fastest in Class 5A this spring. The 4x4 team of Moore, Pasos, Pedro Enriquez, and Ramiro Rocho finished fourth in 3:39.37, four seconds behind the bronze.
Moore ran fourth in the 800m run in 2:04.08 to miss the bronze by less than a second. Ramirez placed 10th in 2:10.84, and senior Alex Galindo finished 12th in 2:14.55. Stroup ran fifth in the 3200m run in 10:30.34 to miss the bronze by 14 seconds.
Sophomore Conner Holliday led the Panther throwers with a bronze medal in the discus at 139-7, just two inches from the silver. Senior Jorge Pena placed ninth on a throw of 113-9.
Other finishes:
200m dash: 12. Pedro Enriquez 58.34
300m hurdles: 7. Ernan Rodriguez 44.75
Shot put: 11. Jorge Pena 38-11, 12. Conner Holliday 38-1.5.
Great Bend will host a Class 5A regional on Thursday, May 16. The top four finishers from each event will qualify for the state track and field championships the following week in Wichita. Field events begin at 2 p.m. with track prelims to begin at 5 p.m.