Women’s track team in lead at Big 12s

Track

After the first day of competition, the Kansas State women’s track team is currently leading the field, but Iowa State and Texas are both close behind.

The women only competed in one individual event yesterday, the hammer throw. It helps that they pretty much owned the event though. With Helene Ingvaldsen taking gold, and teammates Shaelyn Ward (2), Taylor Latimer (4), and Ashley Petr (7) all making the podium, the Wildcats cleaned up to the tune of 25 points, all their scoring for Day 1.

We talk a lot about being #HighJumpU, but we might actually be #HammerThrowU too.

With four events (100H, high jump, shot put, 200m) of the women’s heptathlon complete, Kansas State’s Lauren Taubert is in second place with 3,449 points so far. That’s just 33 points off the lead, currently held by Ashtim Zamzow of Texas. Ariel Okorie and Morgan Coffman are also in contention, with 3,204 (good for 3rd place) and 3,121 points (6th). Oh, and by the way, Taubert, Okorie, and Coffman were the top three finishers in the heptathlon high jump, because of course they were.

On the men’s side, the Wildcats had a total of 12 points on the first day, thanks to podium finishes in three different events. Ethan Powell ran a 29.55 race in the 10,000m, good for a 6th place finish and a spot in Kansas State’s top five marks in the event ever. The kicker is that this was Powell’s first attempt at the event as a Wildcat.

Meanwhile, in the men’s hammer throw, Keenan Hildebrandt and Cameron Lewis both made the podium, with seventh and eighth place finishes in the event. In the men’s javelin event, two Wildcats made the podium, with Logan Wolfley finishing fourth with a throw of 58.95m, and teammate Simone Fassina joining him on the podium with a 55.11m effort, good for eighth place.

Fassina did his real work of the day in the decathlon though. He managed personal best marks in four of the five events (100m, long jump, high jump, shot put, 400m) held yesterday, and with 3,930 points so far, he’s currently just 12 points out of first place, currently shared between Texas Tech’s Axel Hubert and Oklahoma’s Kristo Simulask. Wildcat Aaron Booth is in fourth place currently (3,887) with Max Estill in sixth place (3,593).

Day 2 action begins with the decathlon and heptathlon events at 10 AM today. For live results and updates, follow @KStateTFXC on Twitter.

Baseball

The first game of the last home series of this season did not go well for Kansas State as the team was shut out 6-0 by No. 20 West Virginia.

‘Eers starter Alek Manoah took the mound and struck out 13 BatCats in eight innings, stifling the Wildcats to their lowest hit total and highest number of strikeouts this season.

Kansas State pitcher Caleb Littlejim pitched his longest game of the season, nearly seven innings. Unfortunately, he came up short in the first five innings, when West Virginia built a 5-0 lead. After that, Littlejim did manage to retire ten straight batters and only gave up two hits, but it was not enough to key the BatCats to victory.

The series continues today at 4 PM. It is also Senior Day, and the team will honor its four seniors in a ceremony right before the game.

Basketball

On Friday, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee proposed changing the three-point line to the official FIBA distance, 22 ft 1 ³⁄₄ inches. The rule still has to be approved by the Playing Rules Oversight Panel in June, but if adopted, the new rule would apply to all Division I teams in the 2019-20 season, and to Division II and III teams in the 2020-21 season.

Many of the proposed rule changes seem built to make the game faster and to encourage more scoring. Is this a response to the defensive strategies deployed by Texas Tech, Virginia, and yes, even Kansas State? Discuss.