Senior, Sophomore nab WAC Athlete of Year awards
Hays High’s Reanna Greene missed her junior year of competing in track in 2020.
Great Bend’s Kaiden Esfeld suffered the same situation in his freshman year with the Panthers a year ago.
Thank you COVID-19 pandemic.
With the 2020-21 school year motoring to its end the last week of May, those two track stars made their return to competition a memorable one.
And for their efforts, they have been named the Female and Male Track Athletes of the Year by the WAC coaches.
They both did it by dominating the WAC track championship in mid-May at Liberal.
Greene, finishing her final year at the prep level, won her two specialty jumps – the long (17-11) and the triple (36-00) while placing third in the 200-meter dash (27.58 secs.) and running one leg of the runner-up 4×100-meter relay team (51.15).
Esfeld, meanwhile, concluded an outstanding sophomore campaign, building on his cross country performance in the fall of 2020 (Boys WAC Runner of the Year in that sport) by getting a hat trick (3 wins) in his middle and longer distance races. He won the 1,600-meters in 4:51.39, the 800 in 2:06.40 and the 3,200-meters in 10:27.84.
Two weeks later, at their respective state meets in Wichita, Greene placed third in the 5A long jump (16-10.50) and fifth in the triple jump (36-00.75) while Esfeld was eighth in the Class 5A 1,600 (personal best 4:30.72) and then was 11th in the 800 (2:01.74) and 5th in the 3,200 (9:38.73).
REANNA GREENE, Hays High, Senior
When she was in the seventh grade, and beginning her first week of track and field practices, Reanna Greene wanted to take on the pole vault event, one in which an athlete plants a pole into a box, throws themselves into the air, makes a turn of the body and goes over a bar, with the hopes of clearing and then landing in a soft pit below.
That lasted all of one week for the recently graduated Hays High track standout.
“My coach gave me just that one week to try it out and then told me that he thought I should be doing the triple jump,” said Greene, who was voted the WAC’s Female Track Athlete of the Year by the league’s coaches after claiming victories in her two jump specialties – the triple and long.
Even entering her senior season, Greene had dreams of competing in another jump – the high jump – but once again her varsity coach insisted she do the events where she was the best, not the ones where she liked the most. It’s a funny story, she insisted.
“I knew it was a losing proposition and that coach would win,” Greene said with a laugh during a telephone interview. “Don’t tell him, though. I still wanted to high jump.”
But as she focused on her two events, Greene soared to new heights in her senior season, one that she has been most thankful and grateful to experience.
“When we found out that we weren’t going to be able to have a track season (2020 COVID-19 pandemic), it was like a piece of me was missing,” Greene said with a sigh. “Track has always been my favorite sport. I don’t think you realize what you’re missing until you don’t have it.”
Instead of doing nothing last spring, and even into the summer months, the self-motivated Greene headed to the track almost daily to do individual workouts. Taking some of the fundamentals of the sport that she had worked on for so many years, she practiced, practiced and practiced more.
“It just felt really good to do something positive,” Greene said. “I knew that I would be more happy doing that than doing nothing. There was a lot of individual work, no summer camps or meets to compete in.”
At this year’s WAC Championship in Liberal, that work paid off in dividends as she won the triple jump with a leap of 36-00 and the long jump with a mark of 17-11. She also ran one leg of the Hays High’s runner-up 4×100-meter relay team. She also took third in the 200-meters to help provide points for her team.
The individuality of the sport is not lost on Greene, who says if she doesn’t have a good day, it’s all on her to improve and work to be better. If she has a good day, then it’s one to feel good about and know the hard work has paid off.
“There’s nobody to blame if you have a bad meet,” she said. “And if you have a good meet, guess what? It’s you that accomplished it.”
Greene said the day of the WAC Championship, she and one of her teammates were standing on the field watching as the Hays High boys team was being awarded its trophy for winning. Then, without giving it any thought, the public address announcer was commenting about the Track Athlete of the Year awards.
“We heard my name being announced, and I just thought, ‘oh my gosh, it’s me!’ I was in shock,” Greene said. “I was frozen on the field. There were many other great athletes that I just didn’t think I would be chosen. It never was anything I thought about ahead of time.”
For Greene, the award capped off a year that she wasn’t even sure would happen when she thought back to the 2020 abandoned season.
“I just didn’t know how it would work out,” she said. “But it was a great ending to an already good day and a good year.”
Just before the busy month of May hit, Greene signed a letter-of-intent to attend Cloud County Community College in Concordia where she plans to compete in track next year. She thinks she might be able to expand her events from the two jumps into becoming a multi-athlete.
“It’s like a dream come true because since I was in fifth grade, my mom and I have always talked about the chance to compete in college,” Greene said. “I played volleyball my freshman season and basketball all four years, but track has always been the main sport for me.”
Academically, Greene hopes to eventually go to law school to pursue that profession.
“For someone who used to say she didn’t like school, I guess I’m choosing one that requires a lot of school,” Green said with a laugh. “I began to like the legal stuff when I started watching Criminal Minds and Forensic Files. It just seems like I’m really interested in that kind of stuff.”
KAIDEN ESFELD, Great Bend, Sophomore
Great Bend’s Esfeld said his first venture into high school running had proved to meet, perhaps even exceed, his original expectations.
