After K-State Track and Field won its fourth Big 12 Championship behind a program-best 135 points at the Big 12 Outdoor Championship last weekend under Cliff Rovelto, the Wildcats’ Director of Track and Field and Cross Country was named the 2018 Big 12 Women’s Coach of the Year, the league office announced Friday. This is according to a release from K-State.
The honor marks the second consecutive coach of the year award for Rovelto, whose women’s squad has won back-to-back league titles, and is the fourth of his storied career. Rovelto’s four coach of the year awards are the most of any active women’s coach in the Big 12 Conference and the third most all-time, behind only Texas’ Beverly Kearney (7) and Texas A&M’s Pat Henry (5).
“Under any circumstance to win a championship is not an easy accomplishment, it takes a lot of people,” Rovelto said. “The women’s team competed so well, they really did a phenomenal job, as they have all season.”
Rovelto led the Wildcats to their second Big 12 Championship in as many years last weekend, as the Wildcats became just the second program in the Big 12 to have won back-to-back Big 12 titles on two or more occasions. In addition, only one active Big 12 program has won more Big 12 women’s titles since the creation of the Big 12 prior to the 1997 season, as the Wildcats have claimed Championships in 2001, 2002, 2017 and most recently, 2018.
At this year’s Big 12 Conference Championship, the Wildcats were led by individual championships from Janee’ Kassanavoid (hammer throw) and Ranae McKenzie (400-meter hurdles) and an all-around effort from the team. K-State benefitted from 22 individuals scoring in events, including five individuals scoring in multiple events. The Wildcats outscored second-place Texas 135 to 131, with the four-point margin over Texas being the fourth-closest in Big 12 history.
