K-State Slate: 5.18.15 - Big 12 Spring Championships Weekend

K-State's men finished a disappointing eighth -- out of nine, because West Virginia doesn't have men's track -- but the women came one sprinter short of claiming the crown as a huge K-State lead feel prey to the supernatural depth of the Longhorn sprinter pool. We saw this movie earlier this year at the indoor championships. The good news: 114.5 of K-State's 129.5 points this weekend return next year.

In the fullness of time, we might count the BatCats lucky. Yesterday, the Wildcats dropped their season finale to Kansas 9-6 and Texas roughed up Baylor 11-1. Reverse both of those results, and K-State stumbles into the fifth seed of the tournament -- meaning they'd have to get through TCU just to reach the championship game. Instead, K-State will enter next weekend's Big 12 Tournament as the sixth seed, drawing Oklahoma in the opener at 4pm on Wednesday, and then they'll get either Oklahoma State or West Virgina, who'll play the late game. Wednesday morning's action at OneOK Field in Tulsa will open with Texas Tech facing Texas and TCU taking on Baylor. Tickets are on a per-session basis, #10-25 for each pair of games. All games will air on Fox College Sports except the championship, which airs at noon Sunday on Fox Sports 1.

It's cruel, but K-State must win the Big 12 title game without losing along the way to achieve a winning record on the season.

It wasn't a banner day for the K-State Crew at Melton Hill Lake, but it wasn't a disaster either. Texas dominated the event to take home the Big 12 Championship, and while K-State didn't finish better than third in any race, they finished third in the two most important ones: 1V8 and 2V8. As a result, the Wildcat crew finished fourth in the standings for the Big 12's automatic qualifier to the NCAA championship -- but third in the Big 12 Championship, as the affiliate members are apparently ineligible for that title. The automatic qualifier standings are based only on the 1V8, 2V8, and 1V4 standings, while the Big 12 title adds the points for the 2V4 and 3V8 crews.

K-State's downfall, if there was one, was the failure of the 1V4 team to reach the grand final. Points in that race would have been enough to move up a spot in the AQ standings, and possibly even into second place.

In news that will surprise precisely nobody except the delusional, and about which certain adherents to a bizarre religion based on chalk and imaginary wildlife will have the nerve to gloat as if it means anything other than the sky is blue and water is wet, big fish target LeGerald Vick out of Memphis chose Kansas over Kansas State last night. You may note Kentucky isn't mentioned there, and that's because Vick reached his decision after visiting the two Kansas schools, cancelling his trip to Lexington.

Robert Streb finished in fourth place at the Wells Fargo Championship, tied with Phil Mickelson and Topeka's Gary Woodland at 12-under and nine strokes back of winner Rory McElroy.