LAWRENCE — Great Bend’s Kerby Depenbusch finished 21st (17:00.7) in the Class 5A state cross country meet at Rim Rock Farm Saturday. The Great Bend girls placed 12th with 320 team points.
“Kerby just missed earning all state honors, ending up in 21st,” said Great Bend coach Todd Kaiser. “He’s been battling a stomach issue throughout the season and today he was in some pain. He’s disappointed, but I know a healthy Kerby would have placed much better in the race.”
Armando Jaquez placed 59th (17:45.2) and Eric Vazquez placed 63rd (17:51.4).
“Eric and Armando both ran well,” Kaiser said. “Armando took off over 45 seconds off his time. He’s had a very good last half of the season. We have all three of them back next year.”
Karen Razo led the girls with a 52nd-place finish (21:20.6). She was joined by teammates Paloma Sandoval, 76th (22:24.7); Madison Bittner, 90th (23:10.7); Autumn Weingrad, 94th (23:50.5); Ashley Weingrad, 96th (23:56.3); Emma Millard, 99th (24:31.2); and Ruth Rayes, 101st (25:21.0).
“We had a number of girls who showed improvement in their times from when we ran here at the end of September,” Kaiser said. “Team wise, I hoped we could maybe beat one or two teams, but our girls team were not expected to be here. So, competing as a team at the state meet is a big highlight to their season.”
Kaiser said the outlook for 2016 is promising.
“Overall this season, our teams, were relatively young and inexperienced but they came together at the right time,” Kaiser said. “We will be getting most of them back next year. With the addition of the incoming freshman next year, both teams teams have the opportunity to be very good.”