Shocker Athletics friends and family:

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and were able to spend time with loved ones.

In May, Wichita State unveiled several new models for ticketing and donations in response to feedback from fans. It is time for an update and an invitation to join us at Charles Koch Arena for men's and women's basketball.

We appreciate all the support from Shocker Nation. Our student-athletes, coaches and staff are working to continue creating great experiences for our fans. We want to earn your time, your contributions and your voices at our games. Through your valued connection, together we are building programs, pride and purpose.

You told us you wanted a personalized, flexible approach as it relates to your support of Shocker Athletics. You wanted your support to directly impact winning programs and student-athlete success, all while building deeper relationships with the student-athletes and coaches.

As we begin 2026, I wanted to share the success of the new options giving fans an improved experience. We decreased ticket prices and increased the variety of price points for men's basketball. We made it easier to manage ticket accounts by introducing on-line purchasing. We expanded tax-deductible opportunities for contributions and customized those giving options.

• We ended 2025 with 600 new season tickets for men's basketball, an effort helped by selling season tickets online for the first time.
• Later this week, we will unveil the 316 Campaign for the "We Fight for Wichita Fund."  The "We Fight for Wichita Fund" directly strengthens our ability to build competitive rosters across all sports by fueling critical roster resources needed to recruit and retain high-impact student-athletes. All gifts to the We Fight for Wichita Fund are tax-deductible. More details to come on this initiative.
• We sold three times as many group tickets for volleyball this year as we did in 2024.
• Renewals for baseball and softball started a month earlier this year and sales are strong. Both sports are now a part of the overarching donor structure with portions of most tickets going to SASO without increasing in price.
• We are selling reserved seats for softball for the first time. We sold more than half of the 225 seats at a December open house at Wilkins Stadium to show off the team's new indoor practice facility.

We appreciate your support for all our Shocker sports. Here are a few highlights from 2025 as we continue our mission to compete at the top of the American Conference and into post-season play.

• Wichita State student-athletes recorded the second-highest cumulative grade-point average in school history with a 3.51 for the Fall 2025 semester. It was also the 41st-consecutive semester of earning higher than a 3.00 cumulative grade-point average department wide. Of the 225 student-athletes on the honor roll (above a 3.0), 55 earned a perfect 4.0 GPA, while 163 were named to the Dean's List (3.5 GPA) and 209 were named Shocker Scholars (3.2 GPA).  Eighty-five percent of student-athletes were above a 3.0 GPA.
• Men's basketball is coming off a 78-67 win over North Texas, highlighted by a career-high 33 points from guard Kenyon Giles. The Shockers are on the road this week before returning home to play ECU (Jan. 21) and Memphis (Jan. 24).
• You can see the Shockers play ECU with this Kenyon Giles special "3 for $33" ticket offer.
• The Shocker women play Memphis on Jan. 20. Wichitan Jaila Harding leads the Shockers with a 12.9 scoring average. She is moving up WSU's single-season list for three-pointers with 51 and enters this week tied for fifth.

• Men's and women's basketball are early in their American Conference schedules. Single-game tickets are priced at their lowest since Wichita State joined the conference in 2017.
• The National Sports Media Association named Mike Kennedy its 2025 Kansas Sportscaster of the Year. Kennedy, Voice of the Shockers since 1980, will retire after the baseball season.
• We encourage you to join Mike as he hosts our coaches show podcasts.
• Wichita State women's bowling is ranked No. 6 in the National Tenpin Coaches Association Coaches Poll. Last spring, the Shockers advanced to the 2025 Final Four in Las Vegas by defeating Felician (N.J.) and Vanderbilt in regional play.
• Sophomore Elkana Kipruto earned All-American honors by finishing No. 24 in the men's NCAA cross country championship in November. He is the first Shocker to earn men's All-American honors since 1992. Kipruto also won the American Conference championship, the first Shocker man to do so. Mercy Jepkoech earned American Women's Freshman of the Year honors.
• The women's tennis doubles team of Xin Tong Wang and Giorgia Roselli finished the fall ranked No. 24 by the Intercollegiate Tennis Association. They went 10-5 in the fall and won the American Conference doubles title.
• In December, Wichita State and Family Destination Development LLC (FDD), led by Marty Cornejo and Ashley Cozine, announced plans for a six-acre tennis complex located within the 35-acre "Ignite at K-96" major multi-sport athletic complex, on the southeast side of the K-96 and Greenwich corridor. The facility will feature 12 outdoor and six indoor courts, first-class team accommodations and a spectator capacity of 1,500.   
• The Roundhouse podcast features tennis coaches Darragh Glavin and Jacob Eddins discussing the new facility.
• Progress on Wilkins Stadium continues. This fall, the softball Shockers are practicing in their new indoor practice facility. At a recent open house, we welcomed in season ticket holders and donors to see the space and hear project updates. The next step is the operations building that will include locker room, training room, offices and more. Construction is expected to begin this spring with the team moving in by January 2027.
• DI Softball ranks WSU's 2026 recruiting class, signed in November, No. 46 nationally and second in the American Conference.
• WSU's First Pitch Banquet is set for Jan. 30 at Koch Arena. Doors open at 6 p.m.  The evening includes meet the team, dinner and a season preview from baseball coach Brian Green.
• In November, the 2026 Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame class was announced. Tanya Friesen (Women's Track and Field), Billy Hall (Baseball), Lew Merriman (Men's Track and Field), Damon Sublett (Baseball) and Jazreel Tan (Women's Bowling) will all be honored at a dinner on Feb. 13 and at halftime of the men's basketball game vs. Tulsa on Feb. 14. Tickets for both the dinner and the game are available at GoShockers.com/Tickets.

 
Thank you for your continued support as We Fight for Wichita,


 
Kevin Saal