Friday, January 10
Lexington, Kentucky
Kansas State University
at
Jim Green Invitational
Wildcats Begin 2020 at Jim Green Invitational this Weekend
Jan 08, 2020 | Track & Field
MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas State men's and women's track and field teams will kick off the new year by traveling to Lexington, Kentucky for the Jim Green Invitational on Friday and Saturday, January 10-11.
The Wildcats are already off to a successful start to the 2019-20 indoor campaign after setting multiple meet and school records at the Carol Robinson/Attila Zsiovczky Pentathlon and K-State Winter Invitational in early December. This will the first meet since the team returned from winter break.
"We got a fairly large group of people competing this weekend," said Director of Track and Field Cliff Rovelto. "I think there is around 50 athletes or so. Where people are, we will find out. Basically, most of them got back this last weekend. I think we have some sense of where people are, but we really won't know until we see what happens this weekend."
The Jim Green Invitational will officially begin on Friday afternoon with field events at 1:30 p.m. CT, while the track events will start at 4 p.m. CT. Saturday's schedule will kick off at 11 a.m. CT in the field following nine track events beginning at 12 p.m. CT.
In all, 19 schools will compete in Lexington, Kentucky on both days which includes: Alabama A&M, Bellarmine, Belmont, Butler, Campbellsville, Cincinnati, Dayton, Eastern Kentucky, Kentucky, Kentucky State, Middle Tennessee State, North Carolina A&T, Ohio State, Southern Illinois, Tennessee State, Thomas More, Western Kentucky and Xavier.
Coming back from winter break, senior heptathlete Ariel Okorie expressed her excitement for competing in Lexington, Kentucky this weekend.
"It's nice to come back after a long break and come back as a team and get ready to compete again," stated Okorie. "I am definitely looking forward to competing again and definitely in the hurdles and the long jump. Family and friends are coming down to watch so it will be great."
Closing off 2019 with a high note, 11 Wildcats claimed the top spot in their respective events during the K-State Winter Invitational, which included a meet record in the mile run by senior Travis Hodge, who beat Michael Pierce's 2008 mark by under one second at 4:11.54.
One day before the Winter Invitational, junior Tejaswin Shankar broke the pentathlon school record in his final event of the day during the Carol Robinson/Attila Zsivoczky Pentathlon. His time of 2:41.62 in the 1000-meter run pushed him to first place all-time for total points in a pentathlon competition, eclipsing former Wildcat Darius Draudvila's score of 4,116 points at the same event in 2005 with a grand total of 4,137 points.
On Tuesday, the New Delhi, India native was recently represented amongst a pool of 21 other athletes on the 2020 Bowerman Watch List, highlighting the college track and field top athletes of the year. The Bowerman Award, which started back in 2009, is the highest honor a collegiate track and field athlete can receive. Shankar received votes for the watch list, making him an honorable mention for the 2020 season.
Rovelto elaborated on what this meet will bring to his team at this time of the year, including his upperclassmen.
"We got some folks that are ready to compete at a pretty high level," said Rovelto. "I do think we will need everyone to compete at a high level in order to compete for championships this year, not just the 'top of the line' people."
Live results for the Jim Green Invitational will be provided by Prime Time Timing and can be found here. More information on the meet, including a full schedule of events records and more can be found on kstatesports.com by clicking here.
After Saturday's competition, K-State will return to the Sunflower State to prepare for the KU-KSU-WSU Triangular, which will take place in Wichita, Kansas on Saturday, January 18.
For the latest on K-State Track and Field follow @kstatesports and @KStateTFXC on Twitter or Kansas State Track & Field/Cross Country on Facebook.
The Wildcats are already off to a successful start to the 2019-20 indoor campaign after setting multiple meet and school records at the Carol Robinson/Attila Zsiovczky Pentathlon and K-State Winter Invitational in early December. This will the first meet since the team returned from winter break.
"We got a fairly large group of people competing this weekend," said Director of Track and Field Cliff Rovelto. "I think there is around 50 athletes or so. Where people are, we will find out. Basically, most of them got back this last weekend. I think we have some sense of where people are, but we really won't know until we see what happens this weekend."
The Jim Green Invitational will officially begin on Friday afternoon with field events at 1:30 p.m. CT, while the track events will start at 4 p.m. CT. Saturday's schedule will kick off at 11 a.m. CT in the field following nine track events beginning at 12 p.m. CT.
In all, 19 schools will compete in Lexington, Kentucky on both days which includes: Alabama A&M, Bellarmine, Belmont, Butler, Campbellsville, Cincinnati, Dayton, Eastern Kentucky, Kentucky, Kentucky State, Middle Tennessee State, North Carolina A&T, Ohio State, Southern Illinois, Tennessee State, Thomas More, Western Kentucky and Xavier.
Coming back from winter break, senior heptathlete Ariel Okorie expressed her excitement for competing in Lexington, Kentucky this weekend.
"It's nice to come back after a long break and come back as a team and get ready to compete again," stated Okorie. "I am definitely looking forward to competing again and definitely in the hurdles and the long jump. Family and friends are coming down to watch so it will be great."
Closing off 2019 with a high note, 11 Wildcats claimed the top spot in their respective events during the K-State Winter Invitational, which included a meet record in the mile run by senior Travis Hodge, who beat Michael Pierce's 2008 mark by under one second at 4:11.54.
One day before the Winter Invitational, junior Tejaswin Shankar broke the pentathlon school record in his final event of the day during the Carol Robinson/Attila Zsivoczky Pentathlon. His time of 2:41.62 in the 1000-meter run pushed him to first place all-time for total points in a pentathlon competition, eclipsing former Wildcat Darius Draudvila's score of 4,116 points at the same event in 2005 with a grand total of 4,137 points.
On Tuesday, the New Delhi, India native was recently represented amongst a pool of 21 other athletes on the 2020 Bowerman Watch List, highlighting the college track and field top athletes of the year. The Bowerman Award, which started back in 2009, is the highest honor a collegiate track and field athlete can receive. Shankar received votes for the watch list, making him an honorable mention for the 2020 season.
Rovelto elaborated on what this meet will bring to his team at this time of the year, including his upperclassmen.
"We got some folks that are ready to compete at a pretty high level," said Rovelto. "I do think we will need everyone to compete at a high level in order to compete for championships this year, not just the 'top of the line' people."
Live results for the Jim Green Invitational will be provided by Prime Time Timing and can be found here. More information on the meet, including a full schedule of events records and more can be found on kstatesports.com by clicking here.
After Saturday's competition, K-State will return to the Sunflower State to prepare for the KU-KSU-WSU Triangular, which will take place in Wichita, Kansas on Saturday, January 18.
For the latest on K-State Track and Field follow @kstatesports and @KStateTFXC on Twitter or Kansas State Track & Field/Cross Country on Facebook.
Players Mentioned
/ Track & Field
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