Great Bend Post
Kaiden Esfeld’s effort puts the strength of Friday’s big track meet at Topeka Seaman in perspective. The Panther senior recently broke a 55-year-old school record by running the 1600m run in 4:20. Friday, his time of 4:25.75 was good for a distant third. Great bend scored 19 points for 14th in a field of 22 teams spanning five of the six classifications in Kansas.
Esfeld entered Friday’s 1600m race as the 5A leader. Topeka West’s Lenny Njoroge claimed the gold by half a second in 4:17.71 to take over the class lead. Tavon Stroup placed 23rd for the Panthers in 4:53.42. Njoroge and Esfeld ran their best times of the season in the 3200m run. Njoroge won by six seconds in 9:20.08 to lead 5A. Esfeld placed fourth in 9:38.63 to move to No. 4 in the class. Stroup placed 24th in 10:37.69.
Madison Regehr ran the 110m hurdle prelims in 16.20 to claim a spot in the final eight but did run in the finals. He did not compete in the 300s. Olathe North’s Parrish brothers, who lead all of Kansas this spring, split the races.
The sprints featured several of the best sprinters in Kansas this spring. Cayden Scheuerman finished 16th in the 100m dash prelims to miss the finals by 0.18. seconds. He ran 14th in the 200m dash prelims in 23.15 to miss the finals by a third of a second.
Alex Galindo posted his best time of the season in the 800m run in 2:09.33. That was good for 20th place in a tough field that included two of the state’s best runners from Wamego, who both finished under two minutes.
Senior Mathew Moeder led the Panthers with a silver medal in the field. He reached a new season best with a 168-2 throw in the javelin. Moeder ranks No. 4 in Class 5A this spring, and Washburn Rural junior Josh Sulzen-Watson needed the third-best throw in Class 6A of 175-1 to beat him Friday.
Moeder placed 13th in the shot put with a throw of 44-10.25, four-plus feet from the bronze. Lansing senior Jamale Williams, who ranks No. 2 in Kansas this spring, just missed his best throw of the year for the win by six-plus feet at 56-11.5. Danny Nieto finished 13th in the discus at 126-3 to miss the bronze by 11 feet. Williams, also ranked No. 2 across all classes, missed his best mark by 30 feet but still took the gold by 27 feet at 166-1.