Hosting the Western Athletic Conference cross-country meet at Barton Lake, the Great Bend High School boys’ team finished third overall with 66 points.
The Lady Panthers seized fourth with 89.
“We had two of our girls finish in the top 10,” GBHS head coach Todd Kaiser said. “That’s good. Karen (Razo) was right there at 12th, but we just got to get rid of the gap between our third and fourth runners if we’re going to have success, but looking at the times, we ran some pretty solid times.
“The boys finished third, which was good. I knew that Liberal and Garden City were going to be tough.”
Garden City won the girls’ title, and Liberal earned the boys championship.
Cristian Garcia led the Panthers, placing fourth with a time of 16 minutes, 49.5 seconds. Finishing in the top 5, he earned first-team All-WAC status.
Christian Graham finished in sixth place (17:13.34). He was named honorable mention all-conference runner for finishing in the top 10.
“It was good for Cristian Garcia to finish in fourth place for all-conference,” Kaiser said. “He was all-conference as a freshman, so it was nice for him to finish his senior year as all-conference.
“Christian Graham was so close, sixth place, but he still ended up all-conference honorable mention. He’s got all sorts of stuff to be proud of for that.”
Kaitlynn Tuey crossed the finish line at 16:39.77 for eighth, and Mariah Stein came in right behind her at 16:40.80 for ninth. Both earned honorable mention All-WAC honors.
“Kaitlynn and Mariah were honorable mention all-conference,” Kaiser said, “which is good. Our first three runners have been solid all year long. Hopefully, before regionals we can get our fourth and fifth runners up with them. It’s a pretty stacked regional on the girls’ side.”
Great Bend’s next challenge is a Class 5A regional meet, which will be held at Newton on Saturday, Oct. 26. The girls’ race starts at 2 p.m., and boys follow at 2:30.
 
HIGH SCHOOL CROSS-COUNTRY
Western Athletic Conference

Thursday

At Great Bend
Barton Lake

GIRLS

Team scores
1. Garden City, 21; 2. Dodge City, 66; 3. Liberal, 75; 4. Great Bend, 89; 5. Hays, 102

Top 10 finishers
1. Alexanda Miller, Garden City, 15:20.48; 2. Chelsea Miller, Garden City, 15:28.55; 3. Kayla Doll, Garden City, 15:47.47; 4. Kathryn Doll, Garden City, 16:06.85; 5. Mercy Perez, Liberal, 16:15.53; 6. Jasmine Duarte, Dodge City, 16:17.53; 7. Marie Reveles, Hays, 16:25.00; 8. Kaitlynn Tuey, Great Bend, 16:39.77; 9. Mariah Stein, Great Bend, 16:40.80; 10. Camryn Slatten, Liberal, 16:41.61

Great Bend results
12. Karen Razo, 16:57.55; 29. Grace Ball, 18:45.04; 31. Faith Pumford, 18:52.08; 33. Abby Stiner, 19:51.87; 34. Sarah Niederee, 20:00.21

Great Bend JV result
44. Stevee Nily, 20:43.17

BOYS

Team scores
1. Liberal, 38; 2. Garden City, 48; 3. Great Bend, 66; 4. Hays, 82; 5. Dodge City, 109

Top 10 finishers
1. Obed Quintana, Liberal, 16:36.82; 2. Marcus Tula, Garden City, 16:38.50; 3. Erik Chaparro, Garden City, 16:42.99; 4. Christian Garcia, Great Bend, 16:49.50; 5. Sammy Obando, Liberal, 17:07.99; 6. Christian Graham, Great Bend, 17:13.34; 7. Ray Urbina, Garden City, 17:43.98; 8. Luis Medina, Liberal, 17:26.23; 9. Emilio Tovilla, Liberal, 17:33.54; 10. Jesus Reyes, Garden City, 17:43.98

Great Bend results
12. Cole Mulch, 17:50.64; 17. Bobby Chavez, 18:05.76; 27. Adam Jacobs, 18:36.62; 28. Isaiah Davis, 18:38.74; 30. Eric Vavquez, 19:01.94

Great Bend JV results
7. Brett Basye, 18:52.29; 69. Marcos Martinez, 23:18.75; 80. Francesco Ruggeri, 24:35.25; 86. Nate Dawes, 27:23.01; 87. Easton Hirsch, 27:52.14