A pair of seniors capped off stellar fall seasons at the Western Athletic Conference cross country championship on Oct. 17.
Running at the Sand Plum Nature Trail just a few miles from Hays, Great Bend senior Mayra Ramirez and Garden City’s Ethan Fisher – out-paced their rival runners to claim the individual WAC gold medals.
For their accomplishments, each was named the Runner of the Year.
Ramirez took an early lead and maintained it to finish more than 20 seconds ahead of Garden City freshman Jocelyn Sosa. Ramirez clocked a 15:19.34 compared to Sosa’s 15:42.21 over the 4,000-meter layout.
Fisher, meanwhile, had his stiffest competition from another senior, Giovanni Valverde of Dodge City, yet was able to separate just a little on the final mile to win with a time of 16:34.74 to Valverde’s 16:40.81.
Both Ramirez and Fisher’s efforts also paved the way for their respective teams to claim WAC titles, with Garden’s boys edging Great Bend, 41-43, while the Great Bend girls easily outdistanced Dodge City, 31-51.
The WAC championship came with some additional emotions for Ramirez as the Lady Panther standout was running in her final race of her senior season.
“I don’t run on Saturday’s so I knew before that the WAC championship would be my final race,” said Ramirez of her faith’s beliefs of non-activity on Saturday. “It was my last race and I didn’t want it to be disappointing.”
A year before, Ramirez and her teammates had fallen short in their pursuit of the WAC title, and she wasn’t about to let this one final attempt be unsuccessful.
“It was just much more emotional than any other race I’ve run,” Ramirez said. “I’m so happy that I could get a lead and then finish first so I could help my teammates win the WAC. It means everything to me.”
On the most recent Saturday when she was on the sidelines, Ramirez watched her teammates qualify for the Class 5A state meet with a third-place finish on their home layout of Lake Barton Golf Club.
“I’m really happy for them that they were able to pull through at regionals and get to state,” Ramirez said.
Ramirez said that her philosophy of running is to get out to a good start to help her teammates, and then at about the halfway mark, extend and speed up and then finish with a strong kick.
“Once I let loose, I try to increase my speed where I’m comfortable,” she said. “At the end of the race, I’m just giving it all I have and try to get stronger and do my best.”
Ramirez has no plans for college running, but instead will attend the University of Kansas where she plans to pursue a degree in bio-medical and/or chemical engineering.
“I love engineering and I love medicine so I’m hoping to combine the best of both programs,” she said.
For Garden City’s Fisher, winning the WAC in his final campaign was fulfilling one of his preseason goals.
“It means quite a bit to me, since I’ve been running in it since my freshman year,” Fisher said. “I think the fact that all of our runners did their best gave us a big confidence boost. Now we’re thinking of top 3 at regionals (they placed second on Oct. 26 in Wichita).”
In his final year of high school running, Fisher said the fall season had even exceeded some of his earlier expectations.
“I think it’s been everything I hoped for and more,” he said. “I’ve improved my times and even placed better than I thought I would.”
