Hitting the road for a second-straight week, the K-State track and field team is due to take part in the 40th annual Frank Sevigne Husker Invitational starting today in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The women’s squad saw a jump in their rankings, moving up a spot to No. 11 nationally – their highest ranking ever – and a No. 1 ranking in the Midwest region for the second-straight week. In the Big 12, the women’s team is the second-highest-ranked team in the conference behind No. 7 Texas.
On the men’s side, they also saw improvement in the rankings, jumping six spots to No. 28 in the country. In the Midwest region, the men are second behind Illinois.
Last week in New Mexico, the Wildcats saw their high jumpers lead the team to success.
Freshman high jumper Nate Gipson captured his first gold medal as a Wildcat after coming up short several times at the start of the season. Gipson claimed the victory with a jump of 2.16 meters while not faulting on any of his three attempts.
On the women’s side, senior high jumper Alyx Treasure continued to succeed by adding another first place finish to her already long list of accomplishments.
This weekend, the Wildcats will have their full team together after splitting to go to separate meets last weekend. The multi-athletes will rejoin the team after having a very successful outing during the Jayhawk Classic.
In Lawrence, the multi-athletes managed to put together a near sweep in the multi-events, taking first and second in both the heptathlon and pentathlon.
Junior heptathlete Reinis Kregers managed to win with a personal best 5,777 points — fourth best in K-State history — which propelled him into sixth place in the Division I heptathlon event.
For the women, freshman Akela Jones managed to notch the second-best mark in school history with 4,402 points. Jones also secured four separate K-State top-10 marks in the 60-meter hurdle, high jump, shot put and long jump. Jones was named Big 12 Athlete of the Week for her performance at the Jayhawk Classic.
The Sevinge Husker Invitational starts today at noon with the multi-events, followed by the field events before finishing up with the track events. The finals for all events will take place on Saturday.
