K-State Track Cleans up at Wildcat Invitational

Competing in triangular duals against Oklahoma State and Tulsa on Friday, both the K-State men's and women's indoor track teams captured wins at Ahearn in the 2014 Wildcat Invitational. The men beat Oklahoma State 82-58 and Tulsa 90-49; the women took down the Cowboys 90-61 and the Golden Hurricane 93-38. (Oklahoma State beat Tulsa in their paired scores 65-53 and 89-35, respectively.)

Sixteen Wildcats took top honors on the day. On the track, Erica Twiss won the 60m hurdles, while Carlos Rodriguez and Jordan Matthews swept the 200m. Angele Hart captured the 400m, and Tia Gamble won the 600-yard with the eighth-best time in school history at 1:22.25. Sonia Gaskin also posted the schools eighth-best time in winning the 800m at 2:10.17.

The men's 4x400 team of Ifeanyichuku Otuonye, Tyris Jefferson, Kaneil Harrison, and Chris Campbell took first, as did the women's team of Gaskin, Twiss, Gamble, and Sarah Kolmer, who set a meet record and the school's seventh-best time ever with a run of 3.43.40.

The Wildcats were robbed of another first place finish on the cinders by one of their own. Devin Dick posted the best time among collegiate competition in the men's 60m hurdles; he was beaten to the finish line, however, by former Wildcat Jeffery Julmis, competing as an unattached participant as a training run. Robbery occurred in the field events as well. Rachel Proteau had the best collegiate performance in the women's high jump, but came up nine inches short of China's Xing Juan Zhang. Kirsten Petry would have won the pole vault if not for the presence of Central Missouri alum Brittany Kallenberger, who bested Petry by a quarter-inch shy of a foot.

The final theft of the day didn't cost the Wildcats a win. Dick and Adam Deterding both went out of the men's high jump at 6'5", two inches behind Oklahoma State's Taylor Buck. The three then sat and watched as China's Yu Wang and Guo Wei Zhang went at it with K-State's own Olympic silver medalist Eric Kynard, who finally won the event at 7'7".

There were still Wildcat winners in the field events, though. Jharyl Bowry posted the seventh-best mark in school history when he broke 25 feet in the long jump to claim a win, while Twiss captured the women's long jump at 19'6", her personal best. Otuonye and Alyssa Kelly swept the triple jump events, Kyle Wait took first in the pole vault, and Sara Savatovic won the weight throw with a toss of 65'11", fourth-best in school history and a personal best. In the shot put, Ryan Hershberger and Dani Winters swept the event, both landing top-10 school marks and personal bests at 60'6.75" and 52'0" respectively.

In all, the Wildcats won 16 of the 32 events on the day, which would have been 19 if not for non-collegiate competition. A huge outing at Ahearn for Cliff Rovelto's charges, their second dominant performance in as many weeks. They'll be at home again this weekend, hosting UMKC, Fort Hays State, and Oklahoma Baptist in the K-State Invitational at Ahearn on Saturday. Admission is free, and events will begin at 11am. This will be the Cats' last home event for nearly a month, as they'll visit Iowa State, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Iowa State again before coming home for the K-State Open on February 21 to close the regular season; the Big 12 Indoor Championships will take place the following week in Ames.