SE: A Look at the 2019-20 K-State Track and Field Teams

SE: A Look at the 2019-20 K-State Track and Field Teams

Dec 12, 2019 | Track & Field, Sports Extra

By Corbin McGuire

Cliff Rovelto thinks 2020 should be a good year for K-State track and field, and not just because his program hosts the Big 12 Outdoor Championships in May. It's what the five-time Big 12 Coach of the Year believes his teams can do at that meet, and beyond, that has him excited.

"I think both teams should be very competitive in conference. I think both teams have a number of individuals that are capable of scoring at the NCAA meet," Rovelto said, as his teams open their indoor season this weekend at Ahearn Field House with the Carol Robinson/Attila Zsivoczky Winter Pentathlon on Friday and the K-State Winter Invitational on Saturday. "I think it, potentially, could be a really good year for both teams."

Which would be more of the same, especially when it comes to the Big 12's outdoor meet. K-State's men finished fourth there last May, a year after finishing tied for third. K-State's women scored a school-record 156.5 points to finish second, ending their two-year run of Big 12 outdoor titles but continuing an impressive run, nonetheless.

Rovelto said he expects the women to maintain that type this season.

"Certainly, in outdoors we should definitely have a team that could compete with anybody in this conference. We'll be right in the hunt again, that's for sure," he said. "It's typically where we like to be our best. The gals have been good there; the guys have gotten progressively better there the last few years."

Both teams return a solid core from last season and add an exciting mix of newcomers. K-State's women return 13 top-eight finishers that includes three Big 12 outdoor champions in senior Taishia Pryce (long jump), junior Taylor Latimer (shot put) and senior Helene Ingvaldsen (hammer throw). The men bring back nine scorers from the Big 12 outdoor meet and one first-place finisher in high jumper Tejaswin Shankar.

Rovelto, in an interview with K-State Sports Extra, outlined a few storylines, of many, to watch for going into the season.

Shankar Ready to Contribute More than High Jumps

Shankar, the 2018 NCAA champion who swept the conference's indoor and outdoor titles last season, highlights K-State's veterans on the men's side. Like last year, he will compete in the pentathlon on Friday. Unlike last year, when it was mostly for fun, Rovelto said Shankar is ready to do something special in the event. He even indicated he may do more than just high jump this season.

"He's been hurdling, long jumping. He's very fit running-wise. I think he'll have a really nice score this weekend. Obviously, it's December, but if he does what I think he's ready to do, he'll for sure be in the top 10 of the NCAA all-time list in the pentathlon, maybe as high as the top five," Rovelto said. "Right now, he's significantly better than he was a year ago in the hurdles. He's significantly better in the long jump, just because he has been doing it. Last year, even in the meet he only jumped from like eight, 10 steps.

"He's way ahead of where he was in the high jump at this time last year. He's fitter than he was. He's stronger than he was. He cleaned 275 yesterday. He's just better. I think he'll have a great year. I think he potentially could contribute in a lot of different areas."

In Shankar's specialty, the high jump, Kyle Alcine and Taylor Smith will join the India native for K-State. Rovelto said Alcine, a Cloud County Community College transfer and Bahamas native, is "going to be a really solid high jumper, maybe a national qualifier right away." Smith, a senior transfer from Air Force, should also help make the event "a pretty strong area," Rovelto added.

Booth Better, Joined by Lithuanian Talent Benkunskas

In the multi-events, senior Aaron Booth comes off a season of personal-bests, highlighted by a sixth-place finish in the decathlon at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Booth, a three-time All-American, set personal-bests in both the heptathlon and decathlon, along with all but one of the events within the two. His heptathlon score of 5,819 set a New Zealand national record and placed him second on K-State's all-time list. He put up consecutive personal-bests in the decathlon at the Big 12 Outdoor Championship, where he finished second, and at the NCAA meet, where his score moved him to eighth on K-State's all-time list.

This season, Booth will be joined by a freshman with an impressive resume in Lithuania's Edgaras Benkunskas. His personal best in the decathlon (7,584) would have placed him third at the Big 12 outdoor meet last season.

"He's probably as good an incoming freshman we've had since maybe Attila Zsivoczky," Rovelto said of Benkunskas, referring to the former Wildcat and three-time Olympian. "I think he's going to be good right away.

"I think Aaron could potentially be around 8,000 points this year and Edgaras isn't going to be very far behind as a freshman. Those two guys are pretty good."

