Lady Panthers’ soph. pitcher Prendergast is POY
When it comes to softball and the Western Athletic Conference, Great Bend coach Carrie Minton has a keen sense of history.
When she was a junior and senior at Great Bend High School, the Lady Panthers claimed the first two of five consecutive WAC titles when the conference began official competition to crown the champion.
That legacy of excellence goes back to 1994 and 1995 for Minton, and since she became the head coach for the program in 2011, the Lady Panthers have added conference titles in 2012, 2014, 2015, 2023 and now added 2025 to the list.
This time, the Lady Panthers, behind a standout underclassmen group, dominated the WAC by going unbeaten with a 12-0 record. In the conference match-ups, they outscored their opponents 153-36 or an average of 12.75 to 3.0.
“I think we were in a unique situation coming into this season,” Minton said. “Last year was good (19-7) and we graduated a couple of seniors, so with as many returners as we had, you just pick up where you left off. We didn’t have to go through a lot of new learning and new plans with this group.”
In the all-WAC voting by the conference coaches, the Lady Panthers secured four first-team selections and three on the second team. Of those seven, only outfielder DeShawna Bryant is a graduating senior.
Headlining the group is sophomore pitcher Chayla Prendergast, who was voted Player of the Year after an outstanding season on the mound for the Panthers (see story below).
“This group is special in a sense that they are super competitive,” Minton said.
In preparation for the WAC season of three games against each of the other four schools, Minton had her squad in games against highly-regarded Manhattan, McPherson and Pratt. Then, in the middle of the season, in the Dodge City Classic, played unbeaten Maize South and Goddard-Eisenhower.
“Early on against those teams I thought we showed we could compete,” Minton said. “It bode well for our season. Then, we hit a rough patch at Dodge City, but the girls showed their maturity and responded to finish the season strong.”
Minton knew her team had a chance in the WAC when they captured all three games against defending conference champion Hays by scores of 10-0, 11-5 and 13-7. Their domination continued against conference runner-up Garden City (5-0, 16-4, 9-2) as well as sweeps against Dodge City and Liberal (Liberal had the closest game at 10-6).
“I think the maturity and experience we had along with the type of competitors they are, allowed us to gain confidence as the season progressed,” Minton said.
Minton said this year’s team handled that “hidden” pressure of ‘just needing to do this or that,’ which is a different kind of pressure.
“We didn’t focus on all the stats and I think because we had such good pitching and good defense, that it allowed us to play relaxed most of the time,” Minton said.
The team was a powerhouse on offense, hitting for an overall batting average of .424 and .482 in the 12 WAC contests. They finished with a team slugging percentage of .632 and crushed 25 home runs.
Katherine Mazouch (Jr.) and Bryant (Sr.) led the team in four-baggers with six each. Sophomore Kya Behr was the leader in RBIs with 54, but Alyssa McCauley added 40 RBIs to the stat sheet. The team produced 122 extra base hits, including 91 doubles.
“It’s likely the best hitting team I’ve had,” Minton admitted. “They are aggressive hitters.”
Prendergast, McCauley, Behr and Bryant were all first-team selections while Mazouch, Camdyn Post and Kamryn Koelsch were named to the second team. Mazouch and Koelsch are juniors while Post is a sophomore. Within that group — catcher, pitcher, infielders — all of them return for 2026.
“Certainly we are excited about what the future holds with this group,” Minton said. “We are fortunate in that our pitchers have confidence in the defense and the defense has confidence in our pitchers.”
Playing that highly competitive non-WAC schedule has benefited the Panthers, Minton said.
“The WAC schedule gives us 12 games, so we try to fill in the rest with teams that are competitive and that will make us better,” Minton said. “Getting a good seeding and playing at home in the regionals is important for us.”
The Lady Panthers had hoped to make the journey to the 5A state tournament this season, but that goal ended with a heartbreaking 7-6 loss to Topeka Seaman in the regional championship game, thus ending a 22-6 season prematurely.
“It’s a fine line between a good season and a really great season,” Minton said. “We’ll be back next year with the goal of getting to state and taking one more step in becoming the team that makes it.”
