Griz spread across West this weekend
4/28/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Outdoor Track, Women's Track and Field
April 28, 2011
Montana performance list
Big Sky Conference performance list
The University of Montana track and field teams will be competing at three different meets this weekend, stretching from Friday to Sunday.
This is the final weekend for the full team to compete prior to the Big Sky Conference outdoor championships, which will be held May 11-14 at Sacramento, Calif.
A handful of athletes will compete next Friday, May 6, at Montana State's last-chance meet in Bozeman.
The bulk of Montana's team will compete Friday afternoon and evening at Eastern Washington's 40th annual Pelluer Invitational at Cheney, Wash.
Field events begin at noon (PT) with the men's hammer and the women's long jump, discus and javelin.
Running events start at 4 p.m. (PT) with the men's steeplechase.
A number of athletes - mainly throwers and distance runners - who are competing at the Pelluer Invitational Friday will remain in the area and hit Spokane Falls Community College's Duane Hartman Invitational, which is being held Saturday.
The weekend meet holding the highest Q rating is Stanford's Payton Jordan Invitational, which is being held Sunday at Stanford, Calif.
Montana will be represented at the meet by seniors Kara DeWalt (steeplechase) and Jason Flemmer (javelin), juniors Katrina Drennen (1,500 meters) and Lynn Reynolds (steeplechase) and sophomore Justin Graff (javelin).
The meet is annually one of the most competitive in the nation and will be broadcast live on FloTrack.com.
Highlighting the meet is Sunday evening's distance carnival, which produces a record-setting environment with a packed stadium and fields loaded with some of the top collegiate and professional athletes in the nation.
Flemmer and Graff, who are tied for 20th in the NCAA West Region with their season-best marks of 220-0, throw at 1:30 p.m. (PT).
DeWalt, Reynolds and Drennen, in that order, will compete Sunday evening during the carnival, starting with DeWalt's steeplechase race at 6:44 p.m. (PT).
The Montana record-holder in the steeplechase at 10:26.25, DeWalt will be one of the top athletes in the second of two sections. DeWalt's time currently ranks 15th in the NCAA West Region.
Reynolds will race shortly after DeWalt, at 7:12 p.m. (PT), in the second of two sections in the men's steeplechase.
Reynolds is ranked 41st in the West Region and will need a faster time than his current season best of 9:06.06 to have a shot at advancing to regionals at the end of May.
The women's 1,500 meters is being run in five sections, with three in the afternoon and the top two sections being run under the lights.
Drennen, a qualifier for nationals in the 1,500 meters last spring, will race at 7:37 p.m. (PT) in section two.
Only two collegiate athletes, Oregon's Jordan Hasay (ranked No. 4 in the West Region in the 1,500 meters) and Sacramento State's Lea Wallace (ranked No. 2 in the region in the 800 meters), made the 15-athlete cut for section one.
Drennen's season best in the 1,500 meters is currently her altitude-adjusted time of 4:24.31 from the Al Manuel Invitational in early April.
Drennen, who is ranked 38th in the West Region in the 5,000 meters, has proved to be at her best in the biggest meets.
She ran a 4:19.36 at regionals last May at Austin, Texas, to advance to nationals at Eugene, Ore., then ran a 4:20.24 in the preliminaries at the NCAA championships.
