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THE MERCURY M A N H A T T A N ,
40 pages, 5 sections
K A N S A S
Mor e th an
$10 in 3 sa cou ving pon s ins ide
Sunday, October 7, 2012
News 24 hours a day at themercury.com
K-STATE 56, KANSAS 16
As expected K-State fans share a tailgate party with KU fans before the football game on Saturday.
K-State fans have to tone down the trash talk — a little — when their loved ones root for KU Bryan Richardson brichardson@themercury.com
R
uss and Camille Wheeler walked through Aggieville on Saturday afternoon clad in K-State gear — or at least that’s how it appeared at first glance. A closer inspection revealed that Camille had a purple K-State hoodie but also sweat pants with a Jayhawk on them, showing support for the University of Kansas. That’s a bold fashion statement, particularly on a day when those two football teams faced off for the Sunflower Showdown. Camille said she wore the KState hoodie in support of her husband. “We live in Lawrence,” she said. “I’m a KU fan, and he’s a K-State fan. We’re here celebrating our anniversary.” They said their 11th anniversary wouldn’t be marred by the outcome of the game — which ended up being K-State 56, KU 16 — but it probably didn’t hurt that Camille doesn’t care about the result, and Russ’ team did well. When the two biggest universities and rivals in the state go
head-to-head, there are plenty of families and friends on opposing sides. Many of them watched the football game together in Aggieville.
Trash talk A couple, Nolan Evenson, of Topeka, and Janna Meyer, of Manhattan, watched the tail end of the fourth quarter from Pat’s Blue Rib’n BBQ. Evenson is named after former KU quarterback Nolan Cromwell. Meyer grew up in Manhattan. Their fandom was predetermined, but their choice to be together wasn’t. Evenson said he didn’t think he would ever date a K-State fan. Meyer didn’t feel the same way about dating a KU fan. “I don’t really care,” she said. “It doesn’t matter to me.” The 40-point loss comes after a week during which Evenson said he trash-talked about K-State to Meyer. He continued this during the game, even as it started to slip away from KU in the second half. “I’m just a confident dude,” he SEE
NO. 1, BACK PAGE
Staff photos by Sarah Midgorden Colin Klein, right, celebrates with Tyler Lockett after completing the touchdown pass that put the Wildcats in the lead going into halftime.
KEYS TO THE GAME Answering back
Fake-out
Keeping it close
A big lead
After a 3-and-out on K-State's first possession, KU hit the board first with an 86-yard touchdown drive. K-State answered right back with a 74yard drive of its own.
KU used a fake punt and a fake field goal to retake the lead 14-7, but it only took the Cats four plays to respond with a 34-yard pass to Lockett. The Cats took a 21-14 lead into halftime.
The Wildcats came out strong in the second half, but KU looked to have a spark after dropping Hubert for a safety and cutting the Cats' lead to 28-16.
The two plays following the safety were a KU fumble and a John Hubert touchdown. Hubert would finish with four TDs, and the Jayhawks never threatened again.
Couple qualifies for Ironman championship Alumni get another shot at capturing life at K-State
Katherine Wartell kwartell@themercury.com The odds of one person qualifying for the Ironman World Championships aren't great. The worldfamous championship triathlon has become increasingly popular thanks to coverage on sports networks like ESPN and its alluring location: Kailua, Hawaii. Only about 2,000 people qualified for this year's Ironman, earning a slot through one of three possible routes: placing highly enough in an official Ironman triathlon, being selected through the Ironman lottery program or winning a place through the charitable Ironman eBay auction. Most athletes qualify by placing top in their age groups in one of the 28 qualifying Ironman triathlons that take place around the world in the months leading up to the championship. Ironman triathlons consist of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run, raced without a break and generally with a 17hour time limit.
Bryan Richardson brichardson@themercury.com
Courtesy photo
Meg Vernon, left, and husband Trey Vernon ride their bicycles during a triathlon. Both qualified for the Ironman World Championships. Athletes also can compete in one of the four half Ironman triathlons to qualify, which is how Trey Vernon, one of the owners of Manhattan Running Company, qualified.
But Trey is not the only Vernon who is leaving for Hawaii today to compete on Oct. 13 in the 2012 Ironman; Meg Vernon, Trey's wife, SEE
NO. 2, BACK PAGE
A family reunion occurred this past week at K-State's Kedzie Hall. Room 215 in the building served as the headquarters for “We Are K-State,” a project documenting a week at the university. It is inspired by a similar project 25 years earlier, “A Week at K-State: Photographs of College Life,” which showcased photographs taken by professional alumni and student photographers over the course of seven days. Those photos were published in a book in 1987. Two 1992 K-State graduates — Maggie Clarkin Spano, senior director of operations for Universal Uclick; and Christopher Assaf, multimedia editor/video of the Baltimore Sun — serve as co-editor for the project. They both are former photographers for the Kansas State Collegian
COMING MONDAY | Get to know your neighbors with our weekly profile of an interesting area resident. Page A1
newspaper and the Royal Purple yearbook. Each of them expressed that affection for “A Week at KState” was the reason they agreed to join the project. Spano said the book inspired her as a young photographer. Her dad bought the book for her when she was in high school, when she was a photographer for the school paper. “He came home with that SEE
NO. 3, BACK PAGE
SUNDAY FORECAST Sunny; frost in a.m.
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