For the first time in our year of doing this Collegian Athlete of the week, we have a winner go back-to-back.
K-State football player Alex Barnes is the male athlete of the week after a great day on Saturday in a 31-12 win over the Oklahoma State Cowboys.
The junior running back rushed for a career-high 34 times on Saturday and ran for 181 yards with four touchdowns. All four of his touchdowns were in the second half. Two games ago against Baylor, he had 250 yards and three touchdowns on the ground in a 37-34 loss to the Bears.
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K-State football shows offensive, defensive improvement in win over Oklahoma State
As good as Barnes has been, head coach Bill Snyder attributes some of his success to the team’s offensive line.
“I think our running game – we’ve addressed this week in and week out – we’ve gotten better, gotten better, gotten better,” Snyder said after the win. “Alex (Barnes) gets a lot of yards, but you get a lot of yards because somebody up front is knocking someone back and our offensive line continues to get better and improve. They did a nice job today.”
Barnes was named Big 12 Offensive Player of the Week on Monday for his performance.
After big performances in each of the last two games, Barnes said that the game is getting more fun.
“It’s a lot of fun, football is a lot more fun when you are successful. We really struggled during the early parts of the season, but we are finally getting the train on track and getting everything rolling,” Barnes said.
The K-State football team has this week off before going to Oklahoma next Saturday.
For the women’s athlete of the week, it goes to senior Haley Sutter who had a goal on senior day for the K-State soccer team in a 2-1 loss to TCU.
Sutter had one shot and one goal on Sunday in her final match in Manhattan.
“It was really exciting to score a goal since it was my last home game,” Sutter said. “It was good to end on that, but it was unfortunate we didn’t win the game.”
Related:
K-State gives up late goal in loss to TCU
After Sunday’s match, head coach Mike Dibbini said that Sutter did a nice job of getting in position to make the goal.
The soccer team will play three straight road matches, taking on Baylor and Texas coming up this weekend.
