Great Bend’s 2023 track and field season opener was not ideal. Wind, rain, and even hail played a factor Friday afternoon in Junction City. But the Lady Panthers made the most of the adversity, scoring 152 points to dominate the meet 36 points ahead of second-place Manhattan. The script flipped on the boys’ side with Manhattan scoring 175 points, and Great Bend finishing second with 114.5 points to beat third-place Salina Central by 10 points.
The Lady Panthers picked up several golds on the day. Junior Eliana Beckham won the 800m run by eight seconds in 2:35.29. Kate Welcher ran third in 2:45.40, and Cassie Ellegood placed fourth in 2:46.24. The Great Bend distance runners saw the state’s best in Salina Central sophomore Katelyn Rupe. Addy Nicholson placed third in the 1600m run in 6:04.13, eight seconds behind the silver. She ran third in the 3200m run in 12:42.73, 15 seconds out of second.
Many of Class 5A’s top hurdlers were in action at the meet. Hutchinson’s Anne Cullens, a state champion out of 4A’s Wellington and the current state leader, won the 100s in 14.17. Lady Panther junior Makenzie Premer followed in 16.38, and Hailey Peterson ran sixth in 18.41. Cullens won the 300s in 46.09, followed by Lady Panther junior Sadie Spray in 48.79, and Premer in 49.90 for the bronze.
All three relays performed well. The 4x400 team won by five seconds in 4:14.79. The 4x100 squad placed second, less than a second from the god in 53.14. The 4x800 team raced only against Manhattan, finishing two seconds behind the pace in 10:57.70.
The high jumpers continued their dominance. Spray and Valarie Luna each cleared 5-2 to win the tough field. Ellegood cleared 5-0 for fourth place.
Senior Kyndall Blessing led the throwers with a gold in the javelin, beating the field by 16 feet on a toss of 127-1. Freshman Miya Nachtigal placed fifth at 100-7. Blessing finished fifth in the shot on a throw of 32-3.25 to miss the bronze by two feet. Rylie Duvall finished 10th with a throw of 28-8.5.
Regehr leads boys with pair of golds
Senior Madison Regehr, fresh off his signing to Cloud
County Community College, paced the boys with a pair of golds in the hurdle
events. He won the 100s by half a second in 15.78, and posted one of the top
times in Kansas to win the 300s by more than two seconds in 41.27. Regehr was
also part of the 4x400m team that won the silver in 3:32.83, just 0.07 seconds
behind the winners from Manhattan.
Cayden Scheuerman saw tough competition in the sprints, nearing a sub-11 time with the 100m dash bronze in 11.01. He ran fourth in the 200m dash in 22.83, just 0.05 seconds behind the bronze. Junior Ramiro Rocho ran strong in the 400m dash, finishing third in 56.61 to miss the silver by 0.16 seconds.
Senior Kaiden Esfeld won a pair of silvers in the mid-distance events. His 800m time of 2:06.27 came up four seconds shy of the gold, and he ran 4:45.99 in the 1600m run to miss the win by six seconds.
In the field, senior Oliver Dominquez made a strong debut in the triple jump with the win by 10 inches at 42-9.5. Scheuerman reached 20-0 in the long jump to miss the bronze by four inches.
Senior Mathew Moeder collected the javelin gold by 13-plus feet on a throw of 164-5. Junior Matthew Johnson finished fourth at 124-6 to miss the bronze by less than three feet. Moeder’s shot put toss of 43-1.5 was good enough for sixth, two-plus feet short of the bronze.