BY JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com

LAKE BARTON -— Hoisington's multi-state qualifier Brody Rossman and Great Bend's Isaac Aldana led the way at Thursday's Lake Barton cross country meet.

Hoisingtons's Brody Rossman earned the area's top medal with an eighth-place finish (17:20.63), 22 seconds faster than last year. Rossman has placed 14th at 3A state cross country twice.

It was a challenge in 80-degree temperatures on a challenging course and a 20 to 30 mile per hour south wind.

"I've had hard workouts and my summer training has been consistently good," Rossman said. "I've pushed myself, and my time today reflected that. I improved from 17:42 to 17:20. I couldn't ask for a better day. It was a really good start."

Rossman anticipated a brisk pace by Maize's Steele and Wichita Carroll's Englert.

"It was a quick pace starting, and I knew it'd be quick going out," he said. "I went out with the top runners and tried to run consistent ready to strike. You always try to get even splits in your three miles."

Aldana (18:20.7) ran a solid race to place 29th and lead the Great Bend's boys (251) to 10th place behind champion Wichita Carroll (83) and runner-up Maize (97).

Aldana's time was 10 seconds slower than last year, but weather conditions were more challenging in 2026.

Three Panthers improved times from 2025 — 48th-place Noah Kaiser (18:57.75), 72nd Alexis Garcia (19:56.7) and 110th Eli Leech (21:08.8).

Other Panthers who counted in the team score were 40th Brogan Lashley (18:46.37) and 66th Julian Hernandez (19:26.36).

LAKE BARTON INVITE

BOYS TEAM SCORES—1—Wichita Carroll, 83; 2—Maize 97; 3—Dodge City 144; 4—Garden City 147; 5—Smoky Valley Home School 154; 6—Holcomb 162; 7—SE Saline 172; 8—Hays High 199; 9—Salina Central 230; 10—Great Bend 251

TOP 10 MEDALISTS—1—Isaac Steele, Maize, 16:38.38; 2—Landon Englert, WC, 17:51.06; 3—Martinez, WC, 17:16.13; 4—Gonzalez, Holcomb, 17:17.75; 5—Cherry, Buhler, 17:18.95; 6—Hermosillo, Scott City, 17:19.04; 7—Smith, Derby, 17:20.04; 8—Rossman, Hoisington, 17:20.63; 9—Flood, Maize, 17:21.07; 10—Bachman, SV, 17:36.68

GREAT BEND—29—Aldana, 18:20.7; 40—Lashley, 18:46.37; 48—Kaiser, 18:57.75; 66—Hernandez, 19:26.36; 72—Garcia, 19:56.7; 80—Gregg, 20:04.46; 88—Singleton, 20:17.73; 89—Coleman, 20:17.9; 106—Luttrell, 20:55.27; 110—Leech, 21:08.8

ST. JOHN—33—Gonzalez, 18:32.26; 68—Knight, 19:32.0; 107—Dunn, 20:59.9; 132—Feril, 22:24.68; 146—Ward, 24:35.4

CENTRAL PLAINS—74—Stiles, 19:49.53; 129—Zink, 22:03.43; 134—Willenberg, 22:32.13; 141—Metro, 23:23,11; 149—Fisher, 24;55.24