Draudvila Captures Winter Pentathlon Title
Dec 10, 2004 | Track & Field
MANHATTAN - The 100th season of Kansas State track and field kicked off in stellar fashion with senior Darius Draudvila winning the men’s half of the Carol Robinson Winter Pentathlon on Friday at Ahearn Field House. The top women’s finisher for the Wildcats was junior Breanna Eveland.
Draudvila scored 4,116 points in the five events, including wins in the first three events. The Kaunas, Lithuania native won the 60-meter hurdles in 8.41 seconds, the long jump with a leap of 24-02.25 and a shot put of 44-09.75. His final point total was the second-highest score in the 15-year history of the Carol Robsinon Winter Pentathlon. The event record holder is current Kansas State assistant coach Steve Fritz, who was competing for Visa in 1993, with a score of 4,251 points. The event title was also the first for a K-State male athlete since the 1999 season when Justin Robinson won with a score of 3,726 points.
The other male Wildcat entered was junior James Ball, who finished in fifth. Ball, competing in his first event as a Wildcat, scored 3,312 points.
On the women’s side, Eveland registered 3,080 points on the afternoon. The Grand Rapids, Mich., native notched a third-place finish in the shot put with a distance of 37-01.75, for 616 points. The other two female athletes competing for K-State were junior Suzanne Steffens and senior Ashleigh Halderman. Steffens scored 2,767 points for an 11th-place finish and Halderman notched 2,668 points for a 12th-place finish. Anastasia Kyvelidou of Nebraska-Omaha won the women’s title with 4,013 points, the first time a female athlete has gone over 4,000 points since the 2001 season. This was the first time in Carol Robinson history that the male and female winners each totaled over 4,000 points in the same year.
Kansas State’s opening track and field weekend continues Saturday with the KSU All-Comers meet in Ahearn Field House. The field events will begin at 10:00 a.m. with the men’s weight throw. Events on the track will begin at 3:15 p.m. with the women’s one-mile run.
