Head track and field Director Steve Rainbolt, throws coach John Hetzendorf, juniors Kelsey Slawson and Isaiah Evans fielded questions, Monday, on setting personal best, preparation for Arkansas and the conference meet.

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Rainbolt on...

Herm Wilson Invitational...
"I've been doing this long enough that even without going over the meet results I can walk out of a meet like that and have a sense whether or not I feel good about how things went or not...I'm sitting at the high jump and seeing good things happening, I'm turning around looking at the weight throw to see Isaiah Evans throw a huge personal best for himself and I'm seeing Kelsey Slawson throw a school record in the shot put. I'm seeing solid performances in the horizontal jumps."

True freshman Rayvon Allen...
"This young guy is a legitimate collegiate track athlete, there's no way around it. He wins the 200m the other day, I realize it was not the Olympic games, but it was an impressive run to me...Every time he goes to the head of the runway for a long jump or triple jump and I think something good is getting ready to happen and he shows up to run the 4x400m. I just think this guy is a significant college track man and I think he's an energy center on our track team, he makes things happen and other people get excited about making things happen."

Overall team perspective...
"You could go all-around in the sprints, the hurdles and the distances races we had some really nice results, good things are happening on our track team. Our philosophy is balance and depth, you've heard me say it before that our philosophy is to list the events down the left side of the page and list the teams in the conference across the top of the page and underneath Wichita State we want to be balanced and score points in all of the events"

Picking the conference team...
"One of our first analysis is to look at where they fall on the conference list and how likely is it that they are going to score in the conference championship. People who are ranked in the top five of their event on the conference performance list are a lock. You go down from there and probably anybody in the top eight, I say probably because we've had years where we had 32 guys and we were picking between two guys that were both in the top eight."
 

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Hetzendorf on...

Isaiah Evans...
"He had three throws over 60-feet, to be honest, we've seen that coming. It's good for him to finally break through. Still, it was not a perfect meet and I think there is more to improve on and fine tune."

Kelsey Slawson...
"I don't think she was exactly pleased and I think we both feel like there is more to improve on, but to throw 50-feet and not feel great that's a good thing especially at this point we have some time to fine tune and figure some things out."

Facing tough competition at Arkansas...
"Arkansas is a higher level of competition and when I say a higher level of competition I am speaking to the issue that it will be more competitive to make the final. It will help us prepare for the conference meet...what it's going to take to make the final in the American conference will be what it takes to make the final at Arkansas."
 

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Evans on...

His big PR 19.18m/62-11.5 and what he can improve...
"We started to have better throws in practice and we're starting to put things together. The home crowd got excited and I just let one go, as Dorf said it wasn't a pretty throw by any means but it still went far. We're happy with it, but we don't want to settle with it. I've been working on my entry and that was probably one of the worst things I did on that throw, dropped my hands straight down and I just got lucky with a good finish."

Facing his former school, Cowley CC...
"It was fun, I had some friends there and it was a little exciting seeing some old faces. At the same time, you just have to come out and compete, it doesn't matter where you are."

Having a rhythmic clap started...
"Kelsey and Tyra just kept bugging me about it the whole time. After my second throw, they asked if they could clap for me and I kept telling them now. Finally, I said you can do it and it turned out to be a pretty awesome thing."

Facing tougher competition at Arkansas...
"I approach everything the same, I want to come out and win every meet. I also want to throw well, it doesn't matter if I'm throwing against juco kids or throwing against the top in the nation. You come out and want to win, we're not here to take second place and that's the way I see it."

Anticipation for conference...
"We all feel the importance of it right now. I was talking to Josh Klein, he's a distance runner and I'm a thrower, we were talking and we looked at the standings. We're close and we have a chance, I think everyone wants to come in, compete, do their part and see how many points we can get."
 

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Slawson on...

Other throwers in the conference...
"It's a pretty good conference. The top mark right now is 54-feet, that's pretty far so I'm just going to try and have a big throw at conference."

How the throws group progression has been...
"Everyone's responding to the training really well and practices are getting better and better. Especially with Amanda and Cassidy, I remember my freshman year it was a roller coaster throwing, you had your good days with your bad days and they are starting to put together more and more good days so it's exciting to watch."

Her mindset when facing tougher competition...
"I approach everything the same way, my first concern is to get a mark so on my first throw that is what I really focus on and the rest of them I just go for it."

Anticipation for conference...
"It's just as exciting because it's all new, we get to see all the new teams and compete against people that I've never thrown against before."