With their indoor season winding down, K-State track and field traveled north to Lincoln, Nebraska to take part in the largest meet the team has encountered so far this season: the Frank Sevinge Husker Invitational.
The Husker Invitational brought together over 17 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams spanning NCAA Division I, NAIA and Junior College programs.
The K-State women’s team saw seven competitors notch top-10 finishes, earning just 25 points to take ninth place in the meet. The Wildcats finished 108 points behind the victorious host team, Nebraska.
In the men’s competition, with only three top-10 performances, the Wildcats struggled in the team standings, scoring just three points to take 15th place — 180.50 points behind the first-place Husker squad.
The story of the meet for K-State was the performance from junior thrower Dani Winters. Winters managed to notch her second shot put victory of the season and her third gold overall.
The bigger story for Winters, though, was that her throw of 17.45 meters in the shot put event broke Rebekah Green’s (2000-03) K-State school record of 17.28 meters. The Plainville, Kansas native has had the best performances of her career of late, throwing personal records in shot put in five-straight meets.
Also having a notable performance for the women was senior distance runner Laura Galvan. The distinguished distance runner managed to earn a third-place finish in the special 3,000 meter event.
In the men’s 3,000 meter event, sophomore Jeff Bachman secured an eighth-place finish with a time of 8:42.30, finishing just over 10 seconds behind the first-place finisher in the event.
Also with a top-10 finish for the men, senior Logan Smith finished in seventh place in the special-800 meter event, finishing with a time of 1:53.20.
Up next for K-State is the Tyson Invitational, which will take place Friday and Saturday in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The invitational is K-State’s final road meet for the team before coming back to Manhattan to conclude the indoor regular season, hosting the K-State open on Feb. 20.
