A new addition to the throwing team is sophomore Klaire Kovatch. Kovatch was a three-time state discus champion in Montana while also earning the title of Gatorade Montana Girls Track & Field Player of the Year during her high school senior season. Kovatch competed in five meets unattached during her redshirt season last year, gaining plenty of valuable and essential knowledge for competing at the collegiate level along the way.

“I learned a lot about the work you have to put in,” Kovatch said. “Mostly I just had to go have fun, improve and work on certain cues.”

But after a whole year of being redshirted, she is ready to go out and start competing.

“I want to show exactly what I am capable of,” Kovatch said. “This is my second year. This is the time to show up and where all that hard work you put in as a redshirt comes to the surface.”

“We have an expectation for ourselves to win the conference, and that’s the expectation every year.” –Lexie Keller, CSU multi-athlete graduate student 

With young faces joining the squad, graduate student and multi-athlete Lexie Keller looks to lead the way by helping create a bond within the group.

“(The most important part) is creating cohesion between everyone, … especially with such a large team,” Keller said.

Keller sets a good example, as she already holds the Colorado State indoor pentathlon record and earned Mountain West Field Athlete of the Week honors this season after the University of Colorado Colorado Springs Colorado Running Co. Pre Holiday Invite.

In her final collegiate season, Keller understands the pressure put on the program and hopes to have another spectacular season both as an individual and as a team.

“We have an expectation for ourselves to win the conference, and that’s the expectation every year,” Keller said. “The way we match up against other schools is going to look a little different, but I still believe we have a really good shot.”

The Colorado State Rams will compete in the Prairie Wolf Invitational and the Mark Colligan Memorial Invitational at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Jan. 20-21.

Reach Dylan Heinrich at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @dylanrheinrich.