Kansas State University Athletics

Tradition

Big 12 Champions

 

K-State has established itself as an elite program at the national level thanks to the successes of its athletes at the NCAA Championships. K-State has 39 NCAA Championships in its history, including a National Champion coming in each of the past five years.

As a team, the Wildcats have historically finished among the best programs in the country. In each of the last six years, the K-State women have finished in the top-20 of the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The K-State women earned a program-best No. 5 finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in 2002, while the K-State men tied for fifth at the 1966 NCAA Indoor Championships. 

In 2011, the program accomplished something it had yet to do in its storied history. Both the men's and women's teams finished in the Top 20 at the NCAA Outdoor Championship meet. The women led the way with their 13th-place finish while the men tied for 19th. The Wildcats also were one of only 10 programs in the nation to have both their men and women finish in the Top 25

Historically, the Wildcats have thrived in the men's high jump at the NCAA Championships, where the Wildcats have claimed seven National Titles during the outdoor season (nine total), including six in the past 12 years. The Wildcats are second among men's outdoor high jump titles in the country.

The K-State women have also found the top of the NCAA podium throughout their history, including Shardia Lawrence winning the program's first women's triple jump crown in 2019. Among the 11 indoor and outdoor NCAA individual titles, four have come in the heptathlon, including two National Championships by Austra Skujyte (2001, 2002) and the No. 4 NCAA mark of all-time in the event of 6,371 set by Akela Jones at the 2015 NCAA Outdoor Championships.

Not only have the Wildcats flourished on the national scene, K-State has also seen great success at the conference level. Highlighted by back-to-back Big 12 titles in 2001/2002 and 2017/2018, the K-State women are one of only two teams to repeat as champions on more than one occasion. The K-State men have also seen great success at the Big 12 Conference meet, including a men's program-best 101 point performance in 2018, where the Wildcats tied for third overall.

During coach Cliff Rovelto's time leading the program, the men and women have combined to win 20 individual NCAA crowns. Nine of those titles came in the high jump as Rovelto has become one of the nation's top coaches for the event. Two NCAA titles were won by Skyjute in the women's heptathlon, as Rovelto has seen great success by his athletes in combined events as well.

Before emerging as a top high jumping and combined events program, K-State was dominant in the distance medley relay and mile run in the1960's and 70's. The Wildcat men claimed the indoor DMR title in 1967 and 1975. In 1969 the men won the 4X800 relay, and the women's 4X800 relay claimed the 1976 outdoor title.

After showing strength in the mile in the 60's and 70's with three titles, Christian Smith showed K-State is still competing every year in the distance events winning the 2006 indoor mile.

 

 

Track Tradition

Erik Kynard

Olympians

Kansas State has a long standing tradition of training athletes to go on and compete for the highest honor in sports -- a gold medal at the Olympics.

Throughout its history 30 Wildcats have gone on to represent their homeland at the Olympic Games. That tradition spans 17 Olympic Games since 1920 when Ray Watson finished seventh in the steeplechase in Antwerp, Belgium. Since then, former Wildcats have won a total of ten medals in competition on the world's biggest stage.

Thane Baker is K-State's most decorated Olympian as he won the silver medal in the 200 meters in the 1952 Olympics in Finland. He followed that with three medals four years later in Melbourne, Australia. Baker won silver in the 100 meters and bronze in the 200 meters and ran a leg of the 4X100 relay team that brought gold back to the United States.

K-State's most recent Olympic success came in Paris 2024 when Eugene Omalla won gold for The Netherlands with the mixed 4x400 relay team.

During the London 2012 Olympic Games, high jumper Erik Kynard, Jr. won the gold medal, becoming the first Wildcat to win a medal with remaining eligibility since Baker in 1950.

The London 2012 Olympic Games also were the best in K-State history with seven former Wildcats competing in track and field. Joining Kynard at the Games were his former teammates Jeffrey Julmis (Haiti), Beverly Ramos (Puerto Rico) and Balazs Baji (Hungary). Also competing were Korene Hines (Jamaica), Austra Skujyte (Lithuania) and Darius Draudvila (Lithuania).

