Leffler picks K-State
By Michael Ashford
Originally published 01:36 p.m., October 2, 2007
Updated 01:36 p.m., October 2, 2007
There are a lot of disappointed collegiate track and field coaches across the country this week, and one very happy one in Manhattan.
That’s because Northern Heights senior Jacquelyne Leffler made her choice on where to attend college next year, telling Kansas State assistant track and field coach Steve Fritz last Thursday that she would be a Wildcat.
Leffler, a three-time Class 3A State champion in both the discus and the shot put, accepted Kansas State’s track and field scholarship after being recruited by “pretty much every Division I and Division II school in the country.”
“It feels pretty good,” Leffler said. “It’s a big relief to have made my choice.”
Her commitment to the Wildcats’ program essentially ends a lengthy recruiting battle for one of the top high school field athletes in the country.
Leffler said she had received nightly phone calls and e-mails from coaches over the past few months trying to woo the six-time All-State athlete to their respective schools.
Leffler, of course, was familiar with Kansas State, as the university is less than an hour and a half from her home.
In many visits to Manhattan, she spent a lot of time with the athletes on Kansas State’s squad and got to know Fritz quite well. Fritz was actually the first coach to offer Leffler a scholarship.
Track and field fans will recognize Fritz as a former Olympic decathlete and U.S. national champion in the event.
“It’s pretty cool that he’s a coach there and that he’s been to the Olympics, seeing as how that’s where I hope to be some day,” Leffler said.
Leffler tested the waters at other places, opting to take recruiting visits to see what other programs had to offer.
But after every recruiting trip she took — she visited Oklahoma and North Carolina, to name a few — her mind kept coming back to Kansas State.
Add in that Kansas State offers a kinesiology program, which is what Leffler intends to major in, and Kansas State simply “felt right,” she said.
“I knew nothing could beat K-State,” Leffler said.
Leffler’s commitment is non-binding. She will have to wait until the signing period in February before she can make her college choice official.
Though she has to wait a few months, Leffler plans on it being a special day in more ways than one.
She will sign her letter of intent on her birthday, Feb. 10.