Kansas State University Athletics
K-State’s Strongest Warrior
Apr 26, 2023 | Track & Field, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Meet Maddie Righter. Maddie is a 21-year-old junior on the Kansas State track and field team. She owns one of the most riveting stories in the K-State sports world this year. How could she not? She just finished seventh in her first-ever heptathlon with 5,067 points in the Jim Click Combined Events, finishing third-place in the high jump (1.71 meters) while recording new personal bests in the 100-meter hurdles (14.76 seconds), shot put (12.38 meters), 200-meter dash (26.06 seconds) and 800-meter dash (2:44.98).
Not bad considering she underwent a laparoscopic nephrectomy on October 25. That's right, she had a kidney removed. Her right kidney, to be exact, an incessant culprit that increased in size, its pain causing her to cry, and the path to its diagnosis as fun as hurdling lava with both shoes tied together.
"Sometimes the pain would last a week at a time," she says. "I'd get a little better then hurt so bad for five days. I was like, 'This can't be something not to worry about.'"
It all started last year when, despite following Coach Cliff Rovelto's training and maintaining a healthy diet and practicing to the best of her ability, Maddie felt sluggish, slow, lethargic, and she couldn't figure it out. Blood work, hormone tests — everything came back OK. Doctors believed her symptoms were due to elevated stress. Meanwhile her insides felt icky. The pain came and left. Then returned again. Perhaps she tweaked a muscle in her side? No, the pain was too deep. Then she felt a lump and thought, "That's new." Then it went away.
"I thought I must be fine," she says.
But she wasn't fine. She fought it. She trained through it. Doctors thought maybe they had narrowed the cause to her digestive system — "Nothing to be concerned about." Then early last September, she felt the pain as bad as ever before, and she felt the lump — again — during routine training exercises. She fought through tears, went home and finally texted Rovelto: "I cannot practice. I cannot lift. Something is wrong."
Back to the doctor's office. This time for an X-ray, which looked "weird," so she underwent a CT scan in Wamego.
Boom.
Results showed that her right kidney had swollen to 14 centimeters — about four centimeters bigger than a healthy kidney. A trip to another doctor at KU Medical Center in Kansas City revealed that her kidney was operating at 5%.
"Once they said the kidney had to come out, I was like, 'OK, that's what I need to do,'" she says. "I was relieved."
Then came the surgery on October 25. Then came recovery back home in Olathe, Kansas, for one week along with the worst pain Maddie had ever experienced in her life. Her parents, Greg and Susan, had to help her sit up in bed. She had to stand five minutes every hour. It was shocking and humbling how much she was unable to do on her own. She was an independent person. This was all new.
Once Maddie returned to K-State a couple weeks later — she's on pace to graduate May 2024 in Nutrition & Health and Kinesiology — she wondered if she would ever be able to compete in track and field again. Track and field was her first love. She was a two-time KSHSAA high-jump champion (2017 and 2019) and state runner-up in the long jump (2019). She held the Olathe Northwest High School records in the high jump, hurdles and 4x100 meters. She competed in three Big 12 Championships. Would she ever jump over another hurdle? Feel the rush of tossing a shot put? See the sand splash during a long jump?
The answer? You bet.
Miraculously, doctors cleared her for high-jump and long-jump events on January 1. She competed in the indoor KU-KSU-WSU Triangular on January 13. She finished third with a high-jump of 1.70 meters.
"I was so grateful," she says. "I was so happy to be there. I didn't think I'd get to wear my uniform for two more months. I was having so much fun. I didn't think I'd be there. At all."
She's made her presence felt ever since. That includes competing in her first-ever heptathlon less than a month ago — and setting four personal bests along the way.
"That was the most uncertain I've felt before at a meet because I didn't know what to expect," she says. "I never had to do that many events that close together over that time period, so I really didn't know how my body was going to feel after day one or at the end of day two. It was more anticipating how my body was going to handle it and mentally how I was going to handle it. It was definitely new.
"It was something I hadn't had to face before."
Oh, she's faced much worse. Thankfully, those days are over.
She'll compete in the heptathlon in the Big 12 Outdoor Championships on May 12-13 in Norman, Oklahoma — another victory in a line of victories for one of the Wildcats' biggest warriors.
"I'm very excited because I didn't think I'd be doing that this season after I got my kidney out," she says. "I'm just excited to have the opportunity to place at a bigger meet and compete at a higher level with a bunch of amazing athletes in our conference. I'm excited to put together another heptathlon.
