COMPLETE RESULTS

Great Bend junior Karen Razo started her 2015 cross country campaign with a slice of gold and a first place finish at Thursday’s Great Bend Invitational at Lake Barton. Razo timed in at 17:02 in the two mile run. Ashley Weingard (13th) and Ema Millard (18th) were the other two top 20 finishers with times of 19:15 and 19:38.

Team scores had the Panther girls finishing in fourth place with 85 points out of five teams with Garden City winning the event with 36 team points.

In the girls JV race Ruth Reyes (6th) and Emily Perez (10th) were top 20 finishers in times of 17:21 and 17:58.

“Karen had a great day winning the varsity race,” said coach Todd Kaiser. “She’s been working very hard early on this season and put in the work this summer to prepare herself for the season. Her time today was the eighth fastest time by a Panther runner on our course at Lake Barton. Just an all around great race for her.”

“Ashley also ran a good race today. She seems to be coming into form and we need her to keep improving throughout the season for our girls to be successful,” he said.

Depenbusch medaled with a bronze in the boys race in a time of 17:20. Teammate Eric Vasquez narrowly missed a medal by a fraction with a fourth place finish of 17:33. Isaiah Davis placed 18th in a time of 19:34.

Great Bend placed fourth out of six teams competing with 85 points while Garden City was crowned with the gold at 42 points in the boys race.

“Kerby and Eric went out and competed today,” Kaiser said. “This was probably the best race I’ve seen Eric run during his years in our program. He put in a lot of work this summer with Kerby preparing for the season and it’s paying off for him.”  

“Kerby and Eric are going to be the leaders of our team this year and we are also expecting leadership from Isaiah as well,” said the coach. “All three of them have extensive varsity experience and they need to keep leading our young team throughout the season.”

The Panthers will be in Wichita for their next race on Saturday, September 12.