Rovelto excited about newcomers

It's very possible that destiny played a major role in freshman Erik Kynard's journey to Kansas State.

At least that is how head track coach Cliff Rovelto likes to tell the story.

"Before I ever saw him jump, I had other coaches tell me he was destined to be a part of our program," Rovelto said this week.

It's quite a statement, but take a quick look at the young freshman's resume, combined with the history of high jumpers at K-State, and it starts to make sense.

"When they (other coaches) watched him jumped, they said he jumps like your guys jump," Rovelto said. "And they were right."

It's that decorated history of KSU high jumpers that caught the eye of Kynard as he searched from his home in Toledo, Ohio for schools to jump at, even if he did find himself in the middle of the Flint Hills of Kansas.

"Kansas is boring," he joked Wednesday afternoon. "But when you are looking at schools, you kind of want to pick the one that is best one for what you do. It was all about who had the best program, and basically this is the best program."

The 6-foot-4 athlete, is looking to continue in the celebrated path of Wildcat high jumpers, which includes three-time national champion Scott Sellers, and four-time All-American Kyle Lancaster. Both Sellers and Lancaster have re-written the K-State record books over the last 10 years.

And even this early in his career, Rovelto has already seen parallels with Kynard and the previous K-State greats.

"With the history of guys that have been here in that event, as a freshman he is doing just as well as any of them did when they first came here." Rovelto said.

Kynard is part of a decorated group of newcomers in Rovelto's program that are looking to make a quick impact in the NCAA national events for years to come.

Those newcomers and the rest of the men's team will be competing in two events this weekend as some will be traveling to Ames, Iowa at the Iowa State Classic and others will be heading south to Fayetteville, Ark., to compete in the Tyson Invitational.

Overall, the Wildcats will be sending 13 of their newcomers to compete in the events at Iowa State and Arkansas. It will be the eighth competition of the indoor season, and Rovelto said nothing of what he has seen thus far, has really surprised him.

"It (the indoor season) is kind of what we thought it would be," Rovelto said. "We have a number of talented guys, but a lot of them are young, and a lot of them haven't even competed in this country yet.

"So we are kind of opening their eyes to what it is like to compete here."

One of the other newcomers that excites Rovelto is sophomore Martynas Jurgilas of Kaunas, Lithuania. Jugilas has yet to run in a meet his year, however he is looking to compete in sprinting events as the outdoor season approaches.

Jurgilas is not scheduled to compete this weekend.

"When it is all said and done, he will be one of the faster guys ever in our school history." Rovelto said.

Above all, this weekend will provide Rovelto with another opportunity to evaluate his young roster, as the Wildcats have athletes scheduled to compete in 19 events between the two locations.

"We've got, I think a couple quality guys in just about every event," Rovelto said.

Kynard is scheduled to travel to Arkansas and compete in the high jump competition. However he said he is not worried about results just yet, and that the current indoor season is serving as a break-in period to the program prior to the more anticipated outdoor season, which begins in the spring.

"I haven't really done anything yet," Kynard said. "I don't want to say this is like practice, but I'm just trying to figure things, like the events, out."

Thus far, Kynard has jumped twice in the indoor season, once at the Adidas Classic in Lincoln, Neb., and once at the Bill Bergan Invitational at Iowa State and already he has a career-best of 7-feet-2.25-inches.

After the two events this weekend, the Wildcats will have one more meet, the KSU Open on Feb 20, before the Big 12 Championships and subsequent NCAA Championships to wrap up the indoor season.

As the indoor season wraps up, and his newcomers become acquainted with the program, Rovelto said he is excited for what his squad has the opportunity to accomplish over the next few years.

"We could be a good team this year," he said.. "And down the road we could be very, very good."