Kansas State’s Nina Schultz sets Canadian U-20 heptathlon mark

Sorry we’re late. Double Zero is out of the country, and your benevolent despot is dying of Cap’n Trips. Yet we persevere, because we must.

Football

Despite a rough start, D.J. Reed developed into the Big 12’s defensive newcomer of the year last year. At the Capital-Journal, Ken Corbitt digs deeper into Reed’s story.

Colton Pouncey of PowerMizzou (Rivals) profiles incoming Mizzou safety Kaleb Prewett in a story which somehow never mentions what was almost certainly one of the primary reasons he transferred.

Baseball

The streak is over. Aided by a Jake Scudder grand slam, K-State (16-13, 1-6) picked up their first win of the Big 12 season with a 10-4 rout of Oklahoma State (17-12, 1-6) in Stillwater. In the process, the BatCats technically escape the Big 12 cellar.

Basketball

First, the K-State portion of this section: Ken Corbitt reports that Lainie Page has left the building. Jeff Mittie announced yesterday that the younger of the Wamego sisters has decided to head elsewhere. It’s an interesting situation, as the transfer of elder sister Kaylee from Nebraska was both result and cause of Lainie’s decision to attend K-State. Kaylee, who’ll be a senior in 2017-18, will be sticking around. Lainie may have found herself pushed out of the rotation as a result of other recruits who came in during her redshirt and freshman years, during much of which Lainie was injured.

In more general news, as you’ve all heard from every sports outlet on the planet by now, Wichita State is joining the American Athletic Conference as an all-sport member, just without a football team. That balances out Navy’s presence as a football-only member of the conference.

The move is big for the Shockers, and perhaps most importantly rekindles their ancient rivalry with Tulsa. It’s also huge for the Missouri Valley. The Valley is no stranger to turmoil; even before the 1927 departure of Kansas, K-State, Iowa State, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Missouri they’d already experienced defections. Nothing has changed in the 90 years since. The question now, of course, is where the Valley goes from here.

Valparaiso is the most-mentioned target, and FanRag’s Jon Rothstein reiterates this in a report which also mentions that the Valley is seriously looking at Murray State. That’s a curious pairing, as Murray State has a full-scholarship FCS football program which would presumably be obligated to leave the Ohio Valley if they joined the Missouri Valley for all other sports. Would Murray State want to deal with having to play North Dakota State, Youngstown State, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State, and Illinois State on the reg?

Other frequently-mentioned possibilities for the Valley include MVFC teams whose basketball programs are in the Summit League, including the Dakota schools, as well as current Atlantic 10 member Saint Louis. Our personal dark horse is former Valley member New Mexico State, which has a high-quality basketball program but is trapped within the decaying corpse of the WAC.

Track and Field

Akela Jones is gone, but the K-State heptathlon train keeps rolling. Yesterday in Tucson at the Jim Click Combined Events, freshman Nina Schultz blew the field away by over 600 points to claim her first collegiate heptathlon win. Schultz racked up 6,021 points on the weekend, which is the third-best score in the world this year and second-best collegiate score. Schultz also set the Canadian U-20 record, which is dissected in detail by Steve Ewen at the Province (Vancouver, B.C.). Teammate Ariel Okorie also medaled, taking third; Lauren Taubert was sixth, but was still closer to silver medalist Kara Hallock of Oregon State than Hallock herself was to Schultz. In the decathlon, Simone Fassina took fifth place.

Golf

Paige Nelson entered this morning tied for third place, five shots back of Arizona State’s Monica Vaughn (who shot a ridiculous 64), after Friday’s first round at the Ping/ASU Invitational in Tempe, Ariz. K-State finished the round tied for seventh, six over and 16 shots back of co-leaders Arizona State and Baylor.

They’re still on the course at this writing, and Nelson has slipped to fifth, but is under par through 16 on the day. The good news is that she’s gained two strokes on Vaughn, who’s one-over through the front nine. K-State has moved up a spot to fifth at five-over, but they’ve lost a shot to now sole leader Arizona State.

Tennis

K-State’s weekend swing through Oklahoma got off to a bad start yesterday, as the RacketCats were swept 4-0 by Oklahoma State at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater. Tomorrow they’re in Norman, and we’ll remind you that their match against the Sooners will be televised at noon on Fox College Sports Central.

Other

The future of the Dusty Bookshelf is up in the air after last month’s fire, and that doesn’t just mean the business. Mary Shirk of the Manhattan Mercury, via the Capital-Journal, reports that regulations requiring the building’s owner to either repair or demolish the structure are looming large, with a May 6 deadline.