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Track & Field

#HighJumpU is back! For the first time since 2018, a Kansas State Wildcat is again king of the high jump as Tejaswin Shankar reclaimed his crown after clearing 2.27m/7-5.25 to earn the 2022 NCAA Men’s High Jump Championship last Friday. Of course, he didn’t fall far in the intervening years, finishing runner-up in both 2019 and 2021 (of course there was no competition in 2020), but the return to the very top of the podium is an incredible parting accomplishment for the 5th-year senior. He finishes his career as an eight-time All-American in the high jump (combined indoor and outdoor), including a four-time First Team Outdoor All-American.

Overall, the Wildcats did well enough at the 2022 NCAA Outdoor Championships, with six Wildcats earning All-American honors — five Second Team plus Shankar’s First Team honor. Sophomore Kade McCall began to run with his 13th-place finish in the men’s hammer throw on Wednesday, followed by Top 16 finishes by seniors Kassidy Johnson (women’s 800 meters) and Tommi Hintnaus (women’s pole vault), and freshman Emil Uhlin (decathlon) on Thursday. Uhlin hit personal records in both the 110m hurdles as well as the 1,500m on his way to claiming a 12th place finish in the decathlon. The final All-American was Kyle Alcine, who cleared a mark of 2.10m/6-10.75 to tie for 15th place in the men’s high jump.

With the conclusion of the Outdoor Championships, Kansas State is officially done with athletics competitions for the 2021-2022 school year.

Schedules

We’ve had two 2022 season schedule drops the past week. Plus single-game tickets for K-State football go on sale this week.

K-State soccer’s schedule is out for it’s seventh season of competition, and features 10 contests at Buser Family Park, including non-conference tilts against Northwestern and Purdue, as well as the Sunflower Showdown near the end of October. The Wildcats will return 11 of its top 12-point scorers for the 2022 season, including leading goal scorers Marisa Weichel and Kyler Goins with six and four goals, respectively. Tickets go on sale July 6th.

The Big 12 portion of the volleyball schedule is now known, and the VolleyCats open Big 12 play at home versus KU to start the conference slate. After going with weekend double-headers for conference games the past two seasons (which seemed to work out really well for travel), the Big 12 has decided to revert to it’s “traditional” home-and-home format with weekday games back in the rotation. This will be the third, and final, year of the Wildcats hosting their home matches in Bramlage Colisuem after moving over from Ahearn Fieldhouse in 2020. Next year will be the first in the currently-under-construction Morgan Family Arena, set to open prior to the 2023 season.

Basketball

Despite starting summer workouts with just eight players on scholarship, the Wildcats are in good spirits at the start of the summer practice session — “life is good”, according to coaches and players. Between practices, Jerome Tang and his staff are still trying to fill those remaining roster spots, as well as get a strong start to the 2023 class, which begins signing in November.

Football

Joe Hall, K-State’s Director of Football Student-Athlete Development and former Wildcats running back, has a new book coming out that he’s calling a “pseudo-autobiography”, as it highlights his time as both an athlete and an administrator. The book is called ‘Pay for Play: High Stakes and Mental State’, and should be available later this summer.

Enjoy it while you can, because this may be the final season in Manhattan for several potential stars of the K-State football team. One of those is Cooper Beebe, who PFF currently rates as the best interior line prospect of the guys expected to be available for the 2023 NFL Draft. Of course he spent the 2021 season at left tackle, an outside line spot, but that won’t dissuade NFL scouts from seeing his potential inside — in much the same way that playing tackle didn’t hurt Cody Whitehair and Dalton Risner, who were both selected early in the 2nd round as guards (and Whitehair now primarily plays center).