By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Expectations for a team trophy after second and third-place finishes at the last two Kansas State High School Track and Field Championships may have been gone, but individual expectations were still high for the Great Bend High School athletes Friday and Saturday at Wichita State University's Cessna Stadium. The Panthers carried out those expectations, bringing home two individual championships and 13 state medals.
Freshman Cooper Ohnmacht, in just his first year of competition in the triple jump, completely dominated the event for his first state title. Ohnmacht entered the field as the No. 2 seed behind all-class leader Brandt Stupka, a junior from Andover Central. Ohnmacht's very first state effort went 47-3.5 to ultimately win the title by eight inches. Stupka had just one jump over 46 feet. Three of Ohnmacht's five jumps would have been enough for the 5A title. His state mark added nearly a foot to his school record. Ohnmacht ends the season as the best triple jumper in all of Kansas and is ranked No. 1 nationally among high school freshmen.
Ohnmacht again came out strong in the long jump Saturday morning. His first jump of 21-3.5 put in him in second place after a round of jumps. That proved to be his best mark of the competition as he fell to seventh place, just 1.25 inches out of fifth place. Aquinas junior Noah Allen won the gold by 1.5 inches at 22-8.
Great Bend's other state title came Saturday afternoon in the girls' javelin. Senior Macy Nachtigal spent virtually all season ranked No. 1 in the class, and her school-record throw of 141-4 ranked No. 5 all-class. After a throw of 104-7 to open the second flight, Nachtigal all but secured her state title with a second throw of 132-10. After a pair of fouls on her next two attempts and a throw past 130 feet, Nachtigal's sixth and final prep throw traveled 135-8. Hays sophomore Rylen Harrington won the silver at 132-3. Seaman senior Maggie Lesmeister placed third at 128-1.
Ranked No. 9 all-class in the 4x800m relay, the Lady Panthers were on the short list of title contenders in a loaded Class 5A Saturday morning. The team of seniors Eliana Beckham and Addy Nicholson, and sophomores Sienna Smith and Reese Bullard ran four seconds off a school record to place fifth in 9:43.08, just 0.05s behind fourth-place DeSoto. St. James Academy beat Andover by less than a second for the title in 9:32.10.
The 5A girls' 3200m race was much anticipated with two of the top-six runners of all-time in Kansas running head to head. Two Lady Panthers were part of the field Friday morning. Nicholson, a mainstay in the race, posted a personal best of 11:31.65 to secure fifth place by less than a second. Junior Marissa Boone settled for 16th in 12:11.37. Salina Central junior Katelyn Rupe stayed on the shoulder of Topeka Seaman sophomore Ryin Miller for the first six laps, pulling ahead late to win by 16 seconds in 10:18.09, the fastest state time ever in Kansas.
Great Bend's 800m runners also had to contend with Seaman's Miller. Coming off their school-record runs at the regional meet, Beckham and Bullard again ran neck and neck. Beckham finished seventh in 2:20.78, followed by Bullard in 2:20.91. Miller won the gold in 2:10.80 to miss the state meet record by more than two seconds.
Nicholson and Smith were part of the loaded 1600m field Saturday morning. Three runners ultimately come in under the 5A meet record, led by Seaman's Miller in 4:51.58. Nicholson's best time of the season would not have made the medal stand in the tough field. She ran 11 seconds off that mark to place 14th in 5:32.22. Smith finished 16th in 5:49.94, 19 seconds off a season-best.
Senior Sadie Spray had a timing problem as the girls' 300m hurdles preliminaries were set to begin just as the high jumpers were warming up. A state title in the 300s was unlikely as Eureka-turned-Maize South hurdler Ashley Singhateh broke a 25-year-old meet record in the finals, posting the fourth-fastest time ever in Kansas for the win in 43.13.
Spray false started in the prelims and turned her full attention to the high jump. With 5A leader Katie Linenberger no-heighting at the Great Bend regional meet a week earlier, the field was wide open. Ark City junior Kinzie Purdue was perfect until a miss at 5-4. She got the bar on her next attempt to secure the title. Salina South junior Tamia Cheeks cleared 5-4 on her final attempt for the silver medal. Spray, with a season best of 5-4, was one of three jumpers perfect through 5-2. All three failed three times at 5-4 for a 3-way tie for the bronze. Lady Panther junior Cassie Ellegood missed first attempts at 4-10, 5-0, and 5-2, but her second try at 5-2 earned her the sixth-place medal.
Spray also earned a state medal in the 4x400m relay. She joined forces with Reese Bullard, Eliana Beckham, and Daizy Gomez to run sixth in Friday's prelims in 4:07.22. The squad dropped to 4:08.87 in Saturday's final races of the season but maintained their sixth-place position, just 0.15s behind fifth-place Andover. St. James Academy won the race by five seconds in 3:57.41.
Lady Panther sophomore Allie Gerhart made her state debut in the shot put with a 14th-place finish at 32-6.5. Her first throw of the day proved to be her best as she missed the finals by just more than four feet.
The Panther 4x800m relay team of Braylon Moore, Diego Pasos, Tavon Stroup, and Alex Galindo finished 10th in that race Saturday morning. Great Bend finished in 8:22.84 to miss the final medal by five seconds. Two teams finished under eight minutes, including state champion DeSoto, which won in 7:52.88 to miss a 41-year-old state meet record by just 0.28s.
Panther sophomore Ismael Ramirez missed the final medal in the boys' 3200m race Friday morning by 20 seconds, but did cut more than 30 seconds off his best time of the year to place 14th in 10:02.73. Shawnee Heights' Jackson Esquibel, ranked No. 5 all-class, won the race in 9:21.
St. James Academy scored 83 points for a second-straight 5A girls' title. Salina Central scored 50 points to edge Andover by three spots for the second-place trophy. Great Bend scored 32 points for 10th, two spots behind ninth-place Hays. The Kapaun boys piled up 87 points with help from sprinter Jack Guthridge and his two golds and a silver. Blue Valley Southwest beat DeSoto 69-67 to finish second.