Ohnmacht dominates again for Athlete of the Year honor
It had been seven seemingly long years since the Dodge City Red Demons boys’ track team had tasted victory at the Western Athletic Conference track and field championship.
Dating back to 2019, and then the canceled 2020 season due to COVID, only Hays had stood on the podium to collect that championship plaque.
The Indians had been dominant in several of those title runs, including 128-98.5 and 121-86 wins over Garden City in 2023 and 2024. A year ago, the Buffaloes of Garden City closed the gap to 95.5-94.0 when Garden was unable to field a 4×400-meter relay team in the final event of the meet.
This time, it was the relays that decided the outcome for the Demons as they came from behind to win that final 4×400-meter relay race (3:24.74). The Demons had trailed the Indians 93-92 heading into that final relay.
What made the difference was Liberal sliding into the second-place spot (6 points) while Hays finished third (4) to the Indians’ 8 points for taking first. Outcome—Dodge City 100, Hays 97.
The Demons had finished third behind Hays and Garden City in each of the three previous WAC meets, so to make that jump to first, was a big step forward for Coach Glenn O’Neil and his program.
While Liberal (19) and Hays (13) have dominated the WAC boys’ track titles, Dodge City ranks third with five while Garden City and Great Bend each have one. So, winning WAC becomes a special conclusion to the spring sports season.
“When the season started, we knew we had a lot of question marks in both boys’ and girls’ teams,” O’Neil said. “We went to Hays for the first meet of the year and it was the first time we had beaten Hays and Garden City on the same day.”
As the season progressed, so did the injury bug increase. At one point in time, three of his fastest sprinters were sidelined with various injuries or illnesses.
“We had various injuries from a bone chip, to hamstring, to others that sidelined our kids,” O’Neil said. “We kept having to find others to step in until somebody got well, and the kids did a great job of that.”
So, putting a band-aid on many of the events, the Demons kept trying to find the right combinations. Some injured athletes returned; some did not.
“I think when you look at the results, we have a lot of contributors from a lot of different places,” O’Neil said. “We knew we’d have to do well on the track to balance off what Hays was going to do in the field events (Hays won 4 of 7).
The big surge came in the three relay events – the 4×100, 4×400 and the 4×800 – where the Demons swept the trio with a different lineup of four runners in each.
“That showed a lot of depth for us and became critical to how we performed in the meet,” O’Neil said. “We knew we were deep in the distance races, but you still don’t really know until the meet is well into the running events how you might be doing with points.”
O’Neil said after the penultimate event – the 3,200-meter run won by Garden City’s Trevor Fry – that the Demons needed a win and a Liberal runner-up ahead of Hays – to pull off the team championship.
“We knew event-by-event because we needed to have two placers in those to keep up with Hays,” O’Neil said. “We had a lot of kids step up because we had a number of our top runners injured.”
His 4×100-meter relay team was comprised of Rijah’el Charles, Trage Pike (High jump, 100-meter champion), Jaden Moise and Aleander Rodriguez. His 4×800 winning relay included Roberto Casasola Espana, Gerardo Gomez Mesa, Gael Guerra Carmona, and Jonathan Pelton. His meet-winning 4×400 until was made up of Jose Mega Perez, Juan Garcia Castro, Jonathan Bone and Mason Phelps.
“I can’t say enough about the kids and how they performed,” O’Neil said of his first WAC team title since moving to Dodge City to also coach football. “I know it means a lot to the kids.”
COOPER OHNMACHT, GREAT BEND, JR. — WAC BOYS TRACK ATHLETE OF THE YEAR
Each year, the Western Athletic Conference track and field championship is the final event of the school year for the five member schools.
Since 2009, the conference has awarded a Champions Cup trophy to the team that compiles the most points through the 22 varsity spots of the fall, winter and spring seasons.
The conference also awards the Track Athlete of the Year to the individual who scores the most points at the track and field championship.
For the second straight season that award landed in the hands of Great Bend junior Cooper Ohnmacht.
Ohnmacht was dominant in three of his events, winning the long jump (21-03.50), the triple jump (46-02) and the javelin (167-04) while tying for first but finishing second based upon misses in the high jump (6-00). That gave him a total of 30 points (8 for first, 6 for second, etc.).
Ohnmacht has been an impressive three-sport standout since making a splash his freshman year. Football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and track in the spring. He’s won a couple of state championships in the triple jump, but when he heads into his senior year, it will be about his future on the gridiron.
Ohnmacht just made a verbal commitment to Kansas State University to play for new football coach Collin Klein where he is projected to be a defensive back for the Wildcats.
It will be an abbreviated senior year for Ohnmacht as he plans to graduate in December so he can enroll and be on campus in Manhattan for the 2027 spring football practices with the Wildcats.
