MANHATTAN, Kan. – Following a year that saw K-State record nine wins and a Texas Bowl championship in football and earn its 29th NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament appearance, anticipation is building for the 2017-18 academic year as student athletic passes are now on sale to current K-State students returning to campus in the fall semester.

Student pass options and pricing remain unchanged for the eighth-consecutive year and include the ICAT Football and Men’s Basketball Combo Pass ($295), General Admission Football and Men’s Basketball Combo Pass ($235) and General Admission Football Only Pass ($150). In addition to football and men’s basketball tickets, ICAT pass holders will receive two free t-shirts, two Ahearn Fund priority points and early access to football bowl game and postseason basketball tickets when available.

Students who order their pass by Friday, March 31, will be eligible for the chance to win a loge box at a 2017 non-conference men’s basketball game, an XBOX One gaming bundle, two tickets to a select 2017 football road game or tuition for a semester (up to $4,000).

To celebrate K-State Football’s nine-win season in 2016, all students who purchase their student athletic pass within the first nine days will receive a free ticket to the K-State Football Spring Game on Saturday, April 22. To receive a spring game ticket, students must purchase their pass by 11:59 p.m., Tuesday, April 4. Spring game tickets will be distributed to students at their ksu.edu student email address.

Current K-State students who purchased a student athletic pass in 2016-17 can renew their pass by logging onto their KSIS account and purchasing through the Marketplace or on kstatesports.com. Passes ordered on KSIS will be billed to the student’s fall tuition statement while passes purchased through kstatesports.com must be paid for at the time of purchase. Full details on how to order a student pass will be communicated to the student body through email.

Student passes will be available to transfer students who have registered for April Orientation and Enrollment beginning on Monday, April 17 while incoming freshmen who have registered for June Orientation and Enrollment will have the option to purchase their pass on Tuesday, May 30.

For more information regarding student tickets, contact the K-State Ticket Office at 1-785-532-5379 or email students@kstatesports.com.

 

MANHATTAN, Kan. – Kansas State track and field will venture to South Florida for the first time in more than 10 years, when the team and its two returning Big 12 Champions and four All-Americans opens the 2017 outdoor season at Miami’s Hurricane Collegiate Invitational Saturday in Coral Gables, Florida.

The meet, televised nationally on the ACC Network, marks the first time that the Wildcats have competed in the Sunshine State since the 2003-04 season, when the team participated in the Miami Twilight on April 10, 2004.

“We are looking forward to getting the outdoor season started,” Director of Track and Field and Cross CountryCliff Rovelto said. “The weather forecast is great, so that is nice. I am excited to see our long throwers compete. They have been waiting a while. We also will get to run short relays.”

K-State is primed for a strong outdoor season with a strong cast of returning contributors from a season ago.

Sophomore Shadae Lawrence leads the charge after a dominant freshman season which saw her not only win the Big 12 Championship in discus and finish fourth place in the same event at NCAAs, but she was the only current Wildcat to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she finished in 22^ndplace with a throw of 57.09m/187-03.

Lawrence’s twin sister, Shardia Lawrence looks to defend her Big 12 outdoor triple jump crown as she heads into her second outdoor season with the Wildcats. At that meet, she recorded her outdoor personal best of 13.19m/43-03.25 to move to fifth on the program’s all-time list in the event. The sophomore is coming off a record-setting indoor season, where she broke the program’s top mark in triple jump with a leap of 13.75m/45-01.50 at the Tyson Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Two of the four returning All-Americans, juniors Christoff Bryan and Janee’ Kassanavoid, are coming off dominant indoor seasons which saw each of them win Big 12 titles in the high jump and weight throw, respectively. Kassanavoid had a dominant indoor season, breaking the school weight throw record with mark of 21.81m/71-06.75 before she won the first Big 12 title of her career. During last year’s outdoor season, she recorded her personal-best hammer throw mark of 61.46m/201-08 en route to earning Second Team All-America honors.

Bryan was equally successful in the indoor season, using a season-best jump of 2.24m/7-04.25 to earn his second-straight Big 12 indoor high jump title. The junior shined at the national level in high jump last season, finishing runner-up 2.22m/7-03.25. He went on to win the Jamaican Championships in the same event just a few weeks later with a jump of 2.25m/7-04.50, 20 centimeters better than the second-place finisher. However, lacking the Olympic Standard of 2.29m/7-06, he did not qualify for Jamaica’s Olympic Team.

The final returning All-American, sophomore Brett Neelly, also shined in the final meet of the 2016 outdoor season. The Gallatin, Tennessee, native recorded a mark of 19.16m/62-10.50 to claim eighth place at the meet, making him the first K-State shot putter to score at NCAAs since Andrew Gillam, who holds the school record in the event, finished in seventh place at the 1985 NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas.

K-State will also return some familiar faces who have made an impact for the Wildcats during the outdoor season. Sophomore Ranae McKenzie returns to run the 400 meter hurdles, after recording a 23^rd place finish in her first-ever NCAA Championships in the event. On the men’s side, junior Terrell Smith (200-meter dash) and Brady Grunder (hammer throw), will look to have an impact on the men’s side after both earned Honorable Mention All-America honors last season.

Over the course of the outdoor season, the women finished in third place at the Big 12 Championship (112 points) and tied for seventh place at NCAA Championship (29 points), while the men took fifth place at Big 12s (94 points) and tied for 26th place at NCAAs (9 points).

Saturday’s action will begin at 9 a.m., CT, with the men’s javelin throw and hammer throw. Running events are slated to begin at noon, CT, with the women’s 4×100 meter relay.

Fans will have the opportunity to catch the action live on the ACC Network from noon-4 p.m., CT, with Joe Zagacki and AJ Ricketts on the call. The broadcast can be found here. More information on the meet, including a complete schedule of events, can be found on Miami’s track and field website by clicking here.

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

—www.kstatesports.com—

 

Josh Brunner
Graduate Assistant | Athletics Communications

Organizers of the Eisenhower Marathon event on April 8th in Abilene say marathon race entries are above normal, but half marathon entries are lower than normal.

This is a charity event for Dickinson County. Revenues will be distributed among 16 nonprofit organizations. For example Kids in Crisis served 1,953 cases for children in 2016, and are currently helping witha $10,000 need for a 13-year-old who one of two known people to have her particular disease.

The marathon and half marathon will begin at 7 a.m. and there will be 10K and 5K races at 7:30 a.m. Runners will move through the territory south of Abilene that cattlemen followed when bringing theirs to Abilene on the Chisholm Trail in the 1800s.

The first three finishers in the marathon will receive $500, $300 and $200. For the half marathon the prize totals are $150 for first place, $100 for second and $75 for third place.

Cash prizes in the 10K run from $35 to $15 and for the 5K from $30 to $10.