Griz open outdoor season this weekend
3/30/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Indoor Track, Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
The University of Montana track and field teams will open their 2010 outdoor season this weekend when the Grizzlies host the annual Al Manuel Invitational at Dornblaser Field. The meet will begin Friday afternoon with the women???s and men???s hammer throws at 3 and 4:45 p.m., respectively.
The remainder of the meet will take place Saturday.
Saturday???s field events will begin at 10:45 a.m., with the women???s shot put and javelin and the men???s long jump. Running events will start at 11:15 a.m. with the women???s steeplechase.
Joining Montana at its largest home meet of the year will be athletes from Montana State, Eastern Washington, Gonzaga, MSU Billings, Carroll and Rocky Mountain.
The Grizzlies last competed at the 2010 Big Sky indoor championships. This weekend???s meet will snap a five-week break from competition for Montana.
???It???s a little bit of a break from the end of the indoor season to outdoor, especially if you don???t have anyone advancing to (indoor) nationals,??? UM track and field program director Brian Schweyen said. ???With the time gap, the weather and not all the technique and speed work we want to have in yet, we don???t anticipate great marks for this first meet.
???Plus we are really trying to put a lot more strength into these kids (with increased weight room work). They???ll be a little more fatigued and sore these first two weeks from lifting a lot harder, so our opening performances will reflect that a little bit.
???But I really think as we get along with our season that added strength is going to make a big difference. I think we???ll see some really nice marks down the road.???
The Al Manuel Invitational will be one of three home meets for Montana in 2010. The Grizzlies will host the Montana Open Multi-Events and Montana Open Thursday through Saturday, April 15-17, and the last-chance Tom Gage Classic Friday, May 7.
The 2010 Big Sky Conference outdoor championships will be held Wednesday through Saturday, May 12-15, at Ogden, Utah.
Finishes and predictions: The Montana women finished fifth and the men seventh when the Grizzlies hosted the Big Sky Conference outdoor championships last May at Dornblaser Field.
The women improved upon that finish when they placed a surprising third in February at the Big Sky indoor meet at Bozeman, Mont. The men were once again seventh.
In the recent Big Sky Conference preseason coaches??? poll, the women were projected to slide back to fourth. The poll had the UM men remaining in their seventh-place rut.
New regional setup: In years past, the NCAA had four regional sites (Midwest, East, Mideast and West), with a predetermined qualifying standard for athletes to meet in order to advance to regionals. Individual and relay conference champions were also guaranteed spots at each of the regionals, even if they were not automatic qualifiers.
The NCAA???s new setup will have just two ???preliminary round??? sites. The East, which this year will be held in Greensboro, N.C., and the West, which will be held in Austin, Texas.
The West includes everything from Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas and Texas and west.
This year???s preliminary rounds will be held Thursday through Saturday, May 27-29.
Only the top 48 athletes in each event on the two regions??? descending order lists will advance, and those lists will not be extended beyond 48 athletes because of ties. In the event of ties beyond the No. 48 spot, those deadlocks will be broken by determining the second-best mark of the tied athletes.
Marks used for the region descending order lists will be taken through Sunday, May 16, or the day after the Big Sky outdoor championships.
At the preliminary round sites, the top 12 athletes will advance from each event to the national championships, which will be held this year at Eugene, Ore., June 9-12.
The women???s heptathlon and men???s decathlon will not be contested at the preliminary round sites. The top 24 heptathletes and decathletes will compete in Eugene based on the national descending order list.
???Even though we won???t have automatic qualifiers, I think we???re going to see that it???s still pretty much the same as it???s been in the past,??? Schweyen said. ???In an event like the javelin, a throw of 205 or 210 automatically qualified you in the past. That throw is still going to get in. The only difference is athletes won???t be officially qualified until that last weekend.
???I think the big change will be athletes using those final meets to go after those final five or so spots that may be within reach if they are just outside of the top 48.???
Five to watch in 2010: Senior Brooke Andrus of Bigfork, Mont., is coming off a runner-up finish in the 800 meters at the Big Sky indoor championships and was a member of Montana???s Big Sky-champion distance medley relay team. With an altitude-adjusted career-best time of 2:10.93, Andrus has a goal of going sub-2:10 and has a chance of advancing to Austin, Texas, in May.
Senior Michael Blanchard, a former walk-on pole vaulter from Selah, Wash., scored seven points for the Griz at the indoor championships, finishing fifth in the pole vault and sixth in the heptathlon. More on Blanchard below.
Junior javelin thrower Richard Brumbaugh of Libby, Mont., finished his freshman season with a top throw of 179-5. He broke out as a sophomore, going a season-best 214-9, finishing third at the Big Sky outdoor championships and advancing to the Midwest Regional.
When sophomore Katrina Drennen, of Orting, Wash., won the 3,000 meters at February???s indoor championships, she became Montana???s first women???s indoor distance champion since Heather Anderson won the 5,000 meters in 2001. Drennen also placed third in the 5,000 meters to score 16 total points.
Freshman Lindsey Hall of Missoula, Mont., burst on to the scene at Montana???s first indoor meet at Eastern Washington in early December and continued her string of impressive performances through the indoor championships, where she scored in four events ??? pentathlon, 55-meter hurdles, high jump, long jump ??? to finish with a team-high 16.5 points.
