‘Focus on Being Consistent’
Jan 14, 2025 | Track & Field, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Travis Geopfert feels at home. It's been a whirlwind since he was named Kansas State's Director of Track and Field/Cross Country on July 11, 2024, but Geopfert would have it no other way. Over these past six months, he has put together a world-class coaching staff, and he has left no stone unturned in finding high-quality student-athletes to help the Wildcats either immediately or in the future.
Geopfert was a four-time National Assistant Coach of the Year during two stints at Arkansas across 12 years, with 22 total years of experience also at Tennessee, Northern Iowa and Central Missouri.
One thing that he's already noticed?
"The kids we currently have and the ones we've recruited, they want to be at K-State," Geopfert said. "That can relate well to the fans because when you look at the fans here, K-Staters are passionate, man. It's a loyal fan base."
K-State Sports Extra's D. Scott Fritchen spoke with Geopfert about his first six months at K-State:
FRITCHEN: It's been six months now since you got to K-State. What are some of the major things you and your staff have tackled or accomplished that you're proudest of?
TRAVIS GEOPFERT: I think number one is just the buy-in and the training of the current student-athletes. I just appreciate them trusting us so quickly. We had a voluntary "shake-out" yesterday because today's training is going to be more intense, and we wanted the kids to move a little bit, and every single person showed up. It was a voluntary 30-minute warm-up routine so the kids could come out on the weekend and just move their bodies a little bit. We did that because I didn't want to come in Monday for a fast workout without doing something on the weekend, so 1 p.m. Sunday it was "come if you want to." It was just awesome. That buy-in from the kids and getting them to believe in what we're doing and just a great team atmosphere is number one, then number two is just the recruiting. The recruiting has been pretty aggressive. We've signed 34 student-athletes so far, and we have a heck of a recruiting class coming in for the men and women. It's pretty exciting.
FRITCHEN: What's something every K-State fan should know about this track and field team?
GEOPFERT: We have a ton of individual success, and Coach Cliff Rovelto had a lot of individual success, and the main thing is these student-athletes, their buy-in to the team, and this thing pushing forward with the team concept in mind, not only from a competing standpoint, but these kids helping us to recruit — these kids bleed purple. In a collegiate athletic world where so much of what we deal with is transactional in recruiting, the kids we currently have and the ones we've recruited, they want to be at K-State. That can relate well to the fans because when you look at the fans here, K-Staters are passionate, man. It's a loyal fan base. So, it's pretty exciting to have student-athletes who really want to be here who are going to turn into those fans in the future, you know?
FRITCHEN: When did the student-athlete recruiting process start for you?
GEOPFERT: We've been going crazy since September. We had that first wave of signees, and I don't know how many kids we had, probably 16 or so, and we're about to announce another signing class, and we have seven other student-athletes coming in now in January, and another eight that we've signed since November, which will be released by sports information. It's been continuous since September, and it'll slow a little bit right now. From this point forward, we're really just looking for student-athletes, maybe three or four more total, and we'll be done with recruiting.
FRITCHEN: You mention you've been recruiting aggressively. Just how crazy has it been?
GEOPFERT: We loaded up a little bit. We got some great in-state talent. We've got some terrific distance and middle-distance runners from in-state from both sides, men and women, and all the state champions in the 800 meters, we've signed most of them. From a national perspective, people are going to come in and be able to make an impact right away at the NCAA level. We signed a long jumper that's jumped 26-7. We signed a triple-jumper from India that's jumped 55 feet. We signed a junior-college jumper who is a 52-foot triple-jumper and a 25-foot long-jumper. We got another commitment from a jumper that's a NCAA scorer. We have a 197-foot discus thrower. We got some really good 400-meter runners from Kansas, Missouri and Iowa on the women's side. We're just trying to create some really good depth in that 4 x 400 for the men and women. It's pretty well-rounded overall.
FRITCHEN: What's the message you and your staff have conveyed to the team prior to your first season at K-State?
