Each week during the University of Kansas’ winter and spring sports seasons, the Journal-World staff will select one athlete from a KU men’s sports team and one from a women’s sports team as athletes of the week.
For the week of Feb. 17-23, the selections are Sawyer Smith and Erica Ellis.
Sawyer Smith, baseball
The senior shortstop, one of several Jayhawks in recent years to transfer from Division II St. Cloud State, became KU’s first player to hit multiple home runs in a game this season when he knocked two out of the park in the series finale against Tarleton State on Sunday. He finished the game 3-for-3 with four RBIs and is 9-for-25 (.360) with four home runs and nine RBIs on the season overall for the unbeaten Jayhawks.
Erica Ellis, track and field
A well-traveled sixth-year senior who previously competed for Penn State and Stephen F. Austin, Ellis gave KU its second NCAA indoor qualifier in the women’s pole vault when she set a personal best by clearing 4.45 meters at an event in Arkansas on Friday. That is just 0.02 meters behind sophomore teammate Mason Meinershagen, who previously qualified.
