BY JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com

LAKE BARTON — The mark of a champion is trying your best when it isn't your best performance.

Great Bend's Tavon Stroup qualified for the 5A state cross country championship with a 14th-place regional  finish (17:36.06) at the Lake Barton course. Stroup never ran comfortably on a 50-degree day when he had to dig deep to finish in the top 15 to qualify for the state meet. 

Stroup never found his running rhythm during the 3.1-mile race. His time was 32 seconds slower than last year's regional at Lake Barton. Stroup placed 50th at 5A state last year. 

"It was all right, but I should've run better," he said.

Stroup was pleased and relieved he could find a way to secure back-to-back state appearances. Stroup will compete at 11:45 a.m. Nov. 2 at Lawrence's Rim Rock course.

"It's going to be fun. I'm thankful I get to run at state and do what I do," Stroup said. "I've invested a lot of hard work. It's days and mornings and lots of hard practices." 

Anthony Lawrence (18:06.21) improved 62 seconds from last year's regional with a 23rd-place finish. Other runners who counted were 28th-place Brogan Lashley (18:19.26); 29th-place Diego Pasos (18:20.26) and 31st-place Isaac Aldana (18:25.85). Great Bend (122) placed sixth at the regional.

5A LAKE BARTON

BOYS TEAM QUALIFIERS—1—Valley Center 61; 2—Goddard Eisenhower 66; 3—Salina Central 67

TOP 15 QUALIFIERS—1—Deniau Young, SC, 16:20.01; 2—Dent, GE, 16:27.93; 3—Griffith, Goddard, 16:35.12; 4—Maupin, Hays, 16:38.73; 5—Affholder, SC, 16:59.14; 6—Moses, VC, 17:04.96; 7—Miller, VC, 17:07.11; 8—Spiva, GE, 17:08.89; 9—Moreno, SS, 17:13.82; 10—Dykes, SS, 17:14.13; 11—Lewis, Goddard, 17:16.11; 12—Soper, SC, 17:18.76; 13—Webb, VC, 17:21.71; 14—Tavon Stroup, GB, 17:36.06; 15—Morris, SC, 17:38.96

6—GREAT BEND (122)—23—Anthony Lawrence, 18:06.64; 28—Brogan Lashley, 18:19.26; 29—Diego Pasos, 18:20.26; 31—Isaac Aldana, 18:25.85; 40—Noah Kaiser, 19:01.63; 44—Parker Coleman, 19:22.25