No question about it – Great Bend girls keep on runnin’

Lady Panthers breeze to fourth straight WAC XC crown

Those are two critical ingredients to winning in sports.

Veteran Great Bend girls’ cross country coach Lyles Lashley knows this formula all too well, and once again it proved successful as he watched his Lady Panthers pounce on the other four Western Athletic Conference schools at the conference championship in Hays on Oct. 17.

Despite not claiming the individual title, which went to Garden City senior Cate Wiese (see story below), the Lady Panthers dominated the rest of the placings as they finished 2-3-4-5-8-9-12 to easily take the team title with 22 points.  Dodge City was a distant second with 57 points while Garden City occupied third with 69 points. Liberal (111) and Hays (127) rounded out the team scores.

Teegan Guerra clocked in at 15:37.32 to finish back of Garden’s Wiese’s 15:19.97 and she was followed by senior Marissa Boone (168:08.49), sophomore Bella Long (16:11.98) and junior Sienna Smith (16:28.22). Sophomore Teah King placed eighth (16:58.91) and senior Kate Welcher was ninth (17:10.07). Freshman Samantha Neegard took 12th (17:15.84), giving all seven runners either a first or second-team all-WAC selection.

For Lashley, the WAC title was the fourth consecutive and his seniors went out as the four-peat champions.

“They’ve been quiet leaders this year,” Lashley said of Marissa Boone and Kate Welcher. “They lead more by example. Marissa would run through a wall for you.”

Lashley credited his returners from 2023 in junior Sienna Smith and three sophomores – Teegan Guerra, Bella Long and Teah King — for adding in the depth to the team  and then bringing freshman Samantha Neegard as the No. 7 runner.

“They’ve all contributed greatly to the team’s success,” Lashley said. “We’re fortunate to get a good group committed. Those that ran especially well are the ones that put in the hard work during the summer.”

It’s that summer training that provides the foundation for the success enjoyed in the fall, Lashley said.

Some of those underclassmen were on the junior varsity squad in 2023 when Lashley had four seniors on the WAC championship roster.

“Those newcomers were very much a key for us and they’ve helped tremendously,” Lashley said. “I think going in (to the season) we knew we had an opportunity to have another good season.”

And if anyone thinks that things will change for 2025, one might think again. With just two seniors graduating, five of his current team will return.

“Plus, we’ve got a couple of good eighth graders coming up as freshmen next year,” Lashley said. “When you see kids put in a lot of hard work in the summer, it usually pays off.”

Despite the recent dominance in the WAC, Lashley says he doesn’t take anything for granted.

“The WAC has been deep many of the years, especially in cross country,” Lashley said.

While most of the races are now 5-kilometers (3.1 miles), the WAC is run at 4-kilometers.

“I don’t think it makes a world of difference,” Lashley said. “Two of my runners are two-milers in track so it’s not that much different. I don’t think one is more difficult than the other.”

With a roster of 10, Lashley has just enough runners to keep the runners hungry to earn on of the seven varsity spots.

“We’ve been fortunate to have a balance in our classes so we don’t lose the entire team in one year,” Lashley said. “It’s another good group that works hard and it’s always good to see that pay off with their success.”

What did prove to be successful once again for Lashleyi’s girls’ team was its depth as sophomore Teegan Guerra led a contingent of finishers from second through fifth and then eighth, ninth and 12th.

The WAC schools should also not expect the Panthers to go away in 2025 as there are only two seniors on the current squad — Boone and Welcher. Smith is the lone junior, Guerra, Long and KIng are sophomores while Neegard is a freshman. Boone was a four-time first-team all-WAC honoree.

The top seven finishers in the WAC championship are automatic all-WAC selections to the first team and runners finishing eighth through 14 comprise the second team all-WAC.

Liberal’s Janaya Devorce and Dodge City’s Krishna Perez Martinez were the other two first-team selections. 

Garden City’s Cate Wiese steps up to claim WAC Runner of Year honor

It has been, at times, a somewhat frustrating high school career for Garden City senior Cate Wiese.

At least that’s how she mildly described her disappointments of her sophomore and junior cross country seasons after earning all-Western Athletic Conference second team honors as a freshman in 2021. 

While she climbed up to the first team all-WAC in 2022, she placed sixth individually only to see her junior campaign result in a second team selection.

All those frustrations, disappointments or how one wants to categorize them, came to a happy ending on Oct. 17 at Hays’ Ellis County Fairgrounds when Wiese outdueled a contingent of Great Bend runners to claim the WAC cross country crown, giving her the Runner of the Year award.

“I did my first winter training and then added in spring track and summer training,” said Wiese, who on Oct. 17 claimed the prestigious WAC Runner of the Year honors by winning the championship at Hays’ Ellis County Fairgrounds. “That helped me build a base and those were the two biggest things that changed the way I committed to running better.”

Wiese, who will sign a letter-of-intent in mid-November to attend Fort Hays State University, said she was so excited to be able to finally break through and finish ahead of the Great Bend runners.

“A lot of what I went through is mental and I think for the first three years I had a mental block,” Wiese said. “Now, I can look at the final two weeks (regional and state) to finish out on a successful note.”

Wiese credited a mid-season race at Salina as being a breakthrough moment when she competed against two of the state’s top Class 5A runners from Salina-Central.

“My brain was trying to tell me that I was tired, but my body said ‘no’, I can do more,” Wiese recalled. “That day I went out fast in the first mile with them. It was a flat course, but when I was done I saw my time (sub 19-minute for the 5-kilometer race) and I thought, ‘Holy Cow! Oh my goodness!’ It was super exciting and I think that changed my attitude going into WAC.”

When competing against the strong Great Bend contingent, Wiese said she is always aware that they run in a pack.

“I think it’s just how they practice. A lot of times I’ve gone out pretty fast, but this time I waited until about the mile-and-a-half point to speed up. Once I got the lead I didn’t look back and the last 800 meters I just told myself to work harder. It was a great race to challenge myself.”

With this being her final attempt at the WAC, Wiese said she convinced herself that it was more important than many other races.

“I told myself that this isn’t any old meet and that it’s a big deal,” Wiese said. “Now, I can focus on regional and state. I want to win regional and I want to place a state, something I haven’t done.”

Wiese said another big key to her improvement was to quit putting extra pressure on herself.

“I’ve just tried to enjoy it more,” she said. “This final stretch of the season is like closing one chapter and starting a new one.”

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2024 Western Athletic Conference
Girls Cross Country Results

Team Scores

	TEAM	POINTS
1	Great Bend	22
2	Dodge City	57
3	Garden City	69
4	Liberal	111
5	Hays	127

2024 All-Western Athletic Conference

	FIRST TEAM	SCHOOL	TIME
1	Cate Wiese	Garden City	15:19.97
2	Teegan Guerra	Great Bend	15:37.32
3	Marissa Boone	Great Bend	16:08.49
4	Bella Long	Great Bend	16:11.98
5	Sienna Smith	Great Bend	16:28.22
6	Janaya Devorce	Liberal	16:38.28
7	Krishna Perez Martinez	Dodge City	16:54.51
	SECOND TEAM
8	Teah King	Great Bend	16:58.91
9	Kate Welcher	Great Bend	17:10.07
10	Karina Avalos Martinez	Dodge City	17:11.39
11	Liliana Arroya Alba	Dodge City	17:14.75
12	Samantha Neegard	Great Bend	17:15.84
13	Riley Sekavec	Garden City	17:32.83
14	Dayana Arroyo Alba	Dodge City	17:38.54