Montana
Big Sky Conference Championships
Hall named MVA; Drennen, Griz finish third
2/26/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Indoor Track, Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
Feb. 26, 2011
Sophomore Lindsey Hall won the high jump and scored 34 points to earn Most Valuable Athlete honors and senior Katrina Drennen defended her title in the 3,000 meters and added a second-place finish in the mile to lead the Montana women to a third-place finish at the 2011 Big Sky Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at Pocatello, Idaho, Saturday.
The Grizzlies finished third at the indoor championships for the second consecutive year. Last year's finish was the team's best since 1994.
Montana finished with 89.5 points to surpass its point total of 85 from 2010.
Sacramento State won the women's title for the second straight year and for the third time in four years with a dominating performance. The Hornets scored 144 points to eclipse second-place Idaho State by 50 points. The Bengals, who scored 94 points, edged the Grizzlies by 4.5 points for second.
The Montana men scored 53 points to finish seventh.
The Hornet men made it a Sacramento State sweep, but only after the closest finish in Big Sky Conference history.
Sacramento State ended Northern Arizona's two-year reign atop the indoor championships standings with a 133 to 132.5 victory.
Montana State rounded out the top three with 95.5 points.
Hall and Drennen were the stars of the meet for Montana, scoring 54.5 of the Grizzlies' 89.5 points.
Hall scored 16 points Friday with a victory in the pentathlon and a third-place finish in the long jump.
She added 18 more Saturday.
Hall became Montana's first indoor high jump champion since 2005 when she won that event at a height of 5-7.75.
She added a third-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles, running a career-best 8.62, and a seventh-place finish in the triple jump, going 38-3.5.
Hall's 34 points were the most scored by a Grizzly at the indoor championships - men or women - and tied for the third-highest point total in women's indoor championships history.
Drennen had three opportunities to race and collected two titles - one in a relay - and a runner-up finish.
After running the 1,600-meter anchor leg of Montana's victorious distance medley relay team Friday night, Drennen came back Saturday with a second-place finish in the mile and her second straight victory in the 3,000 meters.
Drennen, who ranks 13th nationally in the mile, was topped in the mile by Sacramento State's Lea Wallace, who ranks third nationally in the 800 meters.
Wallace ran a 4:48.19. Drennen was close behind in 4:49.31.
Drennen came back shortly thereafter to win the 3,000 meters title by over six seconds, running a 9:50.28.
Junior Kesslee Payne added six points Saturday with sixth-place finishes in the 800 meters (2:18.00) and mile (5:10.07), and sophomore Gwenn Abbott contributed five points with a fourth-place finish in the high jump (5-5.75).
Junior Emily Eickholt and sophomore Anika Green both had fifth-place finishes Saturday.
Eickholt was fifth in the 800 meters (2:16.97), Green was fifth in the 60-meter hurdles (career-best 8.75).
Montana's final points came in the 4x400-meter relay, where Eickholt, sophomores Kourtney Danreuther and Chantelle Grey and freshman Annie Moore ran to a sixth-place finish.
"(With only 14 of the allowable 22 athletes) we took a small squad of women, but we still scored more points than last year," UM track and field program director Brian Schweyen said.
"They performed well and did exactly what they needed to do. They worked hard all year, and it paid off.
"Third is great, but second would be even better, and we're going to continue working until we move up towards first."
The men had a dozen scoring performances Saturday, but eight of those were sixth-, seventh- and eighth-place finishes. Those points add up but not quickly enough for the Grizzlies to challenge for a top-half-of-the-conference finish.
"Going in we thought 50 points would mean we did pretty well, and we scored 53, but that's nowhere near where we want this program to be," Schweyen said.
"The guys that were there had solid performances, and everyone did their job to get us some points. But now we need to work on turning those sixth-, seventh- and eighth-place finishes into first, second or thirds."
Senior Don Danns and sophomores Austin Emry and Keith Webber all had fourth-place finishes Saturday.
Danns ran a career-best 6.89 to place fourth in the 60 meters, Emry started the day in second and held on for a fourth-place finish in the heptathlon with a season-high 5,137 points, and Webber had a two-inch career best in the pole vault, going 15-11.
Senior Chris Hicks was fifth in the triple jump (season-best 47-1.75), freshman Cullen Bachman was sixth in the 60-meter hurdles (season-best 8.36), freshman Drew Owens was seventh in the 400 meters (50.61), and freshman Kaleb Horlick tied for seventh in the pole vault (15-5).
Montana had five eighth-place finishes Saturday: senior Sean Clark in the 800 meters (1:59.05), senior Lynn Reynolds in the 3,000 meters (8:38.21), senior Evan Stokken in the heptathlon (career-high 4,763 points), junior Kyle Danreuther in the 60-meter hurdles (8.61) and sophomore Zane Reneau in the triple jump (44-4).
Sacramento State's Ronald Brookins was named the men's Most Valuable Athlete and Most Outstanding Performer.
Hall was the women's Most Valuable Athlete, while Sacramento State's Wallace earned Most Outstanding Performer honors.
Women's team scores
1. Sacramento State ... 144
2. Idaho State ... 94
3. Montana ... 89.5
4. Weber State ... 81
5. Northern Arizona ... 68.5
6. Montana State ... 67
7. Portland State ... 54.5
8. Eastern Washington ... 45.5
9. Northern Colorado ... 19
Men's team scores
1. Sacramento State ... 133
2. Northern Arizona ... 132.5
3. Montana State ... 95.5
4. Weber State ... 76
5. Eastern Washington ... 67
6. Idaho State ... 62
7. Montana ... 53
8. Northern Colorado ... 22
9. Portland State ... 19
Montana's women's point scorers
10, Lindsey Hall, pentathlon, first
10, Katrina Drennen, 3,000 meters, first
10, Lindsey Hall, high jump, first
10, Distance medley relay (Payne, Moore, Grey, Drennen), first
8, Katrina Drennen, mile, second
6, Lindsey Hall, 60-meter hurdles, third
6, Lindsey Hall, long jump, third
5, Gwenn Abbott, high jump, fourth
4.5, Jessica Leslie, long jump, t-fourth
4, Anika Green, 60-meter hurdles, fifth
4, Emily Eickholt, 800 meters, fifth
3, Kesslee Payne, 800 meters, sixth
3, Kesslee Payne, mile, sixth
3, 4x400-meter relay (Danreuther, Eickholt, Grey, Moore)
2, Lindsey Hall, triple jump, seventh
1, Heidi Biehl, pole vault, eighth
Montana's men's point scorers
8, Austin Emry, high jump, second
6, Distance medley relay, third
5, Austin Emry, heptathlon, fourth
5, Don Danns, 60 meters, fourth
5, Keith Webber, pole vault, fourth
4, Chris Hicks, high jump, fifth
4, Chris Hicks, triple jump, fifth
3, Cullen Bachman, 60-meter hurdles, sixth
2.5, Jeremy Beck, high jump, t-sixth
2, Drew Owens, 400 meters, seventh
2, Richard Brumbaugh, shot put, seventh
1.5, Kaleb Horlick, pole vault, t-seventh
1, Evan Stokken, heptathlon, eighth
1, Kyle Danreuther, 60-meter hurdles, eighth
1, Sean Clark, 800 meters, eighth
1, Lynn Reynolds, 3,000 meters, eighth
1, Zane Reneau, triple jump, eighth
