The RoundHouse | 2/19/2019 2:33:00 PM

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Wichita State assistant director of track and field John Wise previews the American Athletic Conference indoor championships and more.
 
Wise on Wichita State's women's strengths:
 
"There's a lot of parity on the women's side. Probably, the first team to 100 (points) will win the meet. We have some really good athletes – we've got (distance runners) Rebekah Topham and Winny Koskei at the top of their events. We've got Kelsey Slawson in the shot put. We've got a good pole vaulter. We've got a good triple jumper. Our relays look pretty solid. Every point is going to matter when it's maybe 90 points are going to win. I like our chances because we've got people everywhere."
 
Wise on the men's form chart:
 
"Houston is truly remarkable right now. They're a team that's battling for a national title right now. They've got this great, great group of sprinters. On paper, they'll be a heavy favorite. After that, if you look at it, us and UConn are very similar. They're very well-balanced, maybe a little bit towards the distance areas. They've got athletes everywhere. We're pretty much even, on paper."
 
Wise on trickery at a conference meet:
 
"I would say it's mostly in the distance races. We had a meet several years ago when Aliphine Tuliamuk was in the Missouri Valley . . . and she had never run the distance medley relay before. We had always kind of just put a DMR together to score a couple points. We wanted our distance runners to run as many individual races and score as many points as they can. We had her warm up in another location, so no one even knew she was warming up for the meet. She comes out five minutes before the race. Then she won the race and it was real exciting for our team."
 
Wise on the movie "They Shall Not Grow Old:"
 
"I was blown away by how good it was. I'm not a huge World War I history buff . . . the way they did the 3D and the footage they had that they had never released in any way before, it made you feel like you were really a part of it. You could see the trenches, how they were dug and how people walked through these trenches and walked over bodies and just the terrible, heart-breaking parts of the war."
 
Wise on preparations for the American Athletic Conference outdoor meet at Cessna Stadium in May:
 
"We have a new track, we have new surface. New javelin runway. New throwing areas. We're putting in a new scoreboard. It's going to be a video-board in there, like you would see at the baseball game or inside Koch Arena. That will enhance the viewing of the meet with results and with video and replays."
 
Will you take Houston coach Carl Lewis to lunch so Wichitans can snap a selfie with the Olympic champion?
 
"I doubt it. You know what's crazy? There's kids on our team that don't know who he is. If you were to list the top 10 Olympians ever, he is probably be on any list you would make. They know Usain Bolt, which they will probably soon forget. The old-timers, like me, would be buying tickets for the whole family to come out."