Women win second straight Big Sky DMR title
2/27/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
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The University of Montana won its second straight Big women???s distance medley relay title Friday night at the 2009 Big Sky Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in Flagstaff, Ariz. The relay title highlighted the Grizzlies??? opening-day performance that ended with the women and men both in seventh place.
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Host Northern Arizona leads both races, with 55 points from its men and 50.5 points from its women.
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The Montana women have 22 points, the UM men 13.
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???I don???t think we scored the amount of points we wanted to today,??? Montana coach Brian Schweyen said, ???but across the board this was as good as I???ve ever seen this group compete, and that???s a plus. That???s something positive we???re going to be able to build off of.???
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As they did in 2008, junior Kara DeWalt and sophomore Katrina Drennen started and finished the distance medley relay, with DeWalt running the opening 1,200 meters and Drennen running the closing 1,600 meters. In between, sophomore Shannon Sullivan ran the 400-meter leg and junior Brooke Andrus ran the 800-meter leg.
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The Grizzlies posted a winning time of 12:19.33, nearly 10 seconds faster than second-place Weber State (12:29.31).
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The DMR was also the top-scoring event for the Montana men, with junior Mac Bloom (1,200m), sophomore Kyle Danreuther (400m), junior Sean Clark (800m) and senior Dennis Brands (1,600m) finishing third in 10:17.31 behind Northern Arizona (10:15.55) and Weber State (10:16.49).
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Friday featured the women???s pentathlon and men???s heptathlon in the morning and early afternoon. Montana picked up seven points in the pentathlon behind a third-place finish by senior Amber Aikins and an eighth-place finish by junior Megan Betz.
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The UM men did not have any athletes start the heptathlon.
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Friday???s field events had six Montana athletes competing in three of the six events. Three of the athletes scored points.
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Junior Chris Hellekson and sophomore Courtney Kosovich both earned five points with fourth-place finishes.
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Hellekson finished fourth in the shot put with a career-best effort of 54-9.25.
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Kosovich was fourth in the pole vault, going 12-5.5. Kosovich has finished fourth or better in the pole vault at all three Big Sky indoor and outdoor championships at which she???s competed.
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Freshman Braden Fink picked up a point in the high jump when he finished eighth at a season-best height of 6-4.25. Fink was ranked 12th in the event entering the meet.
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Also competing in the field events Friday were senior Jake Stevens in the shot put (ninth, 49-6.25), sophomore Bryan Slingsby in the shot put (10th, 49-0.25) and junior Kelsey Smith in the pole vault (11th, 11-5.75).
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A majority of Friday???s running events were preliminaries. Montana had athletes in all 10 preliminary events, and five of the 19 athletes competing qualified to race in Saturday???s finals.
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Three of the qualifiers came in a single event, the men???s 60-meter hurdles. Junior Landon Bowery, sophomore Evan Stokken and Danreuther all advanced to Saturday???s eight-man final. Bowery was fifth in the prelims in a time of 8.30, Stokken was seventh in 8.46 and Danreuther was eighth in 8.48.
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Also advancing were a pair of 800-meter runners. Senior Jesse Loether, who ranks No. 1 in the event, was fourth in the preliminaries in a time of 1:54.44.
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Freshman Emily Eickholt, who ranks fourth, ran a 2:17.73 to grab the eighth and final spot in Saturday???s final.
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In addition to the distance medley relays, the 5,000 meters helped close out the opening day???s running events.
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Montana had three athletes in the men???s 5,000.
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Senior Duncan Hendrick earned a point with an eighth-place finish in a time of 15:32.53, his first career non-relay points at a Big Sky championships.
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Senior Eli Hermann (15:55.52) and sophomore Colin O???Neill (16:48.04) finished 11th and 18th.
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Junior Kim Tritz finished just out of the points in the women???s 5,000, placing 10th in a time of 19:11.18.
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Saturday???s events start at 8 a.m. with the continuation of the men???s heptathlon. Field events begin at 10 a.m. with the men???s weight throw and women???s triple jump.
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Running events start at 12:25 p.m with the men???s and women???s miles. The 1,600-meter relays wrap up the 2009 indoor championships a little after 3 p.m.
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Day one multi-event recap: Aikins gets Grizzlies off to solid start
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University of Montana senior Amber Aikins placed third in the pentathlon Friday afternoon, scoring six points for the Grizzlies in the first scored event of the 2009 Big Sky Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships in Flagstaff, Ariz. Junior Megan Betz added another point for Montana with her eighth-place showing.
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Idaho State???s Sydney Wendt won the pentathlon with an NCAA provisional mark of 3,835 points, winning two of the five events and placing second and third in two others. She was followed by Weber State???s Holly North, who scored 3,589 points, and Aikins, who scored a career-high 3,550.
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ISU, which also took fourth and fifth, had three of the top five finishers.
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Betz was eighth with 3,356 points, freshman Melissa Mauro ninth with a season-best 3,302 points, freshman Jessica Leslie 11th with a season-best 3,108 points and junior Danica Bates 12th with 3,048 points.
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It was Aikins??? third time scoring points at indoor championships in the pentathlon. Aikins, who earned her third career All-Big Sky Conference honor with her placing, finished seventh as a freshman in 2006 and seventh again last winter as a junior.
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Aikins, who is one of the favorites to win the 60-meter hurdles this weekend, took the early lead Friday morning when she posted the day???s fastest 60-meter hurdles time of 8.85. It gave her an early 35-point lead over Wendt, who finished third in 9.02.
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Wendt and North both moved past Aikins after the high jump. Wendt tied for first with a height of 5-8.5, while North was third at 5-7.25. Aikins tied for eighth with a jump of 5-1.25.
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Wendt???s 11th-place finish in the shot put allowed North and Aikins to both pull within 100 points, but Wendt put herself out of reach in the long jump, where she went more than a foot farther than any other competitor and scored nearly 100 more points.
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Aikins was second in the shot put with a distance of 35-8, a career best by over nine inches. Betz won the shot with a career-best effort of 36-1.5, improving upon her career mark by nearly six inches.
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Though the field dropped well behind Wendt after the long jump, Aikins??? third-place finish at 17-9.5 allowed her to move into second place with a 35-point lead over North, who went 16-11.5.
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North retook second place and bumped Aikins to third when she ran a 2:27.04 800 meters, the day???s third-fastest time in the pentathlon???s final event. Aikins was sixth in 2:32.95.
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Wendt placed second in the 800 meters in a time of 2:26.61, coming in behind teammate Sasha Buylova, who ran a 2:23.89 to move into fourth overall.
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Betz placed in the top five in two of five events. She won the shot put and tied for fourth in the high jump with a height of 5-3.75. She went 9.49 in the hurdles, 16-7.75 in the long jump and 2:36.57 in the 800 meters.
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Mauro also placed in the top five in two events. She tied for fourth in the high jump with Betz at 5-3.75 and ran a season-best 2:31.93 800 meters to place fifth. Mauro???s other marks were 9.38 in the hurdles, a season-best 31-11.5 in the shot and 16-0.5 in the long jump.
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Leslie placed fourth in the long jump (17-6.25) and tied for sixth in the high jump (season-best 5-2.5) and posted marks of 10.25 in the hurdles, 27-1.75 in the shot and 2:33.73 in the 800 meters.
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Bates had efforts of 9.59 in the hurdles, 4-9.75 in the high jump, 31-6 in the shot, 16-6 in the long jump and 2:37.71 in the 800 meters.
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Aikins??? championships continue with entries in the 60-meter hurdles, high jump and triple jump. Mauro will also compete in the hurdles and high jump. Betz will be UM???s third entrant in the high jump.
