By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Injuries decimated the Panther track team in the final two weeks of the regular season. Still, Great Bend will have several athletes headed to Wichita next week for the KSHSAA Track and Field Championships.
Hays dominated the field events all season. Three Indians punched their ticket to state in the javelin Thursday. Mathew Moeder broke up a Hays sweep with the bronze on a throw of 159-2. The top-two throws each went past 173 feet. Matthew Johnson threw as far as 144-0 for seventh, eight feet from state qualification.
The top-four spots in the 1600m run proved to be quite competitive. The pack sprinted down the back stretch, separated by just 1.5 seconds. Panther senior Kaiden Esfeld secured the bronze in 4:26.87 to miss the silver by 0.86 seconds.
Esfeld won another gold in the 800m run, crossing in 1:59.65 to secure the gold by more than a second. Esfeld completed the sweep with the 3200m gold by better than a second in 9:54.14. Tavon Stroup ran ninth in that race in 10:55.38.
With just four teams in the 4x800m relay race, all were headed to state. Ramiro Rocho, Alex Galindo, Braylon Moore, and Pedro Enriquez ran fourth in 8:48.83, six seconds behind the bronze medalists from Salina Central.
Maddox Spray came close to qualification in the high jump. Two jumpers made it to state at 5-10. Spray was one of two jumpers to tie for sixth at 5-8.