Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The field at the Jim Click invitational is nothing to sneeze at. Indeed, the top five finishers in the women’s heptathlon posted scores that would leave them all within the top eight nationally at day’s end.
The top of that list: Kansas State senior Lauren Taubert, who set a personal best with 5,831 points to claim the victory on Friday. Taubert’s performance places her atop the NCAA competition list, and was 38 points better than her performance in the 2019 NCAA Championships.
Ariel Okorie, with 5,474 points, was the aforementioned fifth-place finisher and now sits eighth in Division I on the season.
Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports
Yesterday, JT reported on Bruce Weber’s two latest commits to the Kansas State basketball program; shortly after that news, Weber himself announced that Mark Smith had signed his financial aid agreement and had some comments on his new shooting guard.
Mercury contributing writer Larry Weigel, who was also Lon Kruger’s freshman coach back in 1970-71 at Ahearn, offered some anecdotes in a column yesterday.
Volleyball
For the third straight week and fifth overall this season, Aliyah Carter is the Big 12 Rookie of the week. That announcement came before yesterday’s season-ending match at #9 Baylor, which resulted in a 26-24, 25-15, 25-23 sweep at the hands of the Bears. Carter, Jayden Nembhard, and Kadye Fernholz each had nine kills for the Cats in the match. Mackenzie Morris led the Cats with 12 digs, completing a season sweep she led the team in digs every match this season.