EL DORADO — This was the second-to-last meet before the Class 5A cross-country regional meet, so Great Bend High School is focused on final preparations for the postseason as they competed at the El Dorado Invitational.
A lot of GBHS runners made personal records at the meet, and overall, head coach Todd Kaiser said he was pleased.
“On the girls’ side, a lot of them ran their (personal record), and we usually run well on this course,” Kaiser said. “They finished in the middle of the pack and were running well.
“The boys, just about everyone ran a PR.”
Great Bend’s girls finished in ninth place with 239 points. The boys finished in 10th at 222 points.
Kerby Depenbusch was the top Panthers finisher, placing second at 16:01.
The next two runners were inside the top 50 with another finishing in 51st place.
“Kerby ran well,” Kaiser said. “He was close to breaking 16 minutes. We just got to get packed up better in the front third of the pack.
“Kerby’s going to do what Kerby does. We need our two through five runners to get packed up better. If we can do that and really go at the runners we need to go for, we have a shot of extending our season.”
Mary Williams was the top finisher for the girls, placing 20th with a time of 16:07.
Karen Razo placed 25th at 16:34.
“We just need our No. 5 runner back,” Kaiser said. “We need to close some gaps a little bit. If we do that, we have a chance to move on to the state meet.
“Mary had a good time. Karen and Mariah (Stein) each ran a good race. Paloma (Sandoval) was strong as our No. 4 runner, but we just need to get our No. 5 runner up there, too.”
Great Bend heads to Hays on Thursday for the Western Athletic Conference meet. The first race is slated for 4 p.m.
 
— Kevin Price

PREP CROSS-COUNTRY
El Dorado Invitational
 
Saturday
 
At El Dorado
 
GIRLS
 
Team scores
1. Bishop Carroll, 78; 2. Wichita North, 107; 3. Wichita KMC, 123l; 4. Wichita NW, 127; 5. Wichita East, 137; 6. Junction City, 156; 7. Garden City, 169; 8. Winfield, 221; 9. Great Bend, 239; 10. Derby, 240; 11. El Dorado, 274; 12. Hutchinson, 278; 13. Newton, 313; 14. McPherson, 355; 15. Campus, 366; 16. Arkansas City, 392
 
GBHS varsity results
20. Mary Williams, 16:07; 25. Karen Razo, 16:34; 47. Mariah Stein, 17:01; 56. Paloma Sandoval, 17:23; 100. Ashley Weingrad, 19:08; 108. Abby Stiner, 19:54
 
GBHS JV results
85. Stevee Nily, 20:32; 89. Makinna Dykes, 20:39; 97. Kira Cook, 21:05; 116. Katelyn Scherer, 22:07
 
BOYS
 
Team scores
1. Garden City, 46; 2. Wichita North, 118; 3. Newton, 126; 4. Campus, 130; 5. Hutchinson, 168; 6. Bishop Carroll, 191; 7. Wichita KMC, 206; 8. Wichita East, 210; 9. Junction City, 221; 10. Great Bend, 222; 11. Wichita SE, 236; 12. Derby, 246; 13. Wichita South, 265; 14. El Dorado,  296; 15. Wichita NW, 366; 16. McPherson, 421
 
GBHS varsity results
2. Kerby Depenbusch, 16:01; 36. Eric Vazquez, 17:33; 49. Adam Jacobs, 17:52; 51. Cole Mulch, 17:55; 91. Isaiah Davis, 18:48; 107. Antonio Carrasco, 20:16; 108. Jeffery Muiruri, 20:18
 
GBHS JV results
66. Anthony Martinez, 20:13
 
GBHS ‘C’ team results
26. Alex Banda, 23:02; 35. Nate Dawes, 24:48; 39. Jordan Boone, 25:25; 41. Eli Hutchinson, 25:28