Cats Open 2021-22 Campaign This Weekend with Winter Pentathlon

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Kansas State track and field team is set to begin the 2021-22 indoor season on Friday (December 10) with the Carol Robinson Women's and Attila Zsivoczky Men's Winter Pentathlon at 10 a.m., CT and on Saturday (December 11) with the K-State Winter Invitational at 9:30 a.m., CT.

"This weekend is a good opportunity for a number of our athletes to see where they are at in their training," stated Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Cliff Rovelto. "We are just finishing up general preparation with most of our athletes, so they really haven't done a great deal of competition specific training as of yet. We will have food competition in many events, but the meet is relatively small in numbers which is what we want at this point in time."

Kicking off the pentathlon on Friday (December 10) will be the men's 60-meter hurdles at 10:00 a.m. followed by the women's 60-meter hurdles at 10:30 a.m. There will be at least 30 minutes after the conclusion of each event before the start of the next event.

Saturday (December 11) will begin with the women's weight throw at 9:30 a.m. Track events will start at 12:00 p.m. with the women's 60-meter dash.

The Wildcats have remained busy since concluding the season at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Oregon on June 12 at the Hayward Field.

Most recently, K-State had three representatives at the Cali Valle 2021 Junior Pan American Games in Cali, Columbia from November 30 to December 4.

Representing the Bahamas was fifth-year senior Kyle Alcine. The Nassau, Bahamas native jumped to a mark of 2.19m/7'2.25", clinching the bronze medal and the only medal for the Bahamas.

Junior and Tokyo 2020 Olympian Shalysa Wray competed in the 400-meter dash and clocked in at 53.47. Wray finished the event in fifth place overall.

In the triple jump, senior Chantoba Bright recorded a mark of 13.50m/44'3.5", placing second and earning the only medal for Guyana. With a jump of 6.20m/20'4.25", Bright finished in fifth place for the long jump out of 10 competitors.

Wray made an appearance on the biggest stage in sports at Tokyo Summer Olympic Games in the 400-meter dash where she finished in seventh place, clocking in a time of 53.61 and was the first athlete from the Cayman Islands to run the 400-meter dash in an Olympic Games. The Cayman Islands native was one of only two athletes representing the country in track and field, along with three-time Olympian Kemar Hyman.

Shortly before the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Wray traveled to San Jose, Costa Rica to compete at the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) U-23 Championships from July 9-11.

The junior competed in the 400-meter dash and finished with a time of 54.42 and earned fourth place.

Wray was not the only Wildcat at the NACAC U-23 Championships. Freshman Kavian Kerr jumped to 7.80m/25-07.25 in the U-20 men's long jump, earning first place. Kerr's mark was a full meter farther than the second-place recipient.

In the 4x400 meter relay, Alcine recorded a time of 3:41.69 and placed second. Alcine made an appearance in the high jump and reached a height of 2.15m/7-00.50 with a second-place finish.

Representing her home country of Guyana, Bright medaled in both the women's long jump and triple jump at the 2021 South American U-23 Championships in Ecuador on Saturday (October 16) at the Estadio Modelo Alberto Spencer.

Placing second overall in the triple jump, Bright reached a mark of 13.08m/42-11 (-1.5). In the long jump, the Wismar, Linden native jumped to a mark of 6.09m/19-11.75 (+1.2) and earned third place.

"The meet should move along fairly quickly," said Rovelto. "Most of our combined event athletes will be competing in the pentathlon on Friday. We will have a number of throwers competing and most of the speed-power athletes will be doing something. Many of the distance runners will not be competing as they are coming ff of the cross country season."

Results will be provided by Heartland Timing here.

For meet information, click here and for meet schedules, click here for Friday (December 10) and here for Saturday (December 11).

For the latest on K-State Track and Field follow @kstatesports and @KStateTFXC on Twitter or Kansas State Track & Field/Cross Country on Facebook.

Cats Open 2021-22 Campaign This Weekend with Winter Pentathlon

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Players Mentioned

Kyle Alcine

Chantoba Bright

Kavian Kerr

Shalysa Wray

Kansas State University Athletics