GEOPFERT: We talked a little bit Sunday about we don't have to set the world on fire right now, we just have to keep building and improving, having personal bests both in training and in the weight room, and that's going to filter onto the track. We cannot be solely focused on the final time or final distance. We have to be focused on this process and know these things don't happen overnight. Patience and continuing to be consistent and grind is what you have to do. You have to do the simple things extraordinarily well all the time and if you layer that over and over and over again, you're going to get some great results. But you have to focus on being consistent and doing it. Fall training started in September, and we started running on the indoor track after Thanksgiving. I'm really happy with our progress. We had a 600-meter time trial where all our 400-meter runners had significant personal bests, which I was really happy about. I've been really pleased overall. The way our training is set up, we're geared to peak at the end of February and beginning of March. They just have to know we're training through these meets and we're grinding a little bit. The main thing we're looking for are good, competitive efforts. If we see that — great attitudes and great efforts — we know great things are going to come in a month or so.
FRITCHEN: How excited are you for the KU-KSU-WSU Triangular this weekend?
GEOPFERT: I'm excited. It's something different. Creating that in-state rivalry is a lot of fun. Bringing it here is exciting. I'm excited for this year and for this meet and to see what our kids can do. I'm really not changing anything. We're hosting the meet the way it's been hosted in the past, but I am looking forward to getting in there and seeing it and doing it and seeing how we can tweak some things to make it a potentially better fan experience and really next year, once we have our feet on the ground, market this thing and see if we can get a lot of bodies in there.
Everybody who steps foot in the indoor facility realizes it's a world-class training and competition track. Creating some excitement about the track itself, it's so well done. We want phase 2 of that building. We want 3,000 seats in there so we can host the Big 12 meet. Generating some excitement to get that phase 2 started is something I'm really looking forward to as well.
FRITCHEN: Can you take a moment to tell K-State fans about your assistant coaches and exactly what you admire about each of them?
GEOPFERT: In the jumps, Clive Pullen was an Olympian for me in 2016 and is an unbelievably good recruiter and just watching him develop as a coach over the years has been really rewarding for me on a number of fronts. For us to be on the same team coaching together is a lot of fun. Chris Goodwin is also helping in the jumps and serving as our director of operations and is a sharp guy and a workhorse. That dude is in the office at 6:30 a.m. every day just grinding, which is absolutely phenomenal. Tara Davis-Woodhall is helping us out really looking at the mental side of things for these athletes and what it takes to be locked in and competitive. In the sprints, Mat Clark, he's been the strength coach for me for the last 10 years for all our student-athletes, and now he's serving as our sprints coach and writing a lot of our strength workouts. He's just a world-class mind in this sport. You look at his resume in writing strength workouts, he's had 42 global medalists. It's unbelievable. Then I have another former athlete of mine, James Milholen, who's also helping with the sprints, and he's a former 400-meter runner. He's great, too, because he'll hop in and do some workouts on occasion, which is great. Then combining that with pole vault, Kip Janvrin is a mentor of mine and was at Central Missouri forever and is really just doing a good job of getting these athletes to buy in and understand there's no magic wand in this stuff. You either put the work in or you don't. He's 59 or 60 years old, but he has the energy of a 25-year-old, so it's pretty awesome. John Newell, our throws coach, has coached a number of Olympians, a number of national champions, and NCAA national champion. He's just a great mind for the throws. We have a lot of throwers on this team, so he's on the track all day long coaching, but he's doing a great job. Then our distance coaches, Kate Bucknam and Trey Brokaw, again, the recruiting front, getting after it, getting these kids to buy in, watching these distance runners and working on their kick for the end of a race and do some stuff they haven't done in the past, they're all excited about it. I need to mention Kayla Tully, our administrative assistant. Kayla was here and retained from the previous staff, and she's the glue that holds this all together. She's just a lifesaver for me on multiple fronts.
FRITCHEN: What are your thoughts on the support you've received so far around the Manhattan community?
GEOPFERT: I really appreciate the support from this community. I know everybody is passionate about K-State, but to move to a new place with so many of our coaches and our families – not just my family but all our staff's families – we've had unbelievable support from the people in town and on campus. It's just awesome. This is a great, great place, a fantastic place to raise a family, and to bring these kids to this positive environment has been great for all of us and families.
Travis Geopfert feels at home. It's been a whirlwind since he was named Kansas State's Director of Track and Field/Cross Country on July 11, 2024, but Geopfert would have it no other way. Over these past six months, he has put together a world-class coaching staff, and he has left no stone unturned in finding high-quality student-athletes to help the Wildcats either immediately or in the future.