“It’s been a really good year,” Esfeld said, harking back to the 2020 fall cross country season when he won the WAC championship to earn that sport’s Runner of the Year award. “The transition from the distance training to track takes a little time getting used to it. It takes all the months in between the season after taking two weeks off after cross country.”
When asked which sport he prefers, he confidently says the spring track season where he runs the 800, 1600 and 3200, calling the 800 more of a dash and the other two the runs that describe the approximate one and two-mile distances.
“The 800 is faster and it gives me an adrenaline rush,” Esfeld states. “The longer races, you see different runners at the middle points of races, and you have to stay focused on what your race is actually like.”
Of the three, Esfeld said he likes the 3,200-meters the best.
“It’s usually the one I perform best,” he said. “I can get in position to finish good and use the speed that I get from working on the 800. It’s not a lot of fun to run eight laps and stay focused on your times for each of those.”
During most of the regular season track meets, Esfeld runs the races in order of the 1600, 800 and then the 3200 just before the final relay of the day. At the state meet, however, the events are reversed – the 3200 coming early then allowing for more recovery time, the 1600 is still second and finishes off with the 800.
“I like it more that way,” he said. “You get the 3200 out of the way and can focus on the two shorter races much easier.”
Esfeld said his success this year has given him a greater appreciation for the mentor he had when he was in middle school – former Great Bend distance ace Kerby Depenbusch.
“He was the one that was having all the success with the distance races when I first started running,” Esfeld said. “I think I just wanted to be able to do some of the things he had done, so this is one of the rewards.”
Esfeld said he hopes that his next two years of high school running will allow him to inspire younger runners, too, become the new mentor to that next generation of Panther runners.
“Some day in the future, I hope somebody will say, ‘This kid can do that, too.’ He (Deppenschmidt) has been a great help to me.”
There are days, Esfeld said, that the training regimen is so tough that he wonders how he gets through those many miles.
“Winning WAC in the three events just reinforces that all the hard work is paying off,” Esfeld said. “Those days of asking ‘will this ever help?’ is now allowing me to get what I wanted. I didn’t get to run my freshman year (track) and I’ve gotten a lot better with the mental approach and my running form.”
Remaining calm and relaxed is something that Esfeld says he continues to work to improve.
“The mentality of running is one of the biggest challenges,” he said. “I like that I can run three different events because it provides some variety and keeps things interesting.”
Coach of the Year awards went to Lyles Lashley of Great Bend for the girls and Tony Crough of Hays High for the boys.
2021 All-WAC Track & Field Teams
Girls First Team
| Event | Name | School |
|---|---|---|
| High jump | Mersadie Spray | Great Bend |
| Pole vault | McKenna Jagels | Garden City |
| Long jump | Reanna Greene | Hays |
| Triple jump | Reanna Greene | Hays |
| Discus throw | Taryn Warren | Great Bend |
| Javelin throw | Kisa Unruh | Dodge City |
| Shot put | Taryn Warren | Great Bend |
| 100m hurdles | Hadley Williams | Dodge City |
| 300m hurdles | Hadley Williams | Dodge City |
| 100m dash | Hannah Phipps | Garden City |
| 200m dash | Hannah Phipps | Garden City |
| 400m dash | Alex Gere | Dodge City |
| 800m run | Allie Strandmark | Garden City |
| 1600m run | Allie Strandmark | Garden City |
| 3200m run | Emilia Diaz | Great Bend |
| 4x100m relay | Hadley Williams | Dodge City |
| Alex Gere | ||
| Kisa Unruh | ||
| Kya Edwards | ||
| 4x400m relay | Eliana Beckham | Great Bend |
| Mersadie Spray | ||
| Emma Loomis | ||
| Daizy Gomez | ||
| 4x800m relay | Eliana Beckham | Great Bend |
| Olivia Rugan | ||
| Hannah Loomis | ||
| Emma Loomis |
Girls Coach of the Year: Lyles Lashley, Great Bend
Boys First Team
| Event | Name | School |
|---|---|---|
| High jump | Jordan Dale | Hays |
| Pole vault | Tucker Veach | Hays |
| Long jump | Jaren Kanak | Hays |
| Triple jump | Oliver Dominguez | Great Bend |
| Discus throw | Trey Adams | Hays |
| Javelin throw | Nate Brooks | Hays |
| Shot put | Trey Adams | Hays |
| 110m hurdles | Brandon Springston | Garden City |
| 300m hurdles | Malcolm Wiltshire | Liberal |
| 100m dash | Jaren Kanak | Hays |
| 200m dash | Vincent Ortiz | Dodge City |
| 400m dash | Erich Ortiz | Liberal |
| 800m run | Kaiden Esfeld | Great Bend |
| 1600m run | Kaiden Esfeld | Great Bend |
| 3200m run | Kaiden Esfeld | Great Bend |
| 4x100m relay | Easton Zapien | Liberal |
| Erich Ortiz | ||
| Darius Archuleta | ||
| Embry Williams | ||
| 4x400m relay | Daniel Amparan | Liberal |
| Alex Lopez | ||
| Darius Archuleta | ||
| AJ Ramirez | ||
| 4x800m relay | Alex Lopez | Liberal |
| Edwin Murillo | ||
| Darius Archuleta | ||
| AJ Ramirez |
Boys Coach of the Year: Tony Crough, Hays
