Entering the final day of competition with a 16-point lead over the rest of the field, the 12th-ranked Kansas State women’s track and field team used individual titles from Nina Schultz (high jump) and Shadae Lawrence (discus) to help propel them to the program’s third Big 12 Outdoor Conference Championship, and first since 2002, on Sunday at Rock Chalk Park.
According to a release from K-State Sports, the Wildcats finished the three-day competition with a program-best 133 total points, holding off a surging Texas team, which finished as the runner-up with 128.5 total points. It is K-State’s first women’s outdoor team title since 2002 when the team scored 121 points to win the crown in Columbia, Missouri.
Schultz also brought home High Point Scorer of the Meet honors, totaling 25 points for the women’s side after competing in the javelin throw, high jump, long jump, 100-meter hurdles and the 4×400-meter relay.
“I thought we were a year away because this is an extremely young team,” Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Cliff Rovelto said. “It is so hard to win a conference title. But this group did not want to wait a year. They wanted it now. They competed their guts out.”
Schultz’s big day started in the women’s high jump, where she took her first career Big 12 title with a huge personal-best mark of 1.82m/5-11.50. She opened at 1.63m/5-04.25 and was perfect through her first three bars before missing at once at 1.76m/5-09.25. She then cleared her next two bars, including the winning bar of 1.82m/5-11.50, on her first attempt to seal the title.
The New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada, native then stepped onto the track for the 100-meter hurdles finals, where she posted a time of 13.40 (3.5) to finish in seventh place and earn two more points for the team. She closed out the day as a member of the 4×400-meter relay, where she helped the Wildcats earn a sixth-place finish with a time of 3:36.94 to close out the meet.
Throwing at the same time as Schultz, Lawrence faced windy conditions on her first three attempts and sat in third place with a best throw of 54.86m/ heading into the finals. The sophomore then proved why she is the best discus thrower in the conference, shattering the school, facility and conference championship record on her fifth attempt with a mark of 62.59m/205-04. All three of her attempts in the finals were over 60 meters, making her the only athlete to eclipse the 60-meter mark in the event.
The turning point of the day was the Wildcats’ 4×100-meter relay squad, which finished runner-up in the race. Entering the day with the seventh-best time in the Big 12, the group made up of Akia Guerrier, A’Keyla Mitchell, Ranae McKenzie and Claudette Allen, finished in second place with a time of 44.93 to earn eight team points and extend the team’s lead.
There were plenty of other dominant results on the final day of the Big 12 Championship.
K-State saw its other three women’s high jumpers score as well, with Rhizlane Siba taking third place with a mark of 1.76m/5-09.25. Shanae McKenzie, a sophomore, also cleared 1.76m/5-09.25, a new personal best in the event, while fellow sophomore Morgan Coffman rounded out the scoring efforts with a clearance of 1.73m/5-08 to finish in seventh place.
Sophomore Shardia Lawrence had a big day in the field in triple jump, finishing runner-up by just one centimeter with a huge season-best jump of 13.79m/45-03 (3.4) to claim eight points. Freshman Konstantina Romaiou scored in the event with a mark of 13.08m/42-11 (4.3) to finish in seventh place.
On the track, McKenzie posted a time of 58.23 in the 400-meter hurdles to finish in third place. Mitchell, a junior, also finished in the top-five in her final, taking fifth place in the 200-meter dash with a season-best time of 23.07 (3.4). Senior Marija Stambolic took eighth in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:15.37.
The women earned their victory with plenty of help on Friday and Saturday, including conference titles by Janee’ Kassanavoid (hammer throw) and Morgan Wedekind (3,000-meter steeplechase). Full recaps from the first two days of competition can be found on the K-State track website here.
On the men’s side, there were plenty of scoring efforts on the final day of action in Lawrence. In the field, newcomer Javier Lowe took sixth place in his first triple jump competition of the outdoor season with a mark of 15.64m/51-03.75 (3.2). Sophomore Brett Neelly also scored in field events, finishing in eighth place in the discus with a toss of 51.70m/169-07. Neelly won the men’s shot put title on Saturday.
Junior Terrell Smith had a dominant day on the track. He opened the day in the 100-meter dash, where he placed fifth with a time of 10.19 (5.3). He returned an hour later to claim a bronze medal in the 200-meter dash, posting a season-best time of 20.44 (4.0). Elsewhere on the track, Kain Ellis took fourth place in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:52.29.
K-State returns to action in two weeks as the team heads to Austin, Texas, for the 2017 NCAA Division I Track and Field West Preliminary.
