BY JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com

LAKE BARTON — The plan for Great Bend medalist Addy Nicholson and runner-up Marissa Boone worked to perfection. The Panthers nearly pulled off a 1-2-3 finish with fourth-place Eliana Beckham.

Great Bend's girls (37) beat Garden City (43) to win the Lake Barton Invitational for the second consecutive year Thursday.

On a demanding morning with an 84-degree heat index, Nicholson (20:41.3) and Boone (20:51.0) ran side-by-side the entire race. Garden City's Natalie Guevara (21:23.8) edged Beckham (21:36.3) for third place.

A vastly-improved Nicholson improved her Lake Barton time by 66 seconds from 2021 while Boone sliced 38 seconds off her time last year.

"Coach (Lyles) Lashley coached us to run a nice, solid first half and work the second half and hopefully hit 1-2-3," Nicholson said. "Marissa really helped push me. It's nice to have someone running with you. I struggled the first half. I kept thinking Marissa would take the lead. By the third mile, I finished stronger. We worked together as a team."

Boone, with the heart of a champion, is building off a successful freshman season.

"The plan was for us to finish 1-2-3," Boone said. "We all pushed each other. We broke away from Eliana after the second mile. I ran good and stayed with Addy for the most part. I worked the second mile like we wanted. We worked the second half and powered up the hills, which was one of our team goals."

Great Bend coach Lyles Lashley saw a good starting point to build momentum.

"Our girls ran decent, a good starting point. Finishing 1-2-4 was good," Lashley said. "The others 4-5-6 ran about where we thought they would. They'll work to get a little bit closer to the other girls and go from there."

LAKE BARTON 5K

GIRLS TEAM SCORES—1—Great Bend 37; 2—Garden City 43; 3—Hays High 54; 4—Derby 105; 5—Buhler 132; 6—McPherson 151; 7—Dodge City 158

TOP 10 MEDALISTS—1—Nicholson, GB, 20:41.3; 2—Boone, GB, 20:51.0; 3—Guevara, GC, 21:23.8; 4—Beckham, GB, 21;36.3; 5—Sosa, GC, 21;47.8; 6—Maldanado, HH, 21:49.3; 7—Hula, Derby, 21:49.4; 8—Clevenger, Mc, 21:56.8; 9—Wiese, GC, 21:59.2; 10—Albers, HH, 22;12.8

GREAT BEND—11—King, 22:15.2; 21—Welcher, 23:03.4; 23—Smith, 23:10.9; 24—Beckwith, 23:14.7; 30—Siefkes, 23:28.7; 58—Piedra, 27:06.6 

C TEAM GIRLS—1—Herrera, DC, 16:39.1

JV GIRLS (5K)—1—Self, Derby, 21:38.5; 41—Reever, OB, 33:10.1