The Basics
            The Shockers open up the new year with a pair of home meets.
            The Shocker Prelude kicks off the weekend at 11 a.m. on Friday. The Shocker entrants for the Prelude will include athletes who won't participate in Saturday's Triangular.
            The KU-KSU-WSU Triangular is Saturday, and kicks off at 10:30 a.m. The meet features all three Division I teams in Kansas, and will score the top two athletes from each team in each event. Team scores will encapsulate all athletes (men and women combined).
 
FOLLOW THE MEET
            Fans can follow live updates on Twitter @GoShockersTFXC.
            The races will also be streamed live through WSUTV. Friday's stream can be found here and Saturday's stream can be found here.
 
Meet Schedule
            The Shocker Prelude starts the weekend at 11 a.m. on Friday with field events. The running events start at 3 p.m.
            The Triangular begins at 10:30 a.m. with field events, and the running events start at 2 p.m.
 
Last Time Out
            The Shockers started their indoor season with a trio of meets: the Shocker Multis, the Intrasquad Meet and the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener.
            Multi athletes started the year strong at the Shockers' first home meet of the year. Claudia Rojo won the women's pentathlon and Tanner Brown took home the men's Shocker Multis' heptathlon title. Rojo is a senior, and Brown is a transfer athlete for WSU who participated unattached.
            Kendra Henry, Maria Romero and Jalen Milligan took spots 2-4 for the Shockers on the women's side, and Clay Eckert and Lucas Shaffer finished in the top five of the men's heptathlon.
            In the Intrasquad Meet, the majority of WSU's roster saw action with the Yellow squad winning the meet again. It was the Yellow team's 10th victory in the 13-year history of the event. The win also marked Yellow' sixth consecutive win.
            At the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season opener, Winny Koskei and Rebekah Topham ran in the 5,000 meters. Koskei finished 22nd with a time of 16:16.75, and Topham crossed the line with a time of 16:33.29, which put her in 26th place.
            Topham's performance was her first ever 5,000-meter run as a Shocker, so her time put her in fifth on the Shocker indoor performance list.
 
Coach Rainbolt on the Meet
On getting back into track season
"This is always a really exciting time of thear to get our track season going. I think we had a good fall. I think we've got two really good teams. The women are the defending outdoor conference champions, and the men finished runner-up indoors and outdoors. Hope springs eternal, and I'm really looking forward to the year and especially the Triangular. I think our entire operation is looking forward to this weekend."
 
On the Triangular
"This is the sixth go around of this meet. I'm really appreciative of the other coaches that want to keep this thing going. I really like this meet. I like team track and field. You've got three NCAA Division I schools in a state, and it's a meaningful team competition. We care a lot about that, and I think the athletes care a lot about it as well."
 
New Year, Same Claudia
            Claudia Rojo kicked off her 2020 indoor season with a win at the Shocker Multis, setting a new personal best in the process of taking home the pentathlon crown.
            Her total of 3,754 points improved upon her already-No. 9 mark in school history. Rojo won three of the five events in the competiution. She won the 60-meter hurdles, long ju,p and 800 meters.
            Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Steve Rainbolt was impressed with Rojo's performance.
            He said this when asked about her performance to kick off the season: "She's just developing beautifully as a senior. That was a beautiful start to her season today. I'm excited for Claudia."
            Rojo finished as an all-conference athlete at both the AAC Indoor and Outdoor Championships.
            With the strong start and a strong history of throwing down big performances, she is poised to again compete for a conference title in the multi events.
 
Next Man Up
            The Shocker men will have a different cast of characters leading the way in 2020.
            All-Americans Ben Johnson and Aaron True were the only Shockers to make it to National meets on the men's side in 2019, but both are gone to graduation.
            All-conference athletes such as Zack Penrod and Cory Martens are on the roster, but ran out of eligibility for the 2020 indoor campaign.
            The young athletes from last year's squad are ready to fill in, though.
            In the multi events, Jake Horsch is primed to take a leading role after finishing third in last year's AAC heptathlon indoors. Chandler Stiawalt also figures to play a part in the multis, as he finished fourth in the decathlon at the conference meet.
            In the middle/long distances, Ben Flowers is rolling into the year off his best collegiate season yet. Flowers earned all-conference and All-Region honors in the 2019 cross country campaign. Jed Helker will also factor into the Mile race at this year's AAC Indoor Champonships. He finished with the fastest Mile prelim time a year ago.
            Young athletes are all over the roster, and are primed to take over this year's squad.
 
Taking It to the Next Level
            The Shockers are entering their third year as members of the American Athletic Conference, but the longtime sucess of the program hasn't wavered.
            During the 2018-19 year, the Shockers won two conference titles (women's cross country and women's outdoor track and field).
            The program has also tallied eight top-three team finishes since moving out of the Missouri Valley Coference.
            At last year's indoor and outdoor meets, the Shocker men finished as the runner-up, and WSU was within one point of Houston late in the meet.
            The Shocker women are the defending outdoor champions and finished third indoors. The third-place finish was close, a mere 14 points off of the champions.
            In the third full year of competition in the American Athletic Conference, the Shockers will again prove to be a contender.