SLATE: Alex Delton feels the love

Diving right into the links today.

Football

On the scoreboard, it wasn’t the homecoming Alex Delton wanted. But the Mercury’s Ryan Black describes how, after the game, his former Kansas State teammates let the TCU quarterback know he’s still their brother in an emotional post-game handshake line. And of course, the guy at the end of that line was Skylar Thompson.

Also from Black, who draws on information from KSO, the 2021 recruiting class has officially gotten underway. During halftime at BSFS on Saturday, Blue Valley’s Dorian Stephens announced via Twitter that he’s found a home. The 6’3” 184 Stephens is a receiver for the Tigers, but he’ll probably end up at linebacker or safety as a Wildcat. Stephens was, in fact, the mysterious referent in tweets earlier in the month from Collin Klein and Taylor Braet; he called Chris Klieman weeks before making an official public announcement.

Still on the Ryan Black express, an explanation of why we saw Malik Knowles and not Philip Brooks on Saturday.

At Frogs o’ War, Melissa Treibwasser offers a post-mortem from the TCU perspective, and reports that TCU is... umm... a 2.5 point favorite this weekend. Over Texas. BWAHAHAHAHAH.

This week’s Big 12 power rankings by Berry Tramel of the Oklahoman differ a bit from our own JT VanGilder’s version, with Tramel slotting the Cats seventh. On the bright side, he has the Cats with a 10-2 record in the Big 12, so really all is well.

Golf

At the Jim West Invitational in San Marcos, Tex., Chloe Weir shot a 4-under 68 on the first 18, then followed that with a 1-under 71 to lead the Wildcats after Sunday play. That’s good for a tie for 12th overall. Niamh McSherry is also at 2-under after a 3-under first round, although she was 1-over in the second. Haley Vargas had trouble early, shooting 3-over, but rebounded in the afternoon with a 69 to finish the day at even par.

Weir is 3 strokes back of the tri-leaders, Amy Taylor and Gala Dumez of Texas Tech and Mississippi’s Julia Johnson. K-State, with an overall score of 7-under, is tied for tenth with UNLV and Florida State, 17 shots adrift of Tech and Ole Miss. Play concludes today, with an 8:30 first tee.

The men will also tee off at 8:30 this morning at the Royal Oaks Intercollegiate in Dallas. Tim Tillmanns is the subject of Corbin McGuire’s Sports Extra this morning.

Tennis

Maria Linares, Margot Decker, and Rosanna Maffei all bowed out of the ITA Regionals in Norman after reaching the round of 16. All three fell to players ranked in the ITA top 120, so it wasn’t a disaster; Decker had even knocked off 99th-ranked Maty Cancini of Iowa State on Saturday to get to the round of 16.

In the end, it was a success for the Wildcats. Linares was seeded 14th, Decker 24th, and Maffei 25th, so they all got as far or further than they should have been expected to. On Saturday, Karine Marine-Job — seeded 28th — fell in the round of 32, so she met her expectation as well. Only Anna Turco, the 12th seed, came up short of her seed. Both Job and Turco rebounded to claim consolation wins on Sunday.

The team will take a couple of weeks off before heading to Tempe, Ariz., for the ASU Invitational November 8-10.

Rowing

K-State B won the Collegiate 8+ 300m sprint at the Jayhawk Jamboree in Lawrence on Sunday, with the A crew taking third. The B crew also bested the A crew in the other races, as the two boats finished 2-3 behind Kansas A in the regular Collegiate 8+; K-State C was 7th. In the 4+ race, B and A finished 3-4.