SE: Track Standout Taubert Sees Silver Linings to Forced Layoff

By: Greg McCune

K-State Track and Field star Lauren Taubert was at practice a day before the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships were scheduled to start in Albuquerque, New Mexico, when Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Cliff Rovelto told her to stop warming up. The meet had been canceled due to the COVID-19 threat.

At the time, Taubert had the No. 2 mark in the nation in the five-event Pentathlon. She had a good chance to finish in the top three at the national meet, Rovelto said. Her parents and brother had driven from Wyoming to watch her compete, and about a dozen other relatives had planned to attend.

Taubert admits that she shed tears at the time. "I kind of went off in the corner, pretty down," she said. "It was really difficult because it is my senior year and I had some goals I really wanted to accomplish."

In quick succession, the entire spring season was canceled – meaning Taubert would not compete in the Big 12 Outdoor Championships that K-State was scheduled to host in May or the NCAA Outdoor Championships. K-State then suspended classes for the spring semester. More recently, the Tokyo Olympics have been postponed, and then the U.S. national championships, where Taubert had hoped to compete.

She ended up going home from New Mexico with her parents, Robert and Teresa, and brother, Harrison, to Wyoming and has been hunkered down ever since like most Americans.

Three weeks later, Taubert said she sees the big picture more clearly – that the health and safety of all Americans is more important than sports. And she now sees silver linings to the forced layoff.

For the first time in years, she is spending extended time with her family. They own a western store – Lou Taubert Ranch Outfitters – in Casper, which was celebrating 100 years in business this year before it was temporarily closed because of the pandemic. Her mother is an occupational therapist for the school district and her brother is a junior in high school.

"Just getting to be home right now is so special. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else while this is happening," she said.

Taubert also realized that she had achieved many of her goals during the short indoor season, and all was not lost.

In January, she had what Rovelto described as a "phenomenal performance" in Arkansas, topping a stellar field with a score of 4,352 points and setting or equaling personal bests in every event. She followed that with her first Big 12 Indoor Championship, defeating Texas Tech standout Kaylee Hinton.

"I can't ask for anything more from my indoor season," she said.

The NCAA voted last week to allow schools to provide spring-sport student-athletes with another season of eligibility. Taubert was already planning to continue her education a fifth year, majoring in Human Development and Family Sciences with a minor in Leadership Studies. She added a secondary major of Gerontology this year. She wants to become an occupational therapist like her mother.

After her college eligibility, Taubert hopes to keep training with the dream of eventually making a U.S. team for the World Championships and, just maybe, going to the Olympics.

In many ways, Taubert is the typical kind of athlete K-State prides itself on developing.

She was a big fish in a small pond in Wyoming, but Rovelto saw more potential than the so-so scores in the Heptathlon from high school.

She readily admits that her first year at K-State, which is renowned for its multi-event program under Rovelto, was a shock.

"I wasn't really used to competing with girls who were better than me," she said, adding that it was a blow to her confidence. "In high school, I jumped higher than I did my freshman year in college."

One of those women was Ariel Okorie, Taubert's teammate and training partner for four years, whose talent pushed Taubert to a new level in practice. Okorie also qualified for nationals in New Mexico.

Taubert kept grinding away, trusting a process that had produced national champions and Olympic medalists for Rovelto. By her junior year, teacher and pupil said she began to get it. She stayed in Manhattan last summer to train and compete. She also has worked with a sports psychologist to improve her mental approach.

Fortunately, the last discipline of the multi-events is her best – the 800 meters. Taubert's personal best would have put her on the podium among the top eight in the individual 800 at the Big 12 Outdoor Championships last year. So even if she has a bad event early, she's in a good position to move up by the end.

She has improved her speed, and with it, her marks in the hurdles and the 200 meters. She completely revamped her approach to the long jump and high jump and the improved technique has helped her in both. Her weakest events are the shot put and javelin. She never played softball, so Rovelto said that she had no idea how to throw properly. Lifting weights has improved her strength and she has significantly improved in the javelin, throwing better than her personal best in practice, he said.

"I feel like I am just now getting a hang of things," Taubert said.

She has a substantial upside and could have scored up to 6,000 points in the Heptathlon this spring, Rovelto said. That's a level only three women achieved in NCAA competition last year, one of whom was Big 12 Outdoor Champion Ashton Zamzow of Texas.

While she's at home, Taubert said she has been trying to stay active by going on runs and lifting weights in the basement, where her family has a home gym. She said she had a shot put and a javelin at home from her high school days and has been "playing around."

Rovelto said he is urging K-State track and field athletes – now scattered across the world – to use the layoff to get better, within the severe limitations they have.

But he is not worried about Taubert.

"I don't think she will waste this time," he said.

Kansas State University Athletics

SE: Track Standout Taubert Sees Silver Linings to Forced Layoff

Players Mentioned

Ariel Okorie

Lauren Taubert

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