SLATE: Amaad Wainright released by Kansas State

In news which was unsurprising on its own but may perhaps be in terms of timing, Kansas State has released junior guard Amaad Wainwright. Wainwright himself made the announcement via Twitter:

The proximal cause of the decision is of course Wainwright’s arrest on felony charges last week in an incident involving gunfire allegedly emanating from his vehicle. The way things are being phrased here, however, offers the implication that Wainwright may have requested the release himself in order to just get the likely outcome over with.

Stories via Kellis Robinett at the Star and Tim Bisel at the Capital-Journal.

Track and Field

At the Commonwealth Games last night, former Wildcat Alyx Treasure was one of four women left standing after clearing 1.89m in the women’s high jump competition. Unfortunately, Treasure missed all three of her attempts at 1.93 meters and as a result missed out on joining her fellow Canadian and current Wildcat Nina Schultz as a 2018 Commonwealth Games medalist.

That result puts an end to any further Wildcat hopes in the Gold Coast, but the members of the team which are still stateside are busy down in Austin this weekend at the Texas Invitational. The meet was delayed yesterday due to weather, but got underway in time to complete day one events. The K-State men and women are both currently in second place, both trailing the host Longhorns.

The men have 42 points, 19 behind Texas... but have a commanding 21-point lead over third-place Michigan. The big difference comes down to a single event: heading into the final event of day one, the men’s 1500m, the Wildcats and Longhorns were tied at 39. Junior Kurt Loevenstein finished fifth in that race to pocket three points for K-State, but Texas hauled in a whopping 22 points as John Rice, Charles Mills, and Logan Emery finished 1-2-4.

The men were led by senior Terrell Smith, who didn’t exactly win the men’s 200m, but did snag ten points for posting the fastest collegiate score in the final with a 20.60s time. (USA sprinter Bryce Robinson won at 20.41s.) The Wildcats also finished 1-2 in the men’s 3000m steeplechase, albeit with a truncated field of only four runners; Colton Donahue and Ethan Powell brought home 18 points for that effort. Brett Neelly took fourth in the shot put with a throw of 18.98m, and Mitch Dixon got the day started with a school-record 67.14m mark in the hammer throw, good for third place.

In the women’s competition, K-State’s lead over third-place Texas-Arlington is even wider: 27 points. They’re also much closer to Texas, as the Longhorns lead 68-55 going into day two. As is so often the case, the Wildcats dominated the field, while Texas ruled the track; the middle-distance runs especially hurt K-State and aided Texas, with the Longhorns scopping up a total of 30 points in the women’s 800m and 1500m while the Wildcats came up empty.

On the other hand, a brilliant 1-2-4 finish for Janee’ Kassanavoid (65.09m), Helene Ingvaldsen (63.76), and Shaelyn Ward (55.95) in the hammer throw started K-State off with a quick 22 points as soon as competition finally got underway. Taylor Latimer and Ashley Petr just missed adding a couple more points to that total, finishing ninth and tenth, respectively. The Cats also had two long jumpers just miss out on points as Shardia Lawrence and Claudette Allen finished 9-10; Wurrie Njadoe took first with a jump of 6.16m, while Konstantina Romaiou leapt 5.98m to finish third, sandwiching Longhorn junior Georgia Wahl (6.09m) and bringing home another 16 points.

The final win of the day for the Wildcat women was courtesy of Latimer, who put the shot 14.90m to grab the meet title. K-State’s remaining seven points on the day were courtesy of A’Keyla Mitchell, whose 23.24 second sprint was good for fourth place in the women’s 200m.

Today sees the finals for both men and women in the discus, pole vault, high jump, triple jump, 100m, 4x100m, 110m hurdles, 400m, 4x400, 400m hurdles, 800m, 3000m, and 5000m.

Tennis

A matchup of top-40 programs took place at Genesis Health Club in Wichita yesterday, with the 36th-ranked Wildcats falling 4-1 to the 34th-ranked hosts, Wichita State. Rosanna Maffei snatched the only win on the day for K-State (14-6) in their final road match of the year, defeating Marta Belluci 6-0, 6-0.

The final three matches of the year will be held at Mike Goss Tennis Stadium, beginning with tomorrow’s Sunflower Showdown clash against 17th-ranked Kansas.

Golf

Well, lookie here. Jeremy Gandon fired a 6-under 66 at the Finkbine Golf Course in Iowa City and clings to a one-stroke lead over Iowa State’s Denzel Ieremia after the first round of the Hawkeye Invitational. Ben Fernandez is tied for fifth at 2-under, and only one Wildcat is more than a stroke over par after 18 holes. Result? K-State sits in second place, a mere two shots back of the Cyclones and three strokes ahead of Iowa and Minnesota. The final two rounds begin at 9:00am CT today.

MEAT JUDGING

K-State is, once again, national champions. On Monday, the Wildcat meat evaluators took top honors at the 2018 Collegiate Meat Animal Evaluation Contest down in Lubbock.

Baseball

BatCats got beat 21-4 by Texas Tech, which had ONE GUY with nine RBI. Shut up. We’re not discussing it. We refuse.