Bio

Four-time national champion Kelsey Poljansek, recognized as the top-thrower in the history of the Cowley College women’s track and field program, will be inducted into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame on Saturday, February 6, 2021.

Poljansek was born in Wichita, KS and raised in a small rural unincorporated town known as Suppesville, KS. She attended Norwich High school and participated in volleyball, basketball, and track and field where she competed in the shot put, discus and javelin.

Prior to coming to Cowley, Poljansek held the record at Norwich High School in the shot put (44-8 ¼) and discus (141-2). She capped her stellar high school career by becoming the Class 1A state champion in the shot put and discus as a senior.

“My siblings were throwers and as I grew up watching them, I knew it was just something I wanted to do,” Poljansek said. “Cowley head coach Mark Phillips and the throws coach Robert Wood had a great run the years prior and I knew it was where I wanted to be; to be a part of a winning team.”

As a freshman during the 2007 season she was the conference, region, and outdoor national champion in both the shot put and the discus. She was named the NJCAA National Outdoor Championship Field Event Athlete of the Meet.

She was again a conference, region, and national champion in the indoor and outdoor shot put as a sophomore at Cowley and was named the Female Field Event Athlete of the Meet for the second consecutive year at the NJCAA National Outdoor Championships.

As of her induction, she remained the school-record holder in the indoor and outdoor shot put and the outdoor discus throw.

Poljansek had a drive to be the best in her sport and loved to compete.

“My family, coaches, and teammates believed in me and supported me,” Poljansek said. “Coach Wood and Coach Phillips genuinely care for you as a person just as much as a student-athlete. They were always encouraging and always wanted to push us. They saw the potential in me and gave me the confidence when it came to competing, that I was capable of competing against the best at every meet.”

After Cowley she went on to have success as a thrower at the University of Central Florida and the University of Oklahoma. During her one season at UCF she broke the school record in the discus and the indoor shot put. She was the Conference USA athlete of the week and qualified for the NCAA National Outdoor meet in the discus. 

“I had a great experience there and traveled to many different states to compete and could not be more thankful for my experience in Orlando,” Poljansek said.

She ended up transferring to the University of Oklahoma and spent her final two years as a Sooner. She had a redshirt year her first season at OU after a wrist injury and recovered to compete her final season as a collegiate athlete.

Poljansek finished in the top five in throws events on four different occasions as a senior. She earned both Academic All-Big 12 First team as well as USTFCCCA All-Academic Honors, and was a West Regional qualifier in the discus. She currently ranks on the Top 10 performance list for the discus at the University of Oklahoma.

After receiving her master’s degree in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma she has been working at the Wichita Children’s Home and currently serves as the Foster Care Case Manager at the Children’s Home. She also spent two years as the track and field assistant coach at Butler Community College and is currently an assistant track and field coach at Garden Plain Middle School.

Poljansek looks back fondly of her time at Cowley and is grateful to be selected for induction into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame.

“I loved attending Cowley,” Poljansek said. “The professors were great and with it being a smaller school, it made things more personable. They had some of the greatest events on campus, that I still remember experiencing to this day. It is a huge honor to be inducted into the Tiger Athletic Hall of Fame and it was not something I was expecting at this time in my life. It definitely caps off the career I had as an athlete at Cowley.”