Track Headed to Indoor National Championship
Mar 07, 2006 | Track & Field
This Week For Kansas State
March 10-11 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships Randal Tyson Track Center Fayetteville, Ark. Live results at www.ncaasports.com
MANHATTAN, Kan. - Kansas State will bring the 2006 indoor season to a conclusion this weekend at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships in Fayetteville, Ark. This is the 42nd championship for the men and the 24th for the women.
K-State finished 14th with 15.5 points in the women’s standings a year ago, while the men finished 28th with seven points. The defending champions are Arkansas (men) and Tennessee (women).
K-State’s Delegation at the Championships
The Wildcats will send seven student-athletes (four female and three male) to compete in the 2006 NCAA Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
Representing K-State are: senior Kyle Lancaster and freshman Scott Sellers in the men’s high jump, senior Christian Smith in the men’s mile, senior Breanna Eveland in the women’s pole vault, senior Shunte Thomas in the women’s 400-meter dash, junior Lisi Maurer in the women’s 60-meter hurdles and sophomore Laci Heller in the women’s weight throw.
This is the fourth straight appearance at the championship for Lancaster and Smith, the second consecutive for Eveland and Heller and the first appearance for Maurer, Thomas and Sellers.
Smith is a three-time NCAA Indoor All-American, while Lancaster has earned All-American honors twice and Eveland earned her first indoor All-American citation last year.
Smith Among Distinguished All-American Company
Senior middle distance runner Christian Smith joined a distinguished group in K-State history following the 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships.
By earning his third career indoor All-American honor in the men’s 800-meter run, Smith is now tied with Thomas Randolph (1991-93), Jeff Schemmel (1974-76), Clardy Vinson (1971-72) and Dave Peterson (1969, 1971) for third on the Most All-America Designations in a career. The all-time leader is Kenny Harrison with seven All-American honors (1985-88).
The three consecutive honors by Smith tie him with Randolph for second for Most All-America Designations - Consecutive. The leader is Harrison with four.
Eveland Resets Own School Record; Improves it By 4 Inches
Senior pole vaulter Breanna Eveland is well ahead of her record-setting pace of the 2005 indoor season. The Grand Rapids, Mich, native and 2005 NCAA Indoor All-American broke her own K-State school record with an NCAA automatic qualifying clearance of 14-05.25 at the ISU Last Chance Qualifier on March 4. It is the third time this season she has broken her own school record.
This is the second time Eveland has cleared 14 feet on the fourth day of a month. On Feb. 4, Eveland became the first female in Wildcat history to soar above 14 feet during the indoor and outdoor seasons with a clearance of 14-01.25 to take the national lead for one week (Feb. 4-11).
Eveland originally set the school record at 13-09.25 at the 2005 KSU-KU-MU Triangular and tied it at the 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships. She then outdid herself earlier this season with a clearance of 13-11.25 at the KSU-KU-MU Triangular on Jan. 20.
Eveland has now won 13 of her last 17 indoor pole vault competitions and has sailed above 13 feet in 16 of those 17 meets.
Lancaster Ties School High Jump Mark; Earns Big 12 AOW
Senior high jumper and 2006 NCAA Indoor Championship automatic qualifier Kyle Lancaster continues to clear dizzying heights.
Lancaster concluded his Big 12 indoor career with a second-place finish of 7-04.25. In his four career Big 12 Indoor Championship high jump performances, he won the 2003 title and finished second three times.
Earlier this season while earning his fifth event win, Lancaster tied the K-State school record of 7-05.25 and set the KSU Open meet record. He joins Percell Gaskins for the top indoor effort in K-State history. Gaskins set the record at the 1993 NCAA Indoor Championships.
For the performance, Lancaster earned the final indoor Big 12 Athlete of the Week citation of 2006. It is the second career indoor citation for Lancaster and the third overall.
To earn his fourth win of the 2006 season, the Fort Scott, Kan. native and two-time NCAA Indoor All-American had to outperform three other All-Americans. Lancaster cleared 7-02.50 on his first attempt at the height, while Dusty Jonas and Aaron Plas of Nebraska and Mickael Hanany of UTEP cleared the height on their second or third attempts.
Lancaster has surpassed seven feet in the high jump 23 times in 32 career indoor meets for K-State (.719). The lowest career final height Lancaster cleared was 6-07.50 on February 22, 2003 in the KSU Open.
Sellers Market
Freshman Scott Sellers continues to thrive with the Wildcats, finishing third at the Big 12 Indoor Championships with a collegiate personal-best clearance of 7-04.25. The height automatically qualifies him for the NCAA Indoor Championships and ranks seventh in K-State history.
Sellers made an impressive debut for the K-State track team during the KSU Invitational. Sellers won the high jump with an NCAA provisional qualifying clearance of 7-02.50.
Sellers, a product of Katy, Texas, was the 2005 National High School Indoor Athlete of the Year, according to Track and Field News and was an All-American for the publication in 2003, 2004 and 2005.
Sellers set the national high school indoor record in the high jump last season with a height of 7-05.00. To put this height in K-State historical perspective, it would rank tied for second with Kyle Lancaster (2004) and Itai Margalit (1993) on K-State’s all-time list.
