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Nov. 2, 2020
Issue 10
Track and Field hopes to recapture lost competitions with fall scrimmages BY SEAN MARTY sports@thesunflower.com / @TheSeanMarty
For the second time this spring, the Track and Field program hosted a fall scrimmage with competition taking place throughout the week. Just like many different programs across the country, Wichita State hasn’t been able to compete in any fashion after the season was canceled last spring. Director of Track and Field and Cross Country Steve Rainbolt said that was a major reason in hosting the scrimmage this past week. “I began thinking about this since last spring when we missed out on an entire spring of track and field competition and feeling like it’d be great this fall to create some type of way for our athletes to recapture some of those missed competitive experiences,” Rainbolt said. “This is an attempt to do that.” Although it is difficult to replicate competition through these scrimmages, Rainbolt said he was pleased with how the team was able to embrace this experience. “When I say an attempt it’s good and we’ve had some good experiences and I’m pleased but it ain’t the same,” Rainbolt said. “There’s no other team opponents, there’s not fully automatic timing. I could name a whole bunch of differences between this and legitimate competitive meets. But these are pretty good and the athletes have looked forward to it. They have embraced and competed pretty hard.” Rainbolt said that there were some notable performances throughout the week, but it was tough to name anyone specifically because of the number of solid performances across the board. “I shouldn’t mention anyone, there were quite a few darn good performances this week and three weeks ago there were some nice performances,” Rainbolt said. “That’s always hard right after a track meet because I’d like to name everybody that had a pretty darn good performance and I can’t even remember them all.” Although this was a good opportunity for the athletes to get out there and compete, Rainbolt said it was “a bit of a stretch” to compare it to other legitimate competition. “The athletes looked forward to it but really and truly this is a glorified time trial,” Rainbolt said. “If the basketball team had a preseason scrimmage and had fans and they played the music and did the whole game experience that would be way closer to a gametime experience than what we’re doing. This isn’t like that.” Despite it not being as competitive as a true track meet, Rainbolt said that these kinds of competitions can have an impact on the team and give them a sense of what they need to work on prior to the upcoming season. “Where they’re at is one thing,” Rainbolt said. “‘I’m here, oh my gosh I better get going if I want to get to American Athletic Conference Championship level’ or also some technical issues that we can identify on film and we can figure out what we can do round into form. There’s a variety of different ways that an exercise like this can help prepare a team for a season.” For the track and field student-athletes, it was a good experience after being away from it for such a long period of time. “On the [one] hand this is very good,” Rainbolt said. “We’re very
PHOTOS BY KAYLEE STOUT/THE SUNFLOWER
Top, Wichita State junior Yuben Goncalves jumps over a hurdle during a scrimmage on Friday, Oct. 30 at Cessna Stadium. Above, Junior Davis Dubbert stretches on a hurdle before competing in the scrimmage on Friday at Cessna Stadium. This was the second scrimmage of the season.
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Hacking for Defense course teaches students skills to solve national security challenges BY JULIA NIGHTENGALE copyeditor@thesunflower.com / @JuliaNightengale
In the era of education during COVID, college students are having to trade a lot of hands-on activities for ZOOM calls and discussion boards. But a new course is still providing students with hands-on activities while keeping students safe and providing them with a quality education. Kristyn Smith is one of the instructors for the course. She said that the course is designed to get students from diverse backgrounds to come together as one in order to try and solve some of America’s
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toughest national security challenges. In the class, students will be pitched a problem statement and then as a group will brainstorm and build an idea, create a prototype, then pitch the idea to the Department of Defense. “There is a great benefit from getting students from different programs that learn differently or have different insights or backgrounds to kinda build an idea together as a team,” Smith said. The course has minimal lecture time and leans heavily on hands-on opportunities. In Smith’s
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experience, that makes students even more motivated to learn. Smith said that students will also become stronger public speakers and better interviewers. “Interviewing is something that— no matter what degree you’re in or what area of life you move into after college— it’s very important to be able to talk to someone, ask them questions, and get relevant information that can help you move forward,” Smith said. COURTESY OF KRYSTIN SMITH
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Students from the ID 752 Prototyping course use cardboard boxes to build toasters for an activity.