The Kansas State men and women’s track and field teams have done well since the start of the of the new year.
To start off 2018, the Wildcats hosted the Wildcat Invitational on Jan. 6 where they took home 22 event titles. The men’s team swept the rest of the competing teams including Prairie View A&M (87-70), the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (95-53), and Texas Southern University (89-52). The women’s team defeated Prairie View (75-65) and Arkansas-Pine Bluff (94-38).
“To see as many kids do better as they did before break, and I kind of anticipated that, all in all it was a pretty solid meet,” head coach Cliff Rovelto said to K-State Sports.
Senior Rhizlane Siba set a personal record in the high jump at 5-11 1/2, making the jump on just her second attempt. Senior Mitch Dixon threw 68-4 1/4 in the men’s weight throw to beat his personal record set in December and win the event. Sophomore Helene Ingvaldsen won the women’s weight throw with a throw of 65 1/2.
On Jan. 13, K-State claimed their first KU-KSU-WSU Triangular trophy since 2015 with both teams beating Kansas (225.5) and Wichita State (174.5) with 230 combined points at Ahearn Field House.
The Wildcats claimed the High Point Scorer honors with sophomore Nina Schultz, who accumulated 15.25 points in this meet.
“I think we had some really strong performances,” Rovelto said to K-State Sports. “We had some individuals with lifetime personal bests. At this point of the year, that is pretty good, so there were some really good things from today.”
Senior Terrell Smith tied a meet record in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.75 seconds. Smith also set a new personal and meet record of 21.38 seconds in the men’s 200-meter dash.
Freshman Tejaswin Shankar competed in the men’s high jump where he won the event with a height of 7-1 3/4. This was Shankar’s first time competing in this event in his college career.
On Jan. 10, K-State’s women track team was ranked No. 18 with 43.43 points by USTFCCCA in the Preseason Poll. The women’s team has been ranked in the top 25 each of the last four years. The men’s team came in at No. 71 with 7.64 points in the rankings.