Heller Achieves Win 15
With her first career Big 12 title, sophomore Laci Heller has now won 15 career weight throw titles. The Meriden, Kan., native has surpassed the NCAA Indoor provisional mark in 17 of her 19 career meets.
Heller has also surpassed 60 feet in every competition during her career.
Smith Wins Third Straight 1,000 Title
Senior Christian Smith won his third consecutive 1,000 title with a clocking of 2:21.28, distancing himself from runner-up Anthony Chiulli of Colorado by almost a full second, 2:22.14. He is the only runner in Big 12 history to win the event more than once.
With the win, Smith joins some of K-State’s elite historic track athletes. He is now tied for second with seven other athletes in school history for indoor conference championships in a career with three. The product of Garfield, Kan., also ties Rollin Prather (1948, ’49, ’50; shot put) for the second most consecutive indoor conference titles in a career. The leader in this category is Kenny Harrison from 1985-88 in the long jump.
Thomas Improves Provisional Status in 400; Sets Record
Senior Shunte Thomas broke her own school record for an oversized track in the women’s 400-meter dash at the ISU Classic on Feb. 11. The product of Coral Springs, Fla., set the mark with a clocking of 53.36 and a third place finish. The previous record was 53.39 set during the 2005 ISU Classic.
Thomas also checked in with the second-fastest oversized track 200-meter dash time in Wildcat history with a 24.00. The clocking trails her own school record of 23.82 set at last year’s ISU Classic.
Maurer Resets Own K-State Record
Junior Lisi Maurer broke her own school record in the women’s 60-meter hurdles for the second time in two weeks. Maurer crossed the tape in 8.24 during the preliminaries of the ISU Last Chance Qualifier on March 4. She went on to win the event crown with clcokings of 8.28 in the semifinals and 8.26 in the finals.
During the Big 12 Indoor Track & Field Championships on Feb. 24, the native of Salzburg, Austria zipped over the 60-meter hurdles in the preliminaries in 8.26 to break her school record for the second time in 2006. Maurer’s previous school mark was 8.30 at the Husker Invitational on Feb. 4 earlier this year.
Smith Breaks National Collegiate Record; Named Big 12 AOW
Senior Christian Smith was named Big 12 Athlete of the Week on Feb. 7 after breaking a 20-year old national collegiate record while winning the men’s 1,000-meter run during the Sevigne Husker Invitational.
Smith, a native of Garfield, Kan., broke the national mark with a clocking of 2:19.57 and finished over seven seconds ahead of runner-up Chad Bergen of North Dakota State. Smith broke the previous college mark set by Doug Consiglio of Arkansas in 1986 of 2:19.64. The time has been accepted as a national record by Track and Field News.
The time also broke the following records (previous mark): the Kansas State record (2:20.24 Smith, 2004), the Bob Devaney Sports Center record (2:20.24 Smith, 2004, Big 12 Championships) and the Sevigne Husker Invitational record (2:25.20 Jeff Pigg, Missouri, 1985).
Having a Ball at the Big 12 Meet
Senior James Ball recorded a career-best 5,390 points for a fourth-place finish in the men’s heptathlon at the Big 12 Indoor Championships. The product of Aurora, Colo., entered the final event, the 1,000-meter run, in seventh place in the overall standings. After winning the race in a personal-best time of 2:39.01, his final point total jumped to the NCAA provisional status and the seventh highest point total in K-State history.
Ball’s previous season-best was 4,351 points and his previous career-high was 4,923 during the Wildcat Heptathlon on Jan. 15, 2005.
Just What the Schlachter Ordered
Kansas State sophomore Marianne Schlachter continued her strong 2006 indoor season at the Big 12 Indoor Championships with a third-place finish in the women’s triple jump. The Albbruck, Germany product skipped to a distance of 41-02.25
Schlachter reached the provisional qualifying distance in the triple jump for the first time in her career at the ISU Classic on Feb. 11. The Albbruck, Germany product finished third with a mark of 41-06.50. It was the second time this season Schlachter has reset her personal best, accomplishing the feat first during the Wildcat Invitational on Jan. 28 with a mark of 41-03.00.
Schlachter has set personal-bests this season in three events: the high jump (5-06.00), pole vault (11-02.25) and pentathlon (3,403 points).
Eveland Vaults to Big 12 Weekly Honor
The Big 12 Conference announced its first recipients of the weekly track and field athlete of the week honor on Tuesday, with Kansas State senior Breanna Eveland earning the nod on the women’s side. The citation is the second of Eveland’s indoor career.
Eveland became Kansas State’s first NCAA Indoor Championship automatic qualifier for the 2006 season on Friday afternoon at the Arkansas Invitational. Eveland finished tied for the top clearance at 13-09.25, but due to misses on her first two attempts fell into second place. The effort ties Eveland’s own school record height, which she set at the 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center and places her atop the 2006 Big 12 performance list in the event by nearly a foot.
Working Hard in the Fields
The Wildcats have continued their success from the 2005 indoor campaign in the field events, opening the 2006 season with similar results. K-State has won 41 of 125 (.328) field events.
K-State won 45 of 132 field events (.341) in 11 indoor meets in 2005. Individuals with the most field event titles in 2005 were Coby Cost and Laci Heller with eight weight throw titles apiece.