Who???s out: Kara DeWalt, who was second in the steeplechase at last year???s outdoor championships and second in the mile at this year???s indoor championships, will redshirt this outdoor season. She???ll have one season of cross country eligibility remaining in the fall and next year???s outdoor season.
First-year distance runner Faith Steinbacher is also redshirting, while Melissa Mauro, who was fifth in the heptathlon and high jump and a member of UM???s fifth-place 4x400-meter relay team at last May???s outdoor championships, will miss the outdoor season with an injury suffered during the indoor season.
Eight hundred-meter runner Sean Clark and decathlete Chris Hicks are redshirting the outdoor season. Clark and Hicks will both have one indoor and one outdoor season of eligibility remaining in 2011.
Cole Beyer, an NCAA regional qualifier last year in the javelin, was lost for the season last week with a throwing injury. If he returns from injury, he???ll have one season of competition remaining next year.
Early bird Blanchard: Senior Michael Blanchard got a jump-start on the season last weekend when he competed in the decathlon at a meet at Whitworth in Spokane, Wash. Blanchard, who was eighth in the decathlon at last year???s outdoor championships, just missed the Big Sky qualifying mark of 5,500 when he scored 5,381 points despite no-heighting in the pole vault to finish fourth out of 10 athletes.
Blanchard was third after the opening day, then dropped out of contention when he didn???t score in the pole vault, the eighth of the decathlon???s 10 events. He had career bests in the discus (112-9), javelin (167-6) and 1,500 meters (4:41.74) and an outdoor career best of 21-2.5 in the long jump.
A walk-on in the pole vault out of Selah High, Blanchard was strictly a pole vaulter through the 2009 indoor season when he attempted his first multi-event. He has quietly made himself into Montana???s most consistent multi-event athlete and one of the better heptathletes/decathletes in the Big Sky Conference.
Blanchard was eighth in the decathlon at last May???s outdoor championships and sixth in the heptathlon at Febuary???s indoor championships.
???Michael does a great job for us,??? UM multi-events and pole vault coach Adam Bork said. ???I don???t think even he thought he could do this well (at the multi-events), but he just has so much energy and works so hard that he???s just getting more and more confident.
???He???s definitely been operating under the radar, but he???s a lot more talented than people realize. I???d be surprised if he doesn???t get close to 7,000 points by the end of the season, and I don???t think there are many people who thought he would be a 7,000-point decathlete.
???It???s been fun to work with him and watch him develop.???
Javelin, finally: Montana???s javelin throwers, a majority of whom don???t throw the shot or weight during the indoor season, will get their first opportunity to compete in 2010 this weekend. The event has traditionally been an area of strength for the Grizzlies, particularly the men.
Current UM javelin coach Doug Lefler was the Big Sky champion for Montana in 2003, and Dane Brubaker was an all-American in 2005.
At last year???s outdoor championships, Brumbaugh placed third and Beyer fifth, with both advancing to regionals.
Attempting to fill the void left by Beyer???s absence will be junior Jason Flemmer, a transfer from Spokane Falls Community College, and freshmen Justin Graff, a 203-foot thrower from Mead High in Spokane.
???As long as they all stay healthy, the javelin should continue to be a good event for us,??? Schweyen said. ???There is a lot of talent there. All three of them should be regional qualifiers.???
Taking the next step: Drennen advanced to the NCAA Midwest Regional last spring in the 5,000 meters, placed third at last fall???s Big Sky cross country championships for the second straight year, qualified for the NCAA cross country championships for the first time in November, then became a Big Sky champion for the first time in February when she won the 3,000 meters.
???The next step outdoors for Katrina is to make nationals (in the 5,000 meters),??? UM distance coach Courtney Babcock said. ???We want to get to regionals again, then advance beyond that this year.???
Drennen???s outdoor career best in the event is 16:49.22, which she ran last April at the Oregon Relays to meet the then regional qualifying standard of 16:52. To advance to nationals, Babcock estimates Drennen will need to be 30 seconds faster.
???Somewhere between 16:15 and 16:20 might be fast enough to get in, but you never know. That???s kind of what we???re shooting for.
???If you look at it on paper, it???s a pretty big PR, but Katrina believes she can get to a certain level.???
Multiple-point sprinters?: Montana has not had more than a single sprinter finish in the points in the 100 meters since Roy Robinson, Bob Zins and Bill Zins went first, fourth and fifth in the 100 yards at the 1969 Big Sky Conference championships in Missoula.
That trend could end in 2010 with the addition of a pair of California transplants: junior Don Danns and junior David Carcamo.
Danns, of San Diego, Calif., ran a season-best 10.66 last spring for Riverside Community College, while Carcamo, of Seaside, Calif., was running a season-best 10.78 at Modesto Junior College.
Weber State???s Brock Rose won the 100 meters at last year???s Big Sky championships with a time of 10.83. The top six athletes in the event all broke 11 seconds.
???I anticipate Don and David will have a really good outdoor season for us,??? Schweyen said. ???They are fast enough and working hard enough, so they could be big-time point scorers for us.???
Up next: A travel party of 14 women???s athletes and 11 men will travel next week to Los Angeles, Calif., for UCLA???s Rafer Johnson/Jackie Joyner-Kersee Invitational. The remainder of the team will be in Bozeman for the Montana State Open.
The Grizzlies will remain home the next week, hosting a heptathlon and decathlon Thursday and Friday, April 15-16, and the Montana Open Saturday, April 17.
