Griz open outdoor season in strong fashion
4/3/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Outdoor Track, Women's Track and Field
The University of Montana track and field teams opened their outdoor season Saturday with 23 Big Sky Conference-qualifying performances at the chilly and windy Al Manuel Invitational at Dornblaser Field in Missoula. The Grizzlies also went 5-1 in their dual-scored meets with Montana State, Eastern Washington and Gonzaga.
The Montana women, who had 14 of the team???s 23 qualifying marks, swept their duals, defeating the Eagles, 105.5-93.5, Bobcats, 107-87 and Bulldogs, 159-12.
The UM men took two of three duals, topping Montana State, 125-73, and Gonzaga, 161-18, while losing to Eastern Washington, 102.5-93.5.
A trio of proven performers led the way Saturday with multiple qualifications.
Senior Chris Hellekson, who is entering his final season for the Grizzlies, was a three-event qualifier. His top performance came late Saturday afternoon when he won the discus with a throw of 169-2 to set a career best and win the event by nearly 10 feet.
He also qualified in both the shot put and hammer, placing third in both events with distances of 51-7.75 and 163-10, respectively.
This marks the fourth straight outdoor season that Hellekson will compete at the Big Sky Conference championships in both the shot and discus and the third straight in the hammer.
Sophomore Katrina Drennen, an NCAA Midwest Regional qualifier last spring in the 5,000 meters and the Big Sky 3,000-meter champion at February???s indoor championships, swept the 800 and 1,500 meters in qualifying times.
In her priority race of the day, Drennen took the lead in the 1,500 meters one lap in and rolled to an altitude-adjusted time of 4:33.60 to win by nearly seven seconds over a pair of teammates.
Less than 90 minutes later Drennen toed the line for the 800 meters for a follow-up speed workout and ran a winning and career-best altitude-adjusted time of 2:14.43.
Coming off a sensational indoor season debut when she scored in four events at the Big Sky indoor championships, freshman Lindsey Hall also won a pair of events with qualifying marks.
She won the 100-meter hurdles by a half a second in 14.56, easily meeting the Big Sky standard of 15.00. Hall later went 18-7 in the long jump to win that event by over eight inches.
The UM women had three other athletes put up qualifying marks while also winning their events.
Sophomore Asia Graham won the triple jump by almost a foot, going 37-10, freshman Chantelle Grey won the 400 meters in a time of 57.86 and freshman Gwenn Abbott won the high jump with a height of 5-3.
Posting qualifying performances with career-best marks were sophomores Kesslee Payne, Nicole Ennen and Erica Rominger.
Payne was runner-up to Drennen in the 1,500 meters, running an altitude-adjusted career-best 4:40.90 to meet the Big Sky standard by a tenth of a second, Ennen finished third in the discus with a throw of 147-1, a career best by nearly seven feet, and Rominger took fifth in the javelin with a throw of 131-5.
Other automatic qualifiers were redshirt freshman Emily Eickholt in the 800 meters, second in an altitude-adjusted time of 2:15.13, senior Brooke Andrus in the 800 meters, third in an altitude-adjusted time of 2:15.63, freshman Addie Lepley in the javelin, third with a throw of 132-6, and senior Brittany Williams in the shot put, fourth with a distance of 43-2.5.
In addition to Hellekson???s three-event performance, freshman Justin Graff highlighted the men???s team???s efforts with a winning throw of 203-1 in the javelin. That mark, which came with only an early-season nine-step approach, would previously have been an automatic qualifying mark for NCAA regionals.
The Grizzlies??? other qualifying performances came from juniors Michael Fisher and Bryan Slingsby, sophomore Lynn Reynolds and freshman Austin Emry.
Fisher ran away from the field in the 5,000 meters to win by nearly half a minute in an altitude-adjusted and career-best time of 14:52.24. Not having anyone to work with in the windy conditions, Fisher just missed the Big Sky standard of 14:51 but earned a 10,000-meter spot for his efforts.
Emry, who tied for fifth in the event at the indoor championships, won the high jump with a height of 6-5.
Reynolds, the 2008 Big Sky Conference runner-up in the event, placed second in the steeplechase in an altitude-adjusted time of 9:19.97, despite entering the outdoor season with a limited training base due to an indoor-season injury.
Reynolds??? steeplechase time also earned him a 10,000-meter qualification.
Slingsby, who didn???t qualify for the 2010 indoor championships until the final last-chance meet, knocked out a shot put qualification at his first try outdoors, placing fifth with a distance of 50-1.75.
???I think this is a perfect starting point,??? UM program director Brian Schweyen said. ???We didn???t set the bar real high for this first meet, and we were not expecting a lot, but we got a handful of conference qualifiers and some young kids with lifetime PRs, which is always nice.
???If we can continue to move forward from here every week, I think we???re going to be sitting pretty good.
???Individually, Justin Graff really stands out. And the women in the 800 ran well on a really tough day to run. With Katrina running an eight like that, it???s only going to build her confidence.
???Lindsey Hall had a nice long jump and nice hurdles, and Addie???s just a walk-on and she hit 132 feet. That???s a great performance.???
The Montana women went one-two in the 4x400-meter relay. Grey teamed up with senior Erin Clark, junior Jennifer Walter and sophomore Melissa Jenkins to win with a time of 3:54.85, while senior Kristen Steiner teamed up with freshmen Bobbi Furrer, Anika Green and Brittany Schroeder to go 3:59.66.
Juniors David Carcamo, Evan Stokken and Kyle Danreuther all had event victories Saturday. Carcamo won the 100 meters in 11.08, Stokken the 110-meter hurdles in 15.38 and Danreuther the 400-meter hurdles in 55.90.
Montana also won the 4x100-meter relay in 42.81 behind Carcamo, Danreuther, junior Don Danns and sophomore Case Parker.
The Grizzlies will split up next week with part of the team going to Los Angeles, Calif., for the UCLA Invitational and the rest of the team traveling to Spokane, Wash., for Spokane Falls Community College???s Northwest Scoring Clash.