In 2004, two-time NCAA champion Skujyte won the silver medal in the heptathlon, becoming K-State's first medalist since Kenny Harrison's gold medal in the 1996 triple jump. Skujyte would finish fifth in 2012 in the heptathlon, becoming the first woman in history to compete in four different Olympic Games in the heptathlon.

At the 2016 Olympics in Rio De Janeiro, the Wildcats had eight individuals represent at the games, including two individuals who had remaining eligibility at K-State. In addition, former Director of Track and Field/Cross Country Cliff Rovelto served as an Assistant Coach for Team USA.

Harrison's victorious mark in the triple jump in Atlanta in 1996 remains an Olympic record as well.

For a full list of K-State Olympians and more Olympic history, click here. 

 

 

Olympic Tradition


Cliff Rovelto NCAA Champioonships
 
 

All-Americans

Kansas State is a program with a rich tradition of developing elite student-athletes. That is shown at the NCAA Championships with Wildcats consistently earning All-America honors. You have to go back to the year 2000 to find a year when the men's team did not have an indoor All-American and 1980 in outdoor. The women have only missed out on All-America honors twice in the history of the program both coming indoors.

Under the leadership of Coach Cliff Rovelto, the Wildcats have garnered 268 All- America honors since 1993, including 75 in the past five years.

In 2009, K-State saw Scott Sellers become the first eight-time All-American in one event as he closed his career winning both indoor and outdoor NCAA titles in the high jump. Along with Sellers, Akela Jones earned eight All-American certificates between the indoor and outdoor seasons in 2015 and 2016, including an NCAA Championship in the heptathlon in 2015. 

K-State's most successful event at the NCAA Championships belongs to the men's high jump, where a Wildcat has earned All-American status in the event in 27 of the past 31 years. Throughout the history of the event, K-State has scored 171.4 points outdoors and 86.5 points indoors in the event, while the second-most points scored in an event comes in the women's high jump, scoring 80 points indoors and 86 points outdoors. The K-State men's 171.4 points outdoors in the high jump are the second most in NCAA history in the event.

With Rovelto at the helm, K-State has proven to be a place where the best-of-the-best compete to raise the bar in the track and field world. The Wildcats continue to produce some of the nation's top collegiate athletes with the performances on the biggest stage to prove it.

Recognizing first and second team All-Americans, individuals must place in the top-8 at the NCAA Indoor or NCAA Outdoor Championships to earn first team All-America honors and place in the top-16 to earn second team All-America honors.

All-American Tradition

K-State Big 12 TF Cropped

 

Conference Championships

 

Kansas State made its presence known in the Big 12 Conference when the women's team won a pair of back-to-back outdoor championships in 2001 and 2002 and 2017 and 2018. Since then, the men's and women's teams have continued to produce teams that garnish individual titles and compete for team championships.

Only once has the men's team gone a season without winning at least one individual Big 12 title in either indoor or outdoor. The women on the other side have won at least one individual event every year at the Big 12 Indoor Championship but three and missed out on outdoors just three times as well in the league's 17-year history.

The Wildcats have become the dominant team in the Big 12 when it comes to women's weight and hammer throw, high jump and the combined events are also K-State's specialty among conference foes. K-State has won a total of 22 women's weight and hammer throw titles at the Big 12 Championships and have had two women win three consecutive weight throw crowns. A total of 24 high jump championships have gone to the Wildcats in the Big 12 era, and 13 combined event titles are claimed by K-State as well.

The women's team joins Texas as the only active Big 12 women's program to win consecutive Big 12 Titles on more than one occasion. The K-State women have also placed in the top-five at the Big 12 Outdoor Championship in each of the last five seasons, including scoring a program record 156.5 points at the 2019 Big 12 Championship. 

K-State also holds five Big 12 Championship meet records to go with Cliff Rovelto's five Women's Coach of the Year awards, which is the most among active Big 12 coaches and tied for second all-time.Â