Hurdle Haven

The hurdles will be another strong event for both teams. For the men, however, Rovelto said it could be the school's best group in decades.

Between Oscar Smith, a Bahamas native and 2018 World Junior semifinalist in the 110-meter hurdles; Donovan Turner, a high school All-American out of Illinois; Timothy Lambert Jr., a Lindsborg native named the 2019 Gatorade Kansas Boys Track Athlete of the Year; and Gabriel Louw, who competed in the 2018 World Junior Championships for South Africa, most of this group will be freshmen, too.

"We haven't had guys who are going to run as well as Gabriel or Tim in a really, really long time…gosh, 80s, early 90s," Rovelto said. "It's been a long time."

Lambert and Louw will likely fit into the 4x400-meter relay mix as well, along with senior Justin Davis and sophomore Antoni Hoyte-Small. Rovelto said he thinks it could be the best 4x400 group since school's outdoor record was last broke in 1998.

"I don't think there's any question about that," he said. "It's a good group."

Despite losing two-time Big 12 champion Ranae McKenzie in the 400-meter hurdles, Rovelto felt confident the race category will still be a strongpoint for the women this season.

Returning multi-event seniors like Ariel Okorie and Lauren Taubert are a big reason why. Okorie finished fifth in the 60-meter hurdles at the Big 12 indoor meet last season, while Taubert missed the finals by one-hundredths of a second. Taubert did finish second in the 400-meter hurdles at the Big 12 Outdoor Championship and even qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the event.

"Between heptathletes and hurdlers, we're going to have probably five or six girls that are going to run 8.60 or under," Rovelto said of the 60-meter hurdles. "Typically, that's right about the fringe of what it's taken to make the finals indoors. So, we have a whole bunch of people."

Kimisha Chambers, a senior transfer from UTEP, will be another one of them. Rovelto said she might be the best one, if she handles a new level of training like he hopes.

"I do think Kimisha could potentially be our best short hurdler," he said. "She also runs the 400 hurdles. Ranae was about as good as anybody in the country last year. Does she run at that level? It remains to be seen, but I wouldn't be totally shocked if she did."

Vitoria Alves, a sophomore who sat out last outdoor season, should also factor into the hurdles group. She ran an 8.52 in the 60-meter hurdles last indoor season.

"She's gotten better. She's trained really well," Rovelto said. "I think she's definitely going to run faster in the hurdles, and she has some background in the long jump. How much of that she does, we'll see, but I think she definitely can help in the hurdles."

Multi-Event Women Filled with Various Experience Levels, High Expectations

While Taubert, a two-time All-American, and Okorie, a six-time scorer in the pentathlon/heptathlon at the Big 12 meets, hold the most experience in the multi-events for K-State's women, the group will be much deeper than the two seniors.

K-State added five freshmen to the group, three of which have no experience in pentathlons or heptathlons. All of them have serious promise, Rovelto said.

Urte Bacianskaite and Philippa Earley are the two freshmen with backgrounds in the multi-events. Each brings very different strengths to the track.

Bacianskaite competed at the 2017 World Championships and, as a Lithuania native, brings a knee-jerk comparison to former Wildcat and Olympian Austra Skujyte, also from Lithuania.

"It's not fair to compare her to Austra, but they're really similar type athletes. They have similar strengths and weaknesses," Rovelto said. "I think Urte is going to be pretty good, eventually. I think she'll definitely be a scorer right away. But, kind of like Austra, she's not going to wow you with speed or what appears to be tremendous jumping ability, but they just get it done. She's very deceiving."

Earley, shorter than the average multi-events athlete, comes from England as the British record holder in the 60-meter hurdles and the pentathlon. She's also won a national championship in both the pentathlon and heptathlon.

"Pippa is just a little fire plug. She's just 100 miles an hour all the time," Rovelto said. "But, being vertically challenged makes a number of things (difficult). She's just got to be very, very efficient for her to perform at her best. But, to the extent that effort and all that come into play, she's not going to take a back seat to anybody. She's unbelievable that way. She'll be good."

In time, Rovelto said so will the three other multi-events freshmen — Madeline Righter out of Olathe Northwest High School, Kindel Nordhus from Bishop Carroll High School and Regan Dineen from Illinois.

"Looking down the road, (they) could very potentially follow similar paths that Ariel and Lauren have done over the last four years," Rovelto said. "I think they're capable of getting to that level."