Lyles Lashley has been around high school coaching long enough to know that he’s fortunate when he has enough athletes – and quality ones at that – to field a competitive team.
He’s made it an annual success in recent years after taking over the Great Bend Panther cross country program.
Lashley has made it is annual fall goal to bring his Lady Panthers into the highest level of Class 5A competition.
It starts in the second week of October each fall when the Western Athletic Conference conducts its annual championship on a rotating site basis of the five competing schools.
This year, with its chief challenger Dodge City hosting the race, Lashley pieced together another winning effort for the girls’ conference championship.
They outdueled Dodge City, winning with 38 points while the host Lady Red Demons were close behind with 43 points. Hays was a distant third with 81, Liberal fourth with 92 and Garden City fifth with 97 points.
The triumph was the sixth consecutive for Lashley’s squad. Great Bend now has captured 22 titles in the 40-year history of the event. They own more wins than the other four schools combined.
“We had quite a battle with Dodge City,” Lashley said. “We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of depth in the recent seasons, and we had one of our girls decide not to go out for volleyball and we were able to get her to run.”
Lashley’s squad was led by sophomore sensation Decorah Schroeter, who won the individual title over the 4-kilometer Mariah Hills Golf Course layout with a time of 14:55.34. Dodge City’s Olivia Springer was a distant second with a time of 15:35.51.
“Decorah has been very competitive and dedicated to cross country, and her efforts reflect the hard work she puts in during the summer and before the fall meets begin,” Lashley said.
It takes five runners to score for the team and Lashley is blessed with a ton of talent, most of which this year are underclassmen.
In the WAC meet, the lone senior, Bella Long, took third (16:04.50) and teammate Sydney Stein, a sophomore, was fourth in 16:06.11. Junior Samantha Negaard gave the Panthers a third top 10 finish by placing ninth with a time of 16:41.96. Rounding out the scoring runners was junior Sydney James (21st, 17:54.49). The team’s sixth and seventh runners were sophomore McKenzie Gwin (23rrd, 17:57.51) and junior Alyssa Prendergast (18:39.22).
Lashley’s philosophy from year-to-year is to take the girls who decide to run and work with them to make them the best they pcan possibly be.”.
“Most years, I’m just happy to see the girls come out,” Lashley said. “Cross country is such an individual sport, but we try to emphasize the team component when we are at the meets.”
Lashley said the 2026 fall campaign saw Stein and Gwin battle injuries and didn’t compete until late in the season.
“We had other girls step in and step up for us,” Lashley said.
At the WAC championship, the girls run a 4-kilometer race instead of the usual 5-k distance, and Lashley said he prefers the shorter distance.
“It’s more comparable to a two-mile race,” Lashley said of the 4-kilometers. “Most of the girls we get are 800 (meter) runners in track and so they enjoy the shorter distance and see their faster times. It’s a race that feels more relaxed.”
Lashley praised his team for a commitment to run through the summer to build a solid base prior to the fall season.
“You’re not going to be very good in the fall if you don’t put in some long-distance work during the summer,” Lashley said. “We’re fortunate to have this big sophomore group and they encourage each other and our upper-class girls to a good job with leadership.”
Lashley takes each season on its own merit, thus he doesn’t look ahead until the summer arrives.
“If I had a message for the girls, I would just say, ‘I pray they all come out.’ That’s the most important thing,” Lashley said.
He doesn’t take it for granted that all the girls will return the following season.
“I’ve got three girls, upperclassmen, who are walking the halls, and all ran under 20-minutes (5-kilometers) a couple of years ago,” Lashley said. “There’s no guarantee they will be back.”
The WAC recognizes the top seven finishers as first-team All-Conference selections. Schroeter was the Runner of the Year while the remaining first teamers included Olivia Springer of Dodge City (2nd), Long and Stein of Great Bend (3rd, 4th); Courtney Carroll of Liberal (5th), Anna Clevenger of Dodge City (6th), and Janelle Barragan of Dodge City (7th).
Soph. sensation Schroeter repeats as WAC Girls’ Runner of the Year
When she completed her freshman cross country season in 2025, Great Bend’s Decorah Schroeter knew that more hard work would improve her ability to compete against the best runners in Class 5A.
