SE: Top 10 of 2019 for K-State Athletics
Jan 02, 2020 | Sports Extra, Athletics
Another year, another round of incredible moments, performances, seasons and honors from within K-State Athletics. Like always, narrowing the calendar year down to 10 highlights was difficult; thus, the lengthy list of honorable mentions.
So, while 2020 and the new decade is upon us, make sure to relive the best of 2019 from K-State Athletics.
K-State tennis redshirt sophomore Rosanna Maffei, after missing last season, started this fall season out with a bang. The Italian was an underdog in every match, ranking- and seeding-wise, but prevailed each time in K-State’s fall opener in Auburn, Alabama. She won a three-set battle to clinch her first tournament title. In all, she defeated the tournament’s No. 4, 5, 9 and 6 seeds in a three-day span.
9. K-State Baseball Notches Consecutive Series Wins vs. Top 20 Opponents:
First, K-State baseball won two games at No. 14 Texas, capped by a five-hit shutout from Big 12 Freshman of the Year Jordan Wicks. It was K-State’s first shutout of the Longhorns in program history and its second-ever series win against a ranked opponent. The Wildcats, in Pete Hughes’ first season as head coach, added to that total the following weekend. They used a walk-off win to clinch a series victory against No. 19 TCU in a Sunday rubber-match. It marked the program’s first back-to-back series wins against ranked opponents.
Junior Niamh McSherry posted a clutch and difficult par on Colbert Hills’ 18th hole to seal an emotionally satisfying individual victory, the first of the Ireland native’s career. Her performance helped K-State win the Marilynn Smith Sunflower Invitational in September, the program’s first team title since the fall 2017. Reid Isaac also finished third, after posting a final round of 1-under par 71.
7. Wildcats Well Represented at Team USA Tournaments:
Bruce Weber coached an undefeated, gold medal winning Team USA squad at the 2019 FIBA World Cup in Greece. Weber’s team, which K-State true freshman DaJuan Gordon got an invite to try out for, won by an average of 28.7 points per game. Peyton Williams also donned Team USA gear last summer. The two-sport star made the 2019 U.S. Pan American Games roster. Her Team USA fell just short of the gold, earning a silver medal after a tight loss to Brazil. The experience was once in a lifetime.
A school-record team scoring average (285.86), about 3.5 strokes better than the previous mark, five consecutive top-four finishes to end the regular season and the program's first tournament title since 2012. That’s what K-State’s spring season looked like. It nearly boosted the team to an NCAA Regional. It did, however, allow three Wildcats — Jeremy Gandon, Roland Massimino and Jacob Eklund — the opportunity to play at the NCAA Athens Regional, the most individuals K-State’s ever sent to a regional. It was only the second time any program has sent three individuals to an NCAA Regional since 2014.
5. K-State Women’s Basketball Sweeps Texas for First Time En Route to NCAA Tourney:
Jeff Mittie’s team led wire-to-wire at home in a decisive, 87-69 win against No. 11 Texas. About a month later, the Wildcats won in Austin, 69-60, over the then-No. 15 Longhorns. The win brought an abundance of superlatives: first time with two top-15 wins since 2011-12; first series win against Texas since the Big 12 switched to a round robin schedule in 2012-13; and first time with three consecutive road wins since 2007-08, to name a few. More importantly, K-State’s second victory over Texas jumpstarted a five-game winning streak to end the regular season and propel the Wildcats into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 9 seed.
Barry Brown, Jr. told his teammates not to come out of the locker room if they didn’t think they could win. This, in the face of a 36-21 halftime deficit against West Virginia. This, as K-State stared a 0-3 Big 12 record in the face. WVU’s advantage grew to 21, at which point Brown, the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, helped erase the biggest deficit in school history in a 71-69 win in Bramlage Coliseum. The win sparked a nine-game winning streak in Big 12 play, a school record in the Big 12 era and the most in conference play since 1974, en route to a conference title.
K-State fans filled the stadium, then the field as the Wildcats topped No. 5 Oklahoma, 48-41. Most of the Wildcats were not alive the last time K-State beat the Sooners in Manhattan, in 1996. K-State overcame 10-0 and 17-7 deficits by outscoring Oklahoma 41-6 between the second quarter and early in the fourth. The Wildcats held the ball for more than 38 minutes and held on late for the season-defining win in Chris Klieman’s first year as head coach, which included being picked ninth in the Big 12 and finishing tied for third.
There’s clutch, and then there’s what K-State track and field’s Shardia Lawrence did at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in June. Lawrence entered her final attempt in third place before launching herself into K-State history. Her winning mark of 13.99m/45-10.75 broke the school record she set earlier in the day, captured K-State’s first women’s triple jump NCAA Championship ever and the program’s 10th individual championship on the women’s side. The win was the perfect ending to a rollercoaster senior season. It highlighted another outstanding year from both K-State track and field teams, which included three Big 12 Indoor individual titles and five outdoor conference champs, a school-record points scored from the women at the Big 12 outdoor meet for a runner-up finish and several All-Americans from both seasons.
Confetti fell from the rafters of Bramlage Coliseum after K-State’s program-lifting trio of seniors in Dean Wade, Barry Brown, Jr., and Kamau Stokes combined for 45 points in a 68-53 win against Oklahoma to clinch a share of the Big 12 Championship. It marked the program’s second conference title in Bruce Weber’s tenure, after going 35 years without one. The seniors, who started all four years at K-State and finished 5-13 in the Big 12 as freshmen, more than flipped that record around, going 14-4 last season.
Honorable Mentions:
- Rowing Named Big 12 Sportsperson of the Year
- Evan Marshall Enjoys Breakout Season for White Sox
- Shankar Breaks School’s Pentathlon Record, Named National Athlete of the Week
- Will Brennan Drafted in Eighth Round
- Jordan Wicks Named Big 12 Freshman of the Year, All-American
- K-State Produces First Ever All-Female Broadcast
- K-State Volleyball Uses Comeback to Beat Kansas
- K-State Baseball Raises $27,000 for College Baseball Vs. Cancer Campaign
- Cross Country Youth Shines at Conference, NCAA Regional Meet
- Aaron Booth Wins Gold Medal at World University Games