"I feel like I can do even more."
Meet Maddie Righter. Maddie is a 21-year-old junior on the Kansas State track and field team. She owns one of the most riveting stories in the K-State sports world this year. How could she not? She just finished seventh in her first-ever heptathlon with 5,067 points in the Jim Click Combined Events, finishing third-place in the high jump (1.71 meters) while recording new personal bests in the 100-meter hurdles (14.76 seconds), shot put (12.38 meters), 200-meter dash (26.06 seconds) and 800-meter dash (2:44.98).
Not bad considering she underwent a laparoscopic nephrectomy on October 25. That's right, she had a kidney removed. Her right kidney, to be exact, an incessant culprit that increased in size, its pain causing her to cry, and the path to its diagnosis as fun as hurdling lava with both shoes tied together.
"Sometimes the pain would last a week at a time," she says. "I'd get a little better then hurt so bad for five days. I was like, 'This can't be something not to worry about.'"
It all started last year when, despite following Coach Cliff Rovelto's training and maintaining a healthy diet and practicing to the best of her ability, Maddie felt sluggish, slow, lethargic, and she couldn't figure it out. Blood work, hormone tests — everything came back OK. Doctors believed her symptoms were due to elevated stress. Meanwhile her insides felt icky. The pain came and left. Then returned again. Perhaps she tweaked a muscle in her side? No, the pain was too deep. Then she felt a lump and thought, "That's new." Then it went away.
"I thought I must be fine," she says.
But she wasn't fine. She fought it. She trained through it. Doctors thought maybe they had narrowed the cause to her digestive system — "Nothing to be concerned about." Then early last September, she felt the pain as bad as ever before, and she felt the lump — again — during routine training exercises. She fought through tears, went home and finally texted Rovelto: "I cannot practice. I cannot lift. Something is wrong."
Back to the doctor's office. This time for an X-ray, which looked "weird," so she underwent a CT scan in Wamego.
Boom.
Results showed that her right kidney had swollen to 14 centimeters — about four centimeters bigger than a healthy kidney. A trip to another doctor at KU Medical Center in Kansas City revealed that her kidney was operating at 5%.
"Once they said the kidney had to come out, I was like, 'OK, that's what I need to do,'" she says. "I was relieved."
Then came the surgery on October 25. Then came recovery back home in Olathe, Kansas, for one week along with the worst pain Maddie had ever experienced in her life. Her parents, Greg and Susan, had to help her sit up in bed. She had to stand five minutes every hour. It was shocking and humbling how much she was unable to do on her own. She was an independent person. This was all new.
Once Maddie returned to K-State a couple weeks later — she's on pace to graduate May 2024 in Nutrition & Health and Kinesiology — she wondered if she would ever be able to compete in track and field again. Track and field was her first love. She was a two-time KSHSAA high-jump champion (2017 and 2019) and state runner-up in the long jump (2019). She held the Olathe Northwest High School records in the high jump, hurdles and 4x100 meters. She competed in three Big 12 Championships. Would she ever jump over another hurdle? Feel the rush of tossing a shot put? See the sand splash during a long jump?
The answer? You bet.
Miraculously, doctors cleared her for high-jump and long-jump events on January 1. She competed in the indoor KU-KSU-WSU Triangular on January 13. She finished third with a high-jump of 1.70 meters.
"I was so grateful," she says. "I was so happy to be there. I didn't think I'd get to wear my uniform for two more months. I was having so much fun. I didn't think I'd be there. At all."
She's made her presence felt ever since. That includes competing in her first-ever heptathlon less than a month ago — and setting four personal bests along the way.
"That was the most uncertain I've felt before at a meet because I didn't know what to expect," she says. "I never had to do that many events that close together over that time period, so I really didn't know how my body was going to feel after day one or at the end of day two. It was more anticipating how my body was going to handle it and mentally how I was going to handle it. It was definitely new.
"It was something I hadn't had to face before."
Oh, she's faced much worse. Thankfully, those days are over.
She'll compete in the heptathlon in the Big 12 Outdoor Championships on May 12-13 in Norman, Oklahoma — another victory in a line of victories for one of the Wildcats' biggest warriors.
"I'm very excited because I didn't think I'd be doing that this season after I got my kidney out," she says. "I'm just excited to have the opportunity to place at a bigger meet and compete at a higher level with a bunch of amazing athletes in our conference. I'm excited to put together another heptathlon.
"I feel like I can do even more."
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