Geopfert was a four-time National Assistant Coach of the Year during two stints at Arkansas across 12 years, with 22 total years of experience also at Tennessee, Northern Iowa and Central Missouri.
One thing that he's already noticed?
"The kids we currently have and the ones we've recruited, they want to be at K-State," Geopfert said. "That can relate well to the fans because when you look at the fans here, K-Staters are passionate, man. It's a loyal fan base."
K-State Sports Extra's D. Scott Fritchen spoke with Geopfert about his first six months at K-State:
FRITCHEN: It's been six months now since you got to K-State. What are some of the major things you and your staff have tackled or accomplished that you're proudest of?
TRAVIS GEOPFERT: I think number one is just the buy-in and the training of the current student-athletes. I just appreciate them trusting us so quickly. We had a voluntary "shake-out" yesterday because today's training is going to be more intense, and we wanted the kids to move a little bit, and every single person showed up. It was a voluntary 30-minute warm-up routine so the kids could come out on the weekend and just move their bodies a little bit. We did that because I didn't want to come in Monday for a fast workout without doing something on the weekend, so 1 p.m. Sunday it was "come if you want to." It was just awesome. That buy-in from the kids and getting them to believe in what we're doing and just a great team atmosphere is number one, then number two is just the recruiting. The recruiting has been pretty aggressive. We've signed 34 student-athletes so far, and we have a heck of a recruiting class coming in for the men and women. It's pretty exciting.
FRITCHEN: What's something every K-State fan should know about this track and field team?
GEOPFERT: We have a ton of individual success, and Coach Cliff Rovelto had a lot of individual success, and the main thing is these student-athletes, their buy-in to the team, and this thing pushing forward with the team concept in mind, not only from a competing standpoint, but these kids helping us to recruit — these kids bleed purple. In a collegiate athletic world where so much of what we deal with is transactional in recruiting, the kids we currently have and the ones we've recruited, they want to be at K-State. That can relate well to the fans because when you look at the fans here, K-Staters are passionate, man. It's a loyal fan base. So, it's pretty exciting to have student-athletes who really want to be here who are going to turn into those fans in the future, you know?
FRITCHEN: When did the student-athlete recruiting process start for you?
GEOPFERT: We've been going crazy since September. We had that first wave of signees, and I don't know how many kids we had, probably 16 or so, and we're about to announce another signing class, and we have seven other student-athletes coming in now in January, and another eight that we've signed since November, which will be released by sports information. It's been continuous since September, and it'll slow a little bit right now. From this point forward, we're really just looking for student-athletes, maybe three or four more total, and we'll be done with recruiting.
FRITCHEN: You mention you've been recruiting aggressively. Just how crazy has it been?
GEOPFERT: We loaded up a little bit. We got some great in-state talent. We've got some terrific distance and middle-distance runners from in-state from both sides, men and women, and all the state champions in the 800 meters, we've signed most of them. From a national perspective, people are going to come in and be able to make an impact right away at the NCAA level. We signed a long jumper that's jumped 26-7. We signed a triple-jumper from India that's jumped 55 feet. We signed a junior-college jumper who is a 52-foot triple-jumper and a 25-foot long-jumper. We got another commitment from a jumper that's a NCAA scorer. We have a 197-foot discus thrower. We got some really good 400-meter runners from Kansas, Missouri and Iowa on the women's side. We're just trying to create some really good depth in that 4 x 400 for the men and women. It's pretty well-rounded overall.
FRITCHEN: What's the message you and your staff have conveyed to the team prior to your first season at K-State?
GEOPFERT: We talked a little bit Sunday about we don't have to set the world on fire right now, we just have to keep building and improving, having personal bests both in training and in the weight room, and that's going to filter onto the track. We cannot be solely focused on the final time or final distance. We have to be focused on this process and know these things don't happen overnight. Patience and continuing to be consistent and grind is what you have to do. You have to do the simple things extraordinarily well all the time and if you layer that over and over and over again, you're going to get some great results. But you have to focus on being consistent and doing it. Fall training started in September, and we started running on the indoor track after Thanksgiving. I'm really happy with our progress. We had a 600-meter time trial where all our 400-meter runners had significant personal bests, which I was really happy about. I've been really pleased overall. The way our training is set up, we're geared to peak at the end of February and beginning of March. They just have to know we're training through these meets and we're grinding a little bit. The main thing we're looking for are good, competitive efforts. If we see that — great attitudes and great efforts — we know great things are going to come in a month or so.