Thus, his final track and field exploits have come to an end.
“If I ever get the opportunity to compete in track, I’m sure I would enjoy it,” Ohnmacht said in a telephone interview on June 8. “But football has always been the main sport. The recruiting was wild and stressful at times, but I enjoyed the process.”
His final decision came down to choosing between K-State, Wisconsin and Penn State, making the proximity of Manhattan to Great Bend and the KSU coaches as major factors.
Ohnmacht will now get to relish his three-year track and field career, having established himself as a premier triple jumper and highly competitive long jumper, javelin thrower and an occasional high jumper.
Winning the WAC Track Athlete of the Year was one of his early season goals after capturing the award his sophomore season. But what would be his final track campaign hit a snag the day before the Panthers’ first meet of the spring when he suffered a Grade 2 hamstring strain.
“I missed five weeks and never fully recovered from the time off or to the point where I had the same power for the jumps,” Ohnmacht said.
Still, after winning the triple in his freshman and sophomore years at the 5A state meet, he managed a respectable third in his specialty with a leap of 46-9.50, missing first by 6.25 inches. He placed third (22-3) in the long jump and seventh in the javelin (171-2).
“I felt pretty good at the state, but things just didn’t turn out the way I wanted,” Ohnmacht said.
Having completed his prep career in track and field, Ohnmacht said he will enjoy the memories of the weekly meets where he spent considerable time with his teammates and meeting other competitors.
“The WAC award is special because it’s all the guys in our league,” Ohnmacht said. “You play them in football, basketball and then see them in track so you get acquainted with them and appreciate the friendships you make.”
Perhaps one of the amazing aspects of his three-year prep track career is that he never competed in middle school.
“I just went out for track to stay in shape for football,” Ohnmacht recalled. “The triple jump, for some reason, appealed to me and I think I learned all the techniques a lot faster than most. There’s a lot of pieces to the event but it just fit me.”
Another possible influence on his recent season is that he added 25 pounds to his 6-0 frame and now weighs in at 185 pounds.
“I’m happy with what I’ve accomplished because it shows all the hard work I’ve put in and all the battles have paid off,” he said. “Winning state (triple jump) my freshman year is probably my favorite track memory.”
Ohnmacht has hung up his track spikes now and will take his talents to the gridiron at Kansas State. But his impact at Great Bend will long be felt within the Panther athletic program.
“I’ve got my fall football season to play and I’m going to try and enjoy it as much as possible,” Ohnmacht said. “It’s been a great experience to play with all the guys and play for my coaches.”
Western Athletic Conference
2026 Boys Track & Field Championship
May 14, 2026 • Memorial Stadium, Dodge City
| TEAM STANDINGS | POINTS | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dodge City | 100 |
| 2 | Hays | 97 |
| 3 | Great Bend | 68 |
| 4 | Garden City | 66 |
| 5 | Liberal | 42 |
All-WAC Champions
| EVENT | NAME(S) | SCHOOL | MARK |
|---|---|---|---|
| High jump | Trage Pike | Dodge City | 6-00 |
| Pole Vault | Jace Myers | Hays | 13-00 |
| Long jump | Cooper Ohnmacht | Great Bend | 21-03.50 |
| Triple jum | Cooper Ohnmacht | Great Bend | 46-02 |
| Discus throw | Gus Corsair | Hays | 159-03 |
| Javelin | Cooper Ohnmacht | Great Bend | 167-04 |
| Shot put | Jaxson Chartier | Hays | 53-11.50 |
| 100m dash | Trage Pike | Dodge City | 10.64 |
| 200m dash | German Ferman | Garden City | 21.51 |
| 110m hurdles | Brogan Albers | Hays | 15.09 |
| 4x800m relay | Roberto Casasola Espana Gerardo Gomez Mesa Gael Guerra Carmona Jonathan Pelton | Dodge City | 8:31.41 |
| 1600m run | Trevor Fry | Garden City | 4:38.19 |
| 4x100m relay | Rijah’el Charles Trage Pike Jaden Moise Alexander Rodriguez | Dodge City | 42.53 |
| 400m dash | Diego Pavia | Liberal | 49.71 |
| 300m hurdles | Brogan Albers | Hays | 39.44 |
| 800m run | Landon Hubbard | Great Bend | 2:01.64 |
| 3200m run | Trevor Fry | Garden City | 10:22.46 |
| 4x400m relay | Jose Mega Perez Juan Garcia Castro Jonathan Bone Mason Phelps | Dodge City | 3:24.74 |
30 Points Total (8 points each for javelin, long and triple jumps, 6 points for high jump)
WAC Boys Track Coach of the Year: Glenn O’Neil, Dodge City.
