Kansas State University Athletics
SE: ‘Cats Impress in Long-Awaited Return to the Track
Dec 08, 2020 | Track & Field, Sports Extra
By: Austin Siegel
Kassidy Johnson took home her first victory of the season in the Women's 1000 Meters, as she helped K-State sweep the top two spots along with teammate Cayli Hume.
"I was definitely nervous not having raced on a track in a year," Johnson said. "There's just something special about running on a track, having that flat, consistent surface and just being able to go for it."
To hear Johnson talk about running is to understand that for the rare three-season athlete at K-State - Johnson runs cross country in the fall, indoor track in the winter and outdoor track in the spring - each distance and surface demands a unique approach.
In October, Johnson helped lead the Wildcats to a top-five team finish at the Big 12 Cross Country Championships.
At Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence, Johnson snagged a top-20 finish in a race where a time under 22 minutes put her among the fastest runners in the conference.
"In our sport, you don't need a basketball hoop or a teammate, we can just lace up our shoes and go out and run," she said of her offseason training. "I'm a little stronger in the endurance, so not having done true sprint work in a while, it takes me a little bit to get back into that."
Kyle Gale faced the opposite challenge on Saturday.
The freshman broke a meet record that has stood since 2006, with a time of 1:11.05 in the Men's 600 Yards.
Competing unattached last season, Gale raced primarily as a sprinter in the 300m and 400m dash. Stepping up in distance to 600 yards on Saturday required a different strategy.
"This year in training, we've focused on building strength and speed a little more than last year," he said. "It's more about endurance, and this was a really good meet to work on that."
Like every K-State athlete in 2020, Gale needed to get creative over the summer as he prepared for his second season of competition.
Back home in Barbados, he didn't have access to a track throughout much of the summer.
His solution – training on the beach – isn't going to get Gale much sympathy in Kansas. Those workouts next to the Caribbean Sea also gave him an opportunity to do some cross training.
"We played a lot of flag football, but we didn't tackle. We used it to work on the explosiveness that you see in sprinters and our endurance as well," Gale said. "It can get pretty intense…I was usually a wide receiver."
Returning to Manhattan, Gale said he worked with head coach Cliff Rovelto to develop a strategy for the 600m and relied on teammates like Justin Davis to push him in training.
It all paid off on Saturday, when Gale ran the length of six football fields in a little over a minute, for his first victory of the season.
The Wildcats impressed at almost every distance on Saturday, with Johnson and Gale joined by Donovan Turner, who won the Men's 60m Hurdles, and Alex Ferguson, who completed a K-State event sweep with a victory in the Women's 600 Yards.
Every K-State athlete at the Winter Invite, no matter the event, faced essentially the same challenge: return to something they know they're good at, despite nearly a year without any competitions to prove it.
For Johnson, it was a challenge worth accepting.
"It's easy to have self-doubt and think that you can't do what you did 10 months ago," Johnson said. "I've just tried to trust in the training that I've been doing and trust in my coach…Just have fun, be grateful that we even get to race and take advantage of the opportunity."
The starting lines and finish lines begin to run together at Ahearn Field House.
The outside track takes distance runners on a route past the high jump mat, the starting line for the long jump and behind the throwing circle for the shot put and the weight throw.
With multiple events taking place at once, with Big 12 teams, unattached athletes and even an Olympic gold medalist in Ryan Crouser competing at the K-State Winter Invite, it can be tough to tell who, if anyone, is winning at any given time.
But a place where beginnings and endings are blurred together was a perfect spot for K-State Track & Field last weekend; the Wildcats got the 2020-21 season underway and closed the book on nearly 10 months away from the sport due to COVID-19.
Kassidy Johnson took home her first victory of the season in the Women's 1000 Meters, as she helped K-State sweep the top two spots along with teammate Cayli Hume.
"I was definitely nervous not having raced on a track in a year," Johnson said. "There's just something special about running on a track, having that flat, consistent surface and just being able to go for it."
To hear Johnson talk about running is to understand that for the rare three-season athlete at K-State - Johnson runs cross country in the fall, indoor track in the winter and outdoor track in the spring - each distance and surface demands a unique approach.
In October, Johnson helped lead the Wildcats to a top-five team finish at the Big 12 Cross Country Championships.
At Rim Rock Farm in Lawrence, Johnson snagged a top-20 finish in a race where a time under 22 minutes put her among the fastest runners in the conference.
It was a different story in the 1000 Meters, a distance event by track standards, but one where Johnson needed a time of 2:51.41 in order to grab the win.
Fortunately, Johnson happens to be the reigning Big 12 Champion in the event, but that conference meet in February was also her last time competing on an indoor track."In our sport, you don't need a basketball hoop or a teammate, we can just lace up our shoes and go out and run," she said of her offseason training. "I'm a little stronger in the endurance, so not having done true sprint work in a while, it takes me a little bit to get back into that."
Kyle Gale faced the opposite challenge on Saturday.
The freshman broke a meet record that has stood since 2006, with a time of 1:11.05 in the Men's 600 Yards.
Competing unattached last season, Gale raced primarily as a sprinter in the 300m and 400m dash. Stepping up in distance to 600 yards on Saturday required a different strategy.
"This year in training, we've focused on building strength and speed a little more than last year," he said. "It's more about endurance, and this was a really good meet to work on that."
Like every K-State athlete in 2020, Gale needed to get creative over the summer as he prepared for his second season of competition.
Back home in Barbados, he didn't have access to a track throughout much of the summer.
His solution – training on the beach – isn't going to get Gale much sympathy in Kansas. Those workouts next to the Caribbean Sea also gave him an opportunity to do some cross training.
"We played a lot of flag football, but we didn't tackle. We used it to work on the explosiveness that you see in sprinters and our endurance as well," Gale said. "It can get pretty intense…I was usually a wide receiver."
Returning to Manhattan, Gale said he worked with head coach Cliff Rovelto to develop a strategy for the 600m and relied on teammates like Justin Davis to push him in training.
It all paid off on Saturday, when Gale ran the length of six football fields in a little over a minute, for his first victory of the season.
The Wildcats impressed at almost every distance on Saturday, with Johnson and Gale joined by Donovan Turner, who won the Men's 60m Hurdles, and Alex Ferguson, who completed a K-State event sweep with a victory in the Women's 600 Yards.
Every K-State athlete at the Winter Invite, no matter the event, faced essentially the same challenge: return to something they know they're good at, despite nearly a year without any competitions to prove it.
Capitalize on the opportunity #KStateTF pic.twitter.com/HvhLFsfQzz
— K-State Track (@KStateTFXC) December 7, 2020
For Johnson, it was a challenge worth accepting.
"It's easy to have self-doubt and think that you can't do what you did 10 months ago," Johnson said. "I've just tried to trust in the training that I've been doing and trust in my coach…Just have fun, be grateful that we even get to race and take advantage of the opportunity."
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