BY BRETT MARSHALL Decorah Schroeter, Great Bend's reigning Western Athletic Conference runner of the year, ended her sophomore season with a third-place 5A state cross country medal. The Class 5A state meet proved every bit the challenge that Schroeter expected, with Wichita Kapaun Mt. Carmel, Salina Central, St. Thomas Aquinas, Lenexa St. James and Wichita Carroll presenting quality competition. Schroeter clocked her career best time at Rim Rock (18:34.99) to finish third behind Kapaun's Ava Claassen (16:59.16) and Salina Central's (18:12.27) last year's 5A state champion. “Rim Rock has kind of a gentle start, but then you get into some big hills after the first mile," Schroeter said. "It’s not my favorite. “You 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.” Great Bend cross country coach Lyles Lashley knew Schroeter's 2026 season would see the fruits of her hard work. "A lot of times you’ll see a big jump in improvement from freshman to sophomore years,” Lashley said. “Decorah put in the necessary work, and often trained with the boys. Her times might have even allowed her to be in our top five on the boys team.” When she completed her freshman cross country season in 2025, Schroeter knew that more hard work would improve her ability to compete against the best 5A runners. 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 (3.1 mile) cross country race. That all paid off as the sophomore began a three-week October success story. She won the Western Athletic Conference individual championship, then followed it with a Class 5A substate 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. Schroeter (14:55.34) won this year’s WAC title over the 4-kilometer Mariah Hills Golf Course in Dodge City well ahead of Dodge City's runner-up Olivia Springer (15:35.51). Schroeter’s teammates included third-place Bella Long, fourth-place Sydney Stein and ninth-place Samantha Negaard earning top 10 WAC medals. "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 enjoys 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. 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. “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.”