‘Proving a point’: Wichita State men stun Houston for AAC track and field championship
All Wichita State needed was the bare minimum, but the bare minimum didn’t interest J.D. Prinsloo.
The Shockers were not in this position — needing to just finish the 1,600-meter relay race without disqualification to win the team championship — by playing it safe.
For three straight days, the Wichita State men’s track and field team had competed with the ferocity of an underdog to put Houston, the five-time reigning champions, on its collective heels. Why, Prinsloo thought, would WSU change its mentality in the final, most important race of the meet?
“I’ve been training with these boys for the past six months and for us, it was more than just getting the baton around the track,” Prinsloo said. “For us, it was about proving a point.”
Consider the point made: the WSU relay team, anchored by Prinsloo, improved its season-best time by more than 6 seconds to outperform its seed and secure the Shockers’ unthinkable victory over Houston at the 2022 American Athletic Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Sunday.
It was a fitting ending, outperforming its seed, for how WSU competed for three straight days on its home turf at Cessna Stadium to edge Houston, 185½ to 179, in what can only be described as the most shocking team victory in the brief history of the AAC meet. The Cougars entered as the five-time reigning AAC champions, armed once again with some of the best sprinters and jumpers in the country.
“There were many days when Houston seemed sort of unattainable,” WSU track and field coach Steve Rainbolt admitted. “Maybe this is a stretch, but I don’t feel uncomfortable comparing Houston to the UConn women’s basketball team. This is a big-time program. Did we catch them vulnerable? Obviously, we must have. The University of Houston is an unbelievable opponent, but we’re a strong opponent too and we have balance and depth and we capitalized on that.”
Houston coach Leroy Burrell made no excuses following the stunning runner-up finish for a program used to competing on a national level.
“Wichita State put the pressure on us right from the beginning and they fired everything they had at us,” Burrell said. “Our guys tried to make a valiant comeback, but we made some mistakes. Take nothing from (WSU). They defended their track, they defended their home. They obviously take a lot of pride in their program and they have a lot of championships for a reason. They won the meet and they deserved to win it because they out-competed us and that’s all it boils down to.”
While Houston brought a handful of star athletes who scored major points, the Shockers were able to come out on top with their depth — in typical Rainbolt fashion.
WSU scored in 19 of 21 events and had 28 different athletes score for the team, the kind of depth that helped the Shockers wrack up double-digit points from multiple scorers in the javelin, discus, decathlon and high jump. Rainbolt and his staff of John Wise, John Hetzendorf, Kirk Hunter, Heidi Benton and Pat Wilson take particular pride in recruiting the state of Kansas, which makes it special that 15 different in-state athletes from towns such as Beloit, Bucklin, Douglass, Leroy, Ness City, Wamego and Winfield helped WSU secure the title.
That depth helped WSU make up what was projected to be about a 20-point gap between the Shockers and pre-meet favorite Houston.
“It’s incredibly validating because every point mattered,” Rainbolt said. “That means every scoring athlete mattered immensely. This means the world to us.”
WSU had five conference champions in senior Michael Bryan (hammer throw), junior Clayton Duchatschek (steeplechase), sophomore Taran Taylor (javelin), freshman Matt Everett (discus) and freshman Adria Navajon (decathlon).
While WSU was outperforming its own projections through the first two days of the meet, it might not have been until the field events on Sunday when it surged ahead of Houston.
It began when Houston’s second-ranked pole vaulter no-heighted in the finals, then continued when WSU sent four throwers to the finals in the discus and Houston failed to qualify any. The Shockers gained 21 points on Houston in the discus alone from Everett (first), Ridge Estes (second), Bryan (seventh) and Dae’Trell Gordon (eighth).
“Honestly, I think that was when the momentum swung in the whole track meet,” Everett said. “I think that kind of put Houston on its heels when we got all four of our guys in the finals and they didn’t get any.”
It soon became apparent that even with Houston’s arsenal of elite sprinters, not even it could make up the ground that WSU gained with its advantage in the field events.
WSU had tried to catch Houston the past two conference meets, coming relatively close in 2019 (12 points away) and 2021 (24 points away). On Sunday, the Shockers won their first men’s title at a conference meet since 2017 and became the only current member of the AAC to beat Houston at a conference meet.
WSU racked up 25 points in the javelin with Taylor (first), Davis Dubbert (third), Cauy Lindsay (fourth) and Chandler Stiawalt (fifth) and 21 points in the decathlon with Navajon (first), Chonnor Ludolph (fourth), Kolby Caster (fifth) and Morgan Conner (seventh).
Crucial performances also came from junior Yuben Goncalves, who jumped for the first time this season to finish second in triple jump, fourth in long jump and also score points with a fifth-place finish in the 400 hurdles, senior Adam Moore, who took second in the 800 and third in the 1,500, Navajon, who also finished fifth in 110 hurdles and eighth in high jump, and Dubbert, who took third in the high jump and javelin.
Other scorers for the Shockers included Josh Cable (800), Morgan Conner (400 relay, long jump), Dowdy Elazarig (long jump, triple jump), Ben Flowers (10,000), Joakim Genereux (200, 400 relay, 1600 relay), R.J. Hutchison (1600 relay), Britte Magnuson (steeplechase), Bryce Merriman (1,500), Jaleel Montgomery (100, 400 relay), Brady Palen (high jump), Prinsloo (400, 400 relay, 1600 relay), Trey Rios (10,000), Stiawalt (high jump), Ke’adre Thompson (1600 relay) and Riley Vandaveer (800).
“Track is such a special sport because every person puts in their work and then you come together as a team and everyone has to unite and do their part,” Prinsloo said. “No one can hide on the bench. No one can carry the team. It’s a total team experience and that’s what makes this sport so amazing and why I love it so much. I’m proud to be a Shocker and I’m happy we were able to win this at home. It’s crazy, it’s emotional and it’s just an amazing experience.”
This story was originally published May 16, 2022 at 6:06 AM.
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