Wildcats Look for NCAA Indoor Titles This Weekend
Mar 07, 2005 | Track & Field
MANHATTAN - This weekend is what Kansas State track and field has been working towards since early December, the 2005 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. K-State will be sending nine athletes to this year’s championship; five male and four female.
Representing the men will be junior Coby Cost (weight throw), senior Darius Draudvila (heptathlon), junior Kyle Lancaster (high jump), junior Christian Smith (800) and senior Erik Sproll (800). The women will feature junior Breanna Eveland (pole vault), redshirt freshman Laci Heller (weight throw), senior Chaytan Hill (triple jump) and Lysaira Roman-Del Valle (800). Lancaster, Hill and Smith will represent K-State for the second straight year.
K-State will look to improve on its 2004 performance as both the men’s and women’s teams finished with 16th-place finishes. The men tabulated 14 points and the women 13. In the final trackwire.com prediction of the 2005 indoor championships, the Wildcats were slated for 15th on the men’s side with 17 points. The women fell out of the final ranking, but had been ranked as high as ninth. LSU is the defending champion in both genders, but host Arkansas is favored to possibly unseat the Tigers on the men’s side.
K-State at the National Meet
Kansas State will send nine athletes to Fayetteville this season. Last year, the Wildcats had seven participants on the national stage, five women and two men.
Overall, the Wildcats have finished as a team in the top-10 on the men’s side seven times, with the last top-10 performance coming in 1993 with an eight-place finish and 16 points. The men have doubled their luck in top-20 performances with 14, including last year’s 16th place finish. The last male K-State national champion was Percell Gaskins in the high jump at the 1993 championships. Gaskins soared to a height of 7-05.25.
The women have finished in the top-10 three times since the inception of the women’s meet in 1983. K-State has garnered 10 top-20 finishes, including last year’s 16th-place ranking. K-State has never had a female win a national championship at the indoor meet.
In the history of the program, K-State has had 138 NCAA Indoor All-Americans, 77 male and 61 female.
NCAA Participant Profiles
The following is a capsule of each K-State NCAA Indoor Championship participant.
Coby Cost, Jr., Weight Throw, El Dorado, Kan.
Big 12 Indoor champion in the weight throw with a distance of 70-01.00...reset the K-State record in the weight throw during KSU Open, Feb. 19, with an NCAA automatic qualifying toss of 70-11.25...the distance is the third-longest in the nation this season...ranked fourth in March 1 Trackwire “Dandy Dozen” in weight throw...was named Big 12 Athlete of the Week for Jan. 25-30 and Feb. 14-20 , only two-time recipient this season...has won seven straight weight throw titles this season and 20 of 25 in his career...finished 14th as a freshman at 2003 NCAA Indoor Championships (65-01.50).
Breanna Eveland, Jr., Pole Vault, Grand Rapids, Mich.
Finished fourth in 2005 Big 12 women’s pole vault at a height of 13-05.25...named Big 12 Athlete of the Week for Jan. 18-23, set and reset the K-State record in the women's pole vault for most of the season, finally settling at 13-09.25...ranked sixth in March 1 Trackwire “Dandy Dozen” in pole vault...enters the weekend ranked sixth in the nation in the event, with her NCAA automatic qualifying height...has won five of eight event titles this season.
Chaytan Hill, Sr., Triple Jump, Kirby, Texas
2005 Big 12 Indoor champion in the triple jump with a distance of 44-02.00...a K-State team captain...ranked second in the nation in the triple jump with a Big 12 indoor season-best of 44-08.75...ranked second in March 1 Trackwire “Dandy Dozen” in triple jump...finished second in last year's Big 12 Indoor Championship with a school record triple jump of 44-09.50...finished fifth at 2004 United States Olympic Trials in triple jump (44-02.50)...2004 NCAA All-American with a second-place finish (44-08.25)...Earned 10th place finish at 2003 NCAA Indoor Championships as a sophomore...finished second in 2003 Big 12 Indoor Championship with a jump of 43-08.50...finished 11th as a freshman at 2002 Big 12 Indoor Championships.