FRITCHEN: How excited are you for the KU-KSU-WSU Triangular this weekend?
GEOPFERT: I'm excited. It's something different. Creating that in-state rivalry is a lot of fun. Bringing it here is exciting. I'm excited for this year and for this meet and to see what our kids can do. I'm really not changing anything. We're hosting the meet the way it's been hosted in the past, but I am looking forward to getting in there and seeing it and doing it and seeing how we can tweak some things to make it a potentially better fan experience and really next year, once we have our feet on the ground, market this thing and see if we can get a lot of bodies in there.
Everybody who steps foot in the indoor facility realizes it's a world-class training and competition track. Creating some excitement about the track itself, it's so well done. We want phase 2 of that building. We want 3,000 seats in there so we can host the Big 12 meet. Generating some excitement to get that phase 2 started is something I'm really looking forward to as well.
FRITCHEN: Can you take a moment to tell K-State fans about your assistant coaches and exactly what you admire about each of them?
GEOPFERT: In the jumps, Clive Pullen was an Olympian for me in 2016 and is an unbelievably good recruiter and just watching him develop as a coach over the years has been really rewarding for me on a number of fronts. For us to be on the same team coaching together is a lot of fun. Chris Goodwin is also helping in the jumps and serving as our director of operations and is a sharp guy and a workhorse. That dude is in the office at 6:30 a.m. every day just grinding, which is absolutely phenomenal. Tara Davis-Woodhall is helping us out really looking at the mental side of things for these athletes and what it takes to be locked in and competitive. In the sprints, Mat Clark, he's been the strength coach for me for the last 10 years for all our student-athletes, and now he's serving as our sprints coach and writing a lot of our strength workouts. He's just a world-class mind in this sport. You look at his resume in writing strength workouts, he's had 42 global medalists. It's unbelievable. Then I have another former athlete of mine, James Milholen, who's also helping with the sprints, and he's a former 400-meter runner. He's great, too, because he'll hop in and do some workouts on occasion, which is great. Then combining that with pole vault, Kip Janvrin is a mentor of mine and was at Central Missouri forever and is really just doing a good job of getting these athletes to buy in and understand there's no magic wand in this stuff. You either put the work in or you don't. He's 59 or 60 years old, but he has the energy of a 25-year-old, so it's pretty awesome. John Newell, our throws coach, has coached a number of Olympians, a number of national champions, and NCAA national champion. He's just a great mind for the throws. We have a lot of throwers on this team, so he's on the track all day long coaching, but he's doing a great job. Then our distance coaches, Kate Bucknam and Trey Brokaw, again, the recruiting front, getting after it, getting these kids to buy in, watching these distance runners and working on their kick for the end of a race and do some stuff they haven't done in the past, they're all excited about it. I need to mention Kayla Tully, our administrative assistant. Kayla was here and retained from the previous staff, and she's the glue that holds this all together. She's just a lifesaver for me on multiple fronts.
FRITCHEN: What are your thoughts on the support you've received so far around the Manhattan community?
GEOPFERT: I really appreciate the support from this community. I know everybody is passionate about K-State, but to move to a new place with so many of our coaches and our families – not just my family but all our staff's families – we've had unbelievable support from the people in town and on campus. It's just awesome. This is a great, great place, a fantastic place to raise a family, and to bring these kids to this positive environment has been great for all of us and families.
K-State Women's Basketball | Game Replay vs Cincinnati - December 31, 2025
Wednesday, December 31
K-State Men's Basketball | Coach Tang Press Conference - December 31
Wednesday, December 31
K-State Women's Basketball | Coach Mittie Postgame Press Conference vs Cincinnati
Wednesday, December 31
K-State Women's Basketball | Game Highlights vs Cincinnati
Wednesday, December 31