She dedicated herself to running more in the summer, including the longer runs to enhance her endurance, while also working on speed workouts to enable her ability to finish the grueling 5-kilometer (3 miles) races.
That all paid off as the sophomore began a three-week October success story by first winning the Western Athletic Conference individual (and leading her team) championship, then followed it with a Class 5A sub-state triumph on her home Lake Barton Golf Course before concluding the season with a third-place finish at the 5A state meet at Kansas University’s Rim Rock Farm.
“I won (WAC) last year, and I was pretty proud of that so to come back and win again just shows that the hard work has paid off,” Schroeter said. “There are several of us in the same grade and I think that always helps us motivate each other.”
Schroeter won this year’s WAC title over the 4-kilometer Mariah Hills Golf Course in Dodge City with a time of 14:55.34, well ahead of runner-up Olivia Springer of Dodge City who clocked a 15:35.51.
Schroeter’s teammates, senior Bella Long and sophomore Sydney Stein finished third and fourth and another teammate, junior Samantha Negaard, had a top 10 finish in 9th place.
“It’s good to have the others there to help with the points,” Schroeter said. “You need a lot of support on those long, hard days of training.”
Schroeter said she enjoyed the layout at Mariah Hills, with what she described as “not too many big hills.”
“It was a nice course and I’m not too big a fan of big hills,” she said. “Rim Rock has kind of a gentle start but then you get into some big hills after the first mile. It’s not my favorite.”
Schroeter said she believes the first mile of a 3-mile race is her best.
“The second mile is where I just try to hold my pace, and then the third mile is the hardest,” Schroeter said. “You just keep at it and give everything you have at the end. The last 200 you need to have a strong kick.”
Schroeter credits her more extensive summer training as the key element in her improved times this season.
“I went to more practices, and did more workouts,” she said. “My freshman year I was just trying to figure out how to run the longer distances, but this year I was able to understand how to run the races more efficiently.”
The Class 5A state proved every bit the challenge that she expected, with runners from Wichita-Kapaun Mt. Carmel, Salina Central and the private schools of St. Thomas Aquinas, St. James Academy and Wichita-Bishop Carroll all presenting quality competition.
She clocked her best time at Rim Rock by running a 18:34.99 which earned her a third-place finish.
“I think you just have to have a lot of motivation to run,” she said. “It takes a lot out of you and you must keep going. The reward is seeing how the hard work pays off.”
Her coach, Lyles Lashley, said he knew the 2026 season would see the fruits of her hard work.
“A lot of times you’ll see a big jump in improvement from the freshman to sophomore years,” Lashley said. “Decorah put in the necessary work and often she trained with the boys. I think her times might have even allowed her to be in our top five on the boys’ team.”
Western Athletic Conference
Girls Cross Country Championship
At Mariah Hills Golf Course/Dodge City
4-Kilometers (2.49 miles)
| TEAM STANDINGS | SCHOOL | POINTS |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Great Bend | 38 |
| 2 | Dodge City | 43 |
| 3 | Hays | 81 |
| 4 | Liberal | 92 |
| 5 | Garden City | 97 |
2026 All-WAC Runners
| FIRST TEAM | NAME | SCHOOL | TIME |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Decorah Schroeter | Great Bend | 14:55.34 |
| 2 | Olivia Springer | Dodge City | 15:35.51 |
| 3 | Bella Long | Great Bend | 16:04.50 |
| 4 | Sydney Stein | Great Bend | 16:06.11 |
| 5 | Courtney Carroll | Liberal | 16:08.00 |
| 6 | Anna Clevenger | Dodge City | 16:09.97 |
| 7 | Janelle Barragan | Dodge City | 16:13.93 |
| SECOND TEAM | |||
| 8 | Lucy Romero | Garden City | 16:24.86 |
| 9 | Samantha Negaard | Great Bend | 16:41.96 |
| 10 | Audrey Yarmer | Hays | 16:52.76 |
| 11 | Maya Pfeifer | Hays | 16:53.88 |
| 12 | Krishna Perez Martinez | Dodge City | 17:0127 |
| 13 | Valeria Ontiveros | Liberal | 17:15.96 |
| 14 | Alexa Codey | Hays | 17:17.26 |
Coach of the Year – Lyles Lashley, Great Bend
