WICHITA — After only competing in three meets this season with the team, Kaylie Doll left Friday’s portion of the Class 6-1A state track and field championships with a Great Bend High School record and a second-place finish in the triple jump.
Doll turned in a jump of 37 feet, five inches.
“I’m really excited,” Doll said. “My goal was 37 feet, and I got over that, and it felt really good.”
Doll, a junior, said after her first jump that she knew she could reach her goal.
“With my first jump at 36-11, I knew I could make it,” Doll said. “It feels amazing. I’m on top of the world right now.”
Doll entered the competition as the No. 4 seed, but was able to finish ahead of all of her competition, except for Emporia’s Oasis Hernandez.
Hernandez, a senior, soared a distance of 40-7¾.
Great Bend head coach Bo Black was obviously pleased with her performance.
“That was the best she’d ever jumped, obviously,” Black said. “It beat the previous record by an inch. It’s exciting and a lot of fun to watch.”
Doll spent the spring season playing for the Great Bend softball team, but after the Lady Panthers fell 4-3 against Goddard in a 5A regional championship game, she jumped at a chance to compete again with the track team.

Doll was a fifth-place finisher at the state meet as a freshman, jumping 35-8½.

“She’d been practicing with us off-and-on throughout the season,” Black said. “She’d practice on her own sometimes. We just couldn’t get her to any meets that didn’t interfere with softball.
“Being able to do what she does as a softball player is really amazing.”