JUNCTION CITY- Battling against a six-team lineup including schools from the Topeka and Kansas City areas, Great Bend boys track and field saddled a first place finish at Friday’s Junction City Invitational. Meanwhile the Great Bend girls team wrapped up competition with a fourth slot in the final standings with 80, one seed above Shawnee Heights at 78.

The Panther boys finished Good Friday with 127 team points outperforming the runner up, Shawnee Heights,by 20.

“It was a good meet for us. The kids did a good job of competing in the cool weather conditions,” said coach Todd Kaiser. “It was a competitive meet and was a good test for us as a team and I thought everybody responded well for the most part.”

In competition from the field, Jayce Brack picked up first place titles in the shot put and discus with throws of 57 and 169.5 ft.

On the track, Jeffery Muiruri took gold in the 300 intermediate hurdles timing in at 17.42 beating fellow Panther Ty Yager by only six one-hundredths of a second. Muiruri also won the crown in the 100 meter high hurdles at 17.42 while Mason Sateren placed second at 17.94.

In the 3200 and 1600 meter running events, Kerby Depenbusch came in at first and second respectively with times of 10:17.14 and 4:37.71

In the 4x800 meter relay, Vazquez, Mason YellowWolf, Quinton Elliot and Isaiah Davis took the top spot timing in at 8:37.45.

Other boys performances:

4 x 100m RELAY  
3rd place in a time of 45.27
(Bobbitt, Carrasco, Yager, Falk)

4 x 400m RELAY  
3rd place in a time of 3:34.97
(Carrasco, Davis, Yager, YellowWolf)

400m RUN
Antonio Carrasco; 3rd place in a time of 51.77

800m RUN
Eric Vazquez; 3rd place in a time of 2:11.32

“Overall, the boys team is coming together nicely,” said coach Kaiser. “We have some depth this year and it’s allowing us to do a number of things with our athletes to put them in a position to have some success.”

In the girls competition, LaCora Bryant placed first in the 100 meter dash at 12.97 while Camryn Dunekack was first in the 400 meter at 1:00.75.

In field events, Dunekack grabbed a first place finish in the high jump with a leap of 4.10 ft. Kate Warren placed first in the discus at 108.3 ft.

Other girls performances:

4 x 800m RELAY
2nd place in a time of 10:37.38
(Lagerman, Stein, Razo, Williams)

4 x 400m RELAY
2nd place in a time of 4:24.60
(Lagerman, Bryant, Moyers, Dunekack)

3200m RUN
Mary Williams; 3rd place in a time of 12:56.88

800m RUN
Kaylan Lagerman; 2nd place in a time of 2:29.58

“Our girls are great competitors,” said Kaiser. “We have a lot more options we can do with them to help our team succeed. We had a number of kids who had some season best performances,” Kaiser said. “I was happy to see that, considering the cool, windy conditions we had at this meet.”

Next action for the boys and girls teams will be April 9-10 at KT Woodman in Wichita.