Kyle Lancaster, Jr., High Jump, Fort Scott, Kan.
Finished second at Big 12 Indoor Championship with a height of 7-03.75...named Big 12 Athlete of the Week for his efforts during Jan. 18-23...has sailed past seven feet in the high jump six of seven times this season, winning five of those events...ranked third in March 1 Trackwire “Dandy Dozen” in high jump...first high jumper this season to surpass the NCAA automatic qualifying height of 7-03.75...has jumped beyond seven feet in 17 of 24 career high jump competitions...finished tied for 18th at 2004 United States Olympic Trials...2004 NCAA Indoor All-American in the high jump with a third-place finish (7-02.50)...finished tied for 12 at 2003 NCAA Indoor Championship (6-11.75)...2003 Big 12 high jump champion (7-01.75).
Lysaira Roman-Del Valle, Sr., 800-meter, San Lorenzo, Puerto Rico
Finished second at Big 12 Indoor Championships at 1,000-meters (2:47.51)... automatically qualified at ISU Last Chance Meet with clocking of 2:04.43...time was new Lied Facility, Last Chance Meet and K-State oversized track records... K-State and Big 12 record-holder at 800-meters with a time of 2:07.22 during preliminaries of the 2004 Big 12 Indoor Championships...finished eighth at 2004 Big 12 Championships (2:13.56)...finished second in 800 at 2003 Big 12 Indoor Championships (2:10.16)...2003 Big 12 Outdoor champion at 800-meters (2:07.95).
Christian Smith, Jr., 800-meter, Garfield, Kan.
Won 2005 Big 12 Indoor title in 1,000-meter run, 2:23.40... provisionally qualified in 800 at ISU Classic in 1:48.03...clocking was the 13th fastest in the nation...2004 NCAA Indoor All-American in 800, finishing second in 1:48.18...holds K-State record at 1,000-meters, 2:20.24, setting the record at the 2004 Big 12 Indoor Championships...time was the seventh-fastest in the world last year...2003 NCAA Indoor All-American, placing 10th in 800 with a time of 1:48.96...competed at 2004 USA Track and Field Olympic Trials, finishing 11th in semifinal heat of 800, 1:48.18...won 2004 USATF Club Championship in personal-best time of 1:46.74.
Erik Sproll, Sr., 800-meter, Winnipeg, Canada
Finished second at Big 12 Indoor Championships at 1,000-meters, 2:23.70...provisionally qualified in 800 at ISU Classic with a time of 1:48.16...clocking ranks 15th in the nation...the time is the third-fastest oversized 800 time in Wildcat history...ranks second in the K-State record books in the 1,000 (2:23.48) and third in the 800 (1:49.98)...won two 800 titles this year, KSU-KU-MU Triangular and Sevigne Husker Invitational...attempted to make 2004 Canadian Olympic team in the 800.
Laci Heller, R-Fr., Weight Throw, Meriden, Kan.
Finished second at 2005 Big 12 Indoor Championships in weight throw with a toss of 64-10.00...improved provisional qualifying status to 66-03.00 at ISU Last Chance Meet...distance ranks 18th in the nation...distance is the second -longest in school history...will be making first career NCAA postseason appearance...has won eight of nine weight throw competitions this season...was named Big 12 Athlete of the Week for her efforts Feb. 15-20.
Darius Draudvila, Sr., Heptathlon, Kaunas, Lithuania
Finished third at 2005 Big 12 Indoor Championships in men’s heptathlon with an NCAA provisional qualifying score of 5,555 points...total was a new personal-best...enters the weekend ranked seventh in the nation...will be making first career NCAA Indoor Championship appearance...score ranks second in K-State record books...registered a personal-best in the shot put with a distance of 47-11.25 during Big 12 heptathlon...tied season-best in 60-meter hurdles with a time of 7.03 seconds...set a school record to begin the season during the Carol Robinson Pentathlon, tabulating 4,116 points...finished sixth at 2003 Big 12 Indoor Championships - heptathlon with 5,151 points (previous career-best).