Prendergast Dominated WAC batters to earn POY honors
When the 2025 softball season was just getting started back in late March, the pitching duties for the Great Bend Lady Panthers was going to be divided between Chayla Prendergast and Braelyn Turner.
At least that was the plan until Turner suffered an injury that limited her to just 15 innings this season. The other backup pitcher, Alyssa McCauley, ended up throwing just 33.1 innings.
That left the bulk of innings to Prendergast and she responded with 121.2 innings to finish the year with a 15-4 record, a 2.99 earned-run-average and 123 strikeouts.
She earned WAC Player of the Year honors in a vote of the conference’s coaches where a coach cannot vote for their own player.
“I was surprised when I learned about the award,” Prendergast said. “We have so many good players on our team, the award could have gone to any one of them.”
Prendergast describes herself as an efficient pitcher, translating that into staying ahead of the batters in the count — 0-1, 1-2 — not giving up a lot of walks.
“I just like to stay ahead in the count so I can throw the pitch that I want,” Prendergast said. “A lot of what pitch I use depends on the batter and their style. I’ll use pitches that have a lot of movement.”
Prendergast uses a combination of six different pitches — change-up, drop, curve, screwball, rise and fastball.
“The drop is my favorite,” Prendergast said. “This year, I gave more focus to my change-up because it’s such a hard motion to perfect. You still have to keep your motion fast so you can fool people.”
Prendergast was even more dominant in the 8 WAC games that she started. She went 8-0 with 56 strikeouts in just 49 innings and lowered her ERA to 1.57.
“My rise ball is my newest pitch that I learned last summer at camp,” Prendergast said. “I use it more against the big swingers. It’s a difficult pitch for me to learn and I’m still a little rough with it, but it got better.”
The variety of pitches in her repertoire allowed her to keep hitters off balance.
“I threw the curve a lot this year and I think I’ve got that mastered,” Prendergast said. “I like to use it on the corners both to right and left-handed batters.”
Prendergast also proved she was just more than an outstanding pitcher when she came to the plate. She finished this season with a .310 batting average with 2 home runs and 14 RBIs.
“My freshman year, I was just so nervous at the plate,” Prendergast said. “This year, I had more fun with it and gained more confidence.”
Minton agreed.
“She worked hard on her hitting and it showed,” Minton said of Prendergast. “She’s like the other girls in that she wants to continue to get better. She works so hard in all aspects of the game.”
In addition to the four Lady Panthers, other all-WAC first teamers included pitcher Kyleigh Whitehurst, first baseman Piper Harris and center fielder Yasmin Angeles of Garden City; and infielder Riley Dreher and catcher Avery Solida of Hays.
Western Athletic Conference
2025 Team Standings
1. Great Bend, 12-0; 2. Garden City, 8-4; 3. Hays, 7-5; 4. Liberal, 3-9; 5. Dodge City, 0-12.
ALL CONFERENCE SOFTBALL – 2025
| FIRST TEAM | CLASS | POS | SCHOOL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chayla Prendergast | 10 | P | Great Bend |
| 2 | Kyleigh Whitehurst | 12 | P | Garden City |
| 3 | Alyssa McCauley | 11 | INF | Great Bend |
| 4 | Riley Dreher | 12 | INF | Hays |
| 5 | Kya Behr | 10 | INF | Great Bend |
| 6 | Piper Harris | 12 | INF | Garden City |
| 7 | DeShawnna Bryant | 12 | OF | Great Bend |
| 8 | Yasmin Angeles | 10 | OF | Garden City |
| 9 | Avery Solida | 12 | C | Hays |
Coach of the Year: Carrie Minton
| SECOND TEAM | CLASS | POS | SCHOOL | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alyse Zimmerman | 12 | OF | Hays |
| 2 | Katherine Mazouch | 11 | INF | Great Bend |
| 3 | Haiden Lyon | 9 | C | Liberal |
| 4 | Tatum Steiner | 12 | C | Dodge City |
| 5 | Taylor Harding | 12 | INF | Liberal |
| 6 | Jaylee Summers | 11 | P | Hays |
| 7 | Camdyn Post | 10 | OF | Great Bend |
| 8 | Marisol Angeles | 9 | INF | Garden City |
| 9 | Kamryn Koelsch | 11 | C | Great Bend |
