K-State shows up strong at NCAA Indoor Championships

Kansas State's run at the Big 12 Championships ended with a loss to Kansas, and here's JT VanGilder with his recap of a trifecta of losses to the Jayhawks.

Meanwhile, championship week continues apace, and Jon Morse gets you caught up with Friday's action and charged up for the final full court press this weekend.

Kansas State's six-game winning streak was snapped yesterday with a 14-1 loss to Milwaukee at Tointon Family Stadium. This was the BatCats' first home loss of the season.

The team managed only five hits total, with three coming in the first inning. It was a bad outing from the mound too, with starter Corey Fischer giving up a leadoff walk, one-out RBI triple and single, another walk and two-run single before being replaced in the first inning by Colton Kalmus. He proceeded to give up a grand slam on a 3-2 pitch, giving Milwaukee a seven-run lead that pretty much put the game out of reach.

Afterwards, coach Brad Hill blamed a lack of focus and a loss of composure when the team was down by several runs.

The BatCats will try to even the series today. Parker Rigler will get the nod, and the game begins at 2:05 PM.

The men's and women's track and field teams had a great first day at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Birmingham, Alabama. Highlights included a top-three finish, a finals qualification, and Akela Jones being Akela Jones.

The men's team is tied for 16th place currently, with 5.5 points. This is a marked improvement over last year when the team failed to score any points at all. The points were mostly due to sophomore Christoff Bryan who tied for third in the high jump with a leap of 2.18m. Last year, he finished 14th. In the long jump, Ifeanyichukwu Otuonye finished 11th in the long jump with a mark of 7.39m.

For the women, A'Keyla Mitchell finished second in the semifinals of the 200m dash. Her time of 23.26 is the third best in school history and just one second off the pace she set last year at the same event.

The rest of the fireworks came from Jones, competing in only her second pentathlon. She took first in the shot put and long jump. Naturally, she also finished first in the high jump with a mark of 1.98m, just one centimeter off a new indoor world record. However, the mark is good for a new personal best, school record, meet record, collegiate pentathlon high jump record, and a Barbados record. It also tied for the best mark in open collegiate history. Unfortunately, she tripped over the last hurdle in the 60m hurdles event and did not finish the 800m, leaving her in 14th place for the pentathlon.

Jones and teammate Kimberly Williamson will be in the women's high jump event, Dani Winters will compete in the shot put, and Mitchell will close out the evening with the 200m finals.