SLATE: Kansas State Rowing defends Sunflower Showdown title

It was a banner day for two of K-State’s non-revenue sports yesterday, while the spring’s premier team sport suffered a mighty blow.

At Wyandotte County Lake in Kansas City, Kan., the K-State rowing team pulled off a clean sweep of their arch-rivals from down the river, capturing a 22-0 win in the 2019 Dillons Sunflower Showdown. All five boats crossed the finish line ahead of their Jayhawk counterparts in a comprehensive beatdown not seen in seven years (a 20-0 win in 2012).

The defense of the Sunflower title, the sixth win in nine years for K-State, caps off a very successful regular season. Next up: the Big 12 Championships two weekends from now at Oak Ridge, Tenn.

Track and Field

Debuting the new look at at R.V. Christian Track, K-State’s track and field teams pulled off a quadruple victory in the double-dual Ward Haylett Invitational. The men took down Kansas 83-42 and UMKC 93-25, while the women prevailed over the same opponents by scores of 76-33 and 81-22, respectively.

K-State took 12 gold medals. Ariel Okorie won the women’s javelin and 100m hurdles, Kyle Parr won the men’s javelin, Tejaswin Shankar won the men’s high jump (of course), Jullane Walker and Tom Pyle went 1-2 in the men’s long jump, Helene Ingvaldsen captured the women’s hammer with Shaelyn Ward, Taylor Latimer, and Ashley Petr finishing 2-3-4, Konstantina Romaiou and Shardia Lawrence were 1-2 in the women’s long jump, Brett Neelly and Latimer captured the men’s and women’s shot put titles, Cayli Hume won the women’s 800m, Lauren Taubert and Okorie were 1-2 in the women’s 400m hurdles, and Petr finished first in the women’s discus.

Parr and Romaiou set personal bests in their wins, and 16 other Wildcat performances on the day were also personal bests.

It was the final home performance for Lawrence, Neelly, and Pyle, as well as for Nick Albus, Asha Cave, Morgan Coffman, Max Estill, Devie Freeman II, NaTron Gipson, Joe Gorthy, Kurt Loevenstein, and Ranae McKenzie (who limited her participation in the event to the 100m hurdles in preparation for the post-season).

The event also saw the return of several old Wildcat stars, competing as unattached athletes; A’keyla Mitchell technically “won” the women’s 100m and 200m, with Cave posting the fastest collegiate time in both races, while Cara Melgares won the women’s 1500m, all-time greats Kim Williamson and Alyx Treasure turned up for the women’s high jump with Williamson taking first, and Terrell Smith dropped by to win the men’s 100m and 200m.

Next weekend in Norman, it’s the Big 12 Outdoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Oklahoma in Norman. The women will be trying to three-peat as Big 12 champs.

Baseball

The BatCats fell to 22-25, 6-10 after dropping the completion of Friday’s suspended game against 15th-ranked Baylor (31-12, 15-3) 4-3, and then losing yesterday’s regularly schedule contest by an 11-6 count.

Baylor scored early in the resumption of Friday’s game, drawing a walk with the bases packed to take a 4-3 lead. K-State rallied repeatedly over the final three innings, but couldn’t close the deal and get a run across.

In Saturday’s game, Baylor jumped out to an early 5-0 lead, and added another five runs in the fourth to go up 10-2. K-State tried to peck away at the lead, but couldn’t make up that much ground.

The series finale is today at noon on FOX Southwest Plus, if you get that channel.