K-State Opens Indoor Season with Pair of Home Meets

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The K-State Track and Field teams get back on the track this weekend, as the team is set to host the Carol Robinson Winter Pentathlon on Friday, December 8 and the K-State Winter Invitational on Saturday, December 9 to kick of the 2017-18 indoor track and field season.

The pair of home meets marks the beginning of the 2017-18 indoor track and field schedule, and the first two of six meets that will be hosted at Ahearn Field House this season. Friday's Carol Robinson Winter Pentathlon is set to begin at 10:00 a.m. with the 60-meter hurdles, while Saturday's action will begin at 9:30 a.m. with the start of the field events. Admission to both meets is free.

Friday's Carol Robinson women's pentathlon will include a trio of K-State women heptathletes, as sophomores Nina Schultz, Ariel Okorie and Lauren Taubert will take on the 60-meter hurdles, long jump, shot put, high jump and the 1000-meter run. Last year, Schultz scored a meet-high 3,874 points to win the event, followed by Okorie who scored 3,664 points to take second. Schultz went on to finish third at the NCAA Indoor Championship with 4,340 points, the third-best point total in K-State Indoor Pentathlon history.

"To have three true sophomores that are as good as these three are is rare," Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Cliff Rovelto said. "Obviously Nina had tremendous success as a freshman, but under normal circumstances you would look at what the other two did and you'd say that was pretty good."

The Attila Zsivoczky men's pentathlon will feature one Wildcat on Friday, as senior pentathlete Max Estill looks to defend his title from last year's pentathlon where he scored a personal-best 3,405 points. The four K-State pentathletes will compete throughout the day on Friday against Fort Hays State, Kennesaw State, Washburn and Oklahoma State.

On Saturday, the Wildcats will get back to the action in the K-State Winter Invitational, starting with the field events at 9:30 a.m. and the track events at 1:00 p.m.

Last indoor season, five individuals earned All-America honors at the NCAA Championship meet, placing within the top 16 of their respective event. In conference competition, both teams placed sixth at the Big 12 Championship meet, with individual championships from Christoff Bryan in the high jump and Janee' Kassanavoid in the weight throw.

"On paper, we've got people that can compete at the very top of the conference in almost every event," Rovelto said. "At the end of the weekend I would expect that we have some of the top marks in the Big 12 and the NCAA."

Live results for the meet will be provided by Heartland Timing and can be found here. More information on the meet can be found on kstatesports.com by clicking here.

For the latest on K-State track and field, follow @kstatesports and @KStateTFXC on Twitter using the hashtag #KStateTF or on the team's Facebook page.

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Players Mentioned

Max Estill

Janee' Kassanavoid

Ariel Okorie

Nina Schultz

Lauren Taubert

Kansas State University Athletics