Kapaun boys track repeats as Kansas high school champions in ‘uncommon’ way
With so much talent returning on the Kapaun Mt. Carmel boys track and field team this season, defending its Class 5A team championship was considered the bare minimum.
The Crusaders wanted to achieve something truly special at the Kansas high school track and field state meet at the end of May.
It was a mission accomplished, as Kapaun won gold in nine of 18 events (winning all but one open race on the track), broke four state-meet records and racked up 114 team points — the third-most team points scored at a state meet by any team in any classification the last two decades.
“We talked a lot to them about being uncommon athletes,” Kapaun boys coach Gage Garcia said. “That’s what this group was. They did things that most people don’t want to do. It’s just a special, special team.”
From Jack Guthridge finally securing his 4-for-4 gold weekend, capped by a record-setting close in the 1600-meter relay, to Daniel Enriquez shattering the meet record in the 1600-meter run to Dawson Grabendike sweeping the hurdles titles, any of those performances would serve as all-time moments for most programs.
At Kapaun, all three occurred on the same team.
“At the beginning of the season, our coaches kept telling us how this could be a historic team,” said Guthridge, a sprinter who is signed to Kansas State. “This could be one of the best teams Kansas has ever seen in any ‘A,’ not just 5A. We had some bumps along the way, but when championship season rolled around, we performed perfectly. You can’t do much better than that.”
The singular most impressive effort of the weekend belonged to Enriquez, who dropped the hammer in the 1600 and recorded a personal-best time of 4 minutes, 6.58 seconds.
Not only did the junior shatter the 5A meet record by nearly nine seconds, but Enriquez recorded the fifth-fastest time in Kansas history — all while running by himself for the majority of the four laps, winning the title over the field by nearly seven seconds.
“I know my strength comes from the Lord and my faith in Christ,” Enriquez said. “Ultimately my goal was to try for a qualifying time to go to HOKA Festival of Miles. If it happens, then it happens. If not, I know I gave my 100% best effort and I can’t be upset about that.”
But in terms of overall performance, no one in 5A — and perhaps the entire state — had a better weekend than Guthridge.
After narrowly missing out on a 4-gold performance last year at the state meet (he settled for a silver in the 100), no one could catch Guthridge this time around. He won the 100 title in 10.65 seconds, then defended his open titles in the 200 (21.50) and 400 (47.08). His time of 21.19 in the 200 preliminaries broke the state meet record, while his personal-best time in the 400 finals also set the 5A record.
Guthridge ended his illustrious career with top-10 times in Kansas history in the 100 (10.23, first), 200 (21.04, sixth) and 400 (47.08, seventh).
But in the end, his favorite race was serving as the anchor for Kapaun’s record-setting 1600 relay team. He teamed with Grabendike, senior Will Niederee and sophomore Lucian Winters to win the 5A title in a time of 3:17.67.
“We lost our sophomore year at state in the last race (the 1600 relay) and ever since then, I promised my team that we’re never going to feel that again,” Guthridge said. “That was the most hopeless feeling ever, so as the last runner of Kapaun who touches that track, I was going to make sure we win that race every single time. I didn’t have much left in the tank, but I had enough to go out there and win it for the team.”
Kapaun’s lone field champion was senior Jackson Daniel, who won the javelin title with a throw of 207 feet, 1 inch and also took sixth in the discus. Other state medalists included senior Micah Amphone (pole vault, fourth), senior Thomas Klosterman (shot put, fifth), senior Andrew Guyer (800, seventh) and the 3200 relay team of senior Tim Rowell, sophomore Eli Koster, Niederee and Guyer (third).
Other state qualifiers for the Crusaders included junior Mason Collins (javelin), junior Cole Reintjes (3200) and freshman Dominic Grabendike.
“We just did it for each other,” Dawson Grabendike said. “We all wanted to make history, so when you practice your own events, you know you’re doing it to help the team.”
Four athletes combining for eight individual championships speaks to the high-end talent on Kapaun’s roster. But another key to the team’s success was its depth, both athlete-wise and coaching-wise.
On top of Garcia, a former standout distance runner, he employs eight assistant coaches on the Kapaun track and field team: Marvin Estes (throws), John David Harris (sprints), James Pfeifer (hurdles), Marcus Summers (pole vault), Nick Lowe (throws), Anna Francka (horizontal jumps), Gretchen Bina (girls distance) and Lucy Torline (administrative).
“What makes us special at Kapaun is that these guys all have a common belief system with our faith, so they all love and support each other,” Garcia said. “And then iron sharpens iron. Everybody works hard and they see Jack out there working hard in the sprints and Daniel in the distance and Dawson in the hurdles and Jackson in the javelin and Thomas in the shot. So when the kids see it at that level all of the time, then it just becomes the standard.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2025 at 6:01 AM.
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