Nemechek repeats as Runner of the Year
When Krista Linenberger was named the head cross country coach at Garden City High School for the 2003 school year, she was all too familiar with the Western Athletic Conference and how competitive both the boys’ and girls’ divisions were.
Linenberger, whose maiden name is Adams, had run cross country for the Lady Buffaloes in the late 1980s, finishing fifth in Class 6A in 1989. She became an assistant coach to Randy Sleep in 1998 before moving up to take the reins of both boys’ and girls’ teams.
Slowly but surely Linenberger brought the boys’ team to a higher level, but it took her 11 years before guiding the boys to a WAC crown in 2014. It had been 1991 since the Buffs’ boys had won the meet.
Things have certainly changed for Linenberger and the Buffs’ program as she watched her 2024 edition cruise to a dominating fourth consecutive WAC crown on Oct. 17 at the Ellis County Fairgrounds course in Hays.
She was gratified to see this group even one-up some of the previous three by scoring a near-perfect 18 points (15 is the best with 5 counting times), as senior Hayden Nemechek led the stampede over the WAC teams.
Nemechek defended his individual title with a time of 15:59.64 over the 5-kilometer layout and was followed in second, third, fifth, seventh, eighth and 10th places by Trevor Fry (16:08.21), Taran Castro (16:25.56), Jayden Smith (16:36.18), Gabriel Martinez Acosta (16:54.72), along with Elmer Argueta (16:57.69) and Jacob Pammenter (17:21.68).
“I think a lot of the reasons for this group to be doing as well as they have is that they spent a lot of time doing their summer training and building a base which carries over into the fall,” said Linenberger, who nabbed the Boys Coach of the Year honor. “The most important thing we had to figure out this year was to find teammates that were going to help in the 5-6-7 spots.”
With Nemechek and Castro being the seniors and Fry and Smith a junior and sophomore with previous varsity experience, the key was to find that extra depth, Linenberger said.
“We knew we had some young kids and we needed to bring them along,” Linenberger said. “We had discussions about what it (the team) would look like when these seniors graduate.”
Linenberger had high praise for Nemechek, Fry and Castro for having put in roughly 50 miles per week of training during the summer after all had ran track in the spring.
“The top three did their fair share of mileage,” Linenberger said. “The bottom line is what kind of summer work they did. The really only had about one week break from spring track to the summer cross country workouts.”
Her desire to see those fifth-sixth and seventh spots develop have come to fruition in the closing weeks of the regular season and saw the results at the WAC meet when Acosta (junior), Argueta (freshman) and Pammenter (junior) all ran their best races of the fall.
“If the top three or four continue to keep running the way they have been, it will be the fifth runner who determines how well we do,” Linenberger said referring to the upcoming 6A regional (Oct. 26) and state (Nov. 2) meets. “I think we’ve pushed some of them out of their comfort zone and they are seeing what their capabilities are.”
Linenberger credits the weekly goal meetings as a reason for the team’s success and for keeping the runners focused.
“We reflect on the previous week’s meet and then talk about the next meet,” Linenberger said. “We’ve done that forever and we will continue to do that as the goals may change from week to week.”
Since the Buffs broke through that championship barrier in 2014, the boys’ team has since won the WAC in 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and again this year to bring the school’s overall WAC boys’ titles to 11.
“It’s something that is on our goal list every year,” Linenberger said. “We’re always trying to point to the last three weeks to have us running our best.”
It was a Nemechek race all the way for Buffs’ top runner
There was a lot of excitement, expectation and perhaps a little bit of nerves when the fall 2024 high school cross country season opened for the Garden City Buffaloes boys’ team.
But senior Hayden Nemechek and his group of returners were not going to let a little bit of that expectation get in the way of just running for the joy of it.
That relaxed attitude, yet radar-like focused, has been the sparkplug to a memorable fall campaign in which the regular season was capped off by claiming a fourth straight WAC team championship and for Nemechek to repeat as the WAC Boys Runner of the Year.
His individual win on Oct. 17 at Hays’ Ellis County Fairgrounds layout came on a windy day and yet he was able to capture his second straight individual title with a time of 15:59.64 over the 5-kilometer (3.1 miles) course.
“In the moment I just felt terrible because of the wind,” Nemechek said. “But I just tried to stay focused on the race.”
Nemechek said he has had several motivational talks with himself since his junior season in which the spring track season didn’t pan out as well as he had hoped, and the end of the 2023 cross country schedule didn’t either as the Buffs finished a disappointing fifth in the Class 6A state meet and he finished well out of a top 20 placing.
“I have really worked on focusing on my mind and what I wanted out of this season,” Nemechek said. “I didn’t want a repeat of another bad season. Outside the track season, we’ve been working on to just improving and having a good time.”
While discussing his own accomplishments, Nemechek was quick to praise his newest varsity teammates who have gradually improved week by week during the 2024 fall campaign.
“The last couple of weeks the fifth runner has been the different maker for us,” Nemechek said. “The big thing for us is that we’re not going to worry about everything, but just go run.”
Nemechek said that additional miles during the summer and doing some weights has made him stronger for the 3.1-mile race.
“I try to keep my focus the entire race and sometimes it feels like I don’t in the middle of the race,” Nemechek said. “I make sure not to fall asleep in my mind so I try to get out fast early and then run a super good mile at the end.”
Nemechek said it’s sometimes hard to believe that his high school career is nearly over (Oct. 26 regional, Nov. 2 state), but it has been an enjoyable journey.
“The kids who ran before us have set the precedent and we just want to continue the tradition,” Nemechek said. “We can’t let up. We still have some goals that we want to accomplish.”
Nemechek said he is undecided yet on whether he will run in college. He has looked at some Division II schools as well as considering Kansas State or Kansas University for architectural school. HIs father, Nick, is a local Garden City architect.
“I’ll just have to wait and see how the next two weeks go and then will have some decisions to make,” Nemechek said.
2024 Western Athletic Conference
Boys Cross Country Results
Team Scores
| TEAM | POINTS | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Garden City | 18 |
| 2 | Great Bend | 64 |
| 3 | Dodge City | 68 |
| 4 | Hays | 110 |
| 5 | Liberal | 139 |
2024 All-Western Athletic Conference
| YEAR | SCHOOL | TIME | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All-WAC First Team | ||||
| 1 | Hayden Nemechek | Sr | Garden City | 15:59.64 |
| 2 | Trevor Fry | Jr | Garden City | 16:08.21 |
| 3 | Taran Castro | Sr | Garden City | 16:25.56 |
| 4 | Ismael Ramirez | Jr | Great Bend | 16:32.74 |
| 5 | Jayden Smith | So | Garden City | 16:36.18 |
| 6 | Tavan Stroup | Jr | Great Bend | 16:38.24 |
| 7 | Gabriel Martinez Acosta | Jr | Garden City | 16:54.32 |
| All-WAC Second Team | ||||
| 8 | Elmer Argueta | Fr | Garden City | 16:57.69 |
| 9 | Taevian Maupin | Sr | Hays | 17:08.23 |
| 10 | Jacob Pammenter | Jr | Garden City | 17:21.68 |
| 11 | Gerardo Gamez Mora | So | Dodge City | 17:24.97 |
| 12 | Eddie Carmona Ortiz | Sr | Dodge City | 17:27.40 |
| 13 | Diego Pasos | Sr | Great Bend | 17:40.71 |
| 14 | Eddie Salinas Millan | Sr | Dodge City | 17:48.07 |
Coach of the Year: Krista Linenberger, Garden City
