Live from Bozeman :: Friday at the Big Sky Championships
5/11/2012 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Outdoor Track, Women's Track and Field
May 11, 2012
Scroll down for Friday's live coverage
As the 2012 Big Sky Conference outdoor track and field championships heat up Friday, a primer:
Friday's schedule (field events)
11:30 a.m. -- Men's javelin
1:30 p.m. -- Women's long jump
1:30 p.m. -- Men's pole vault
2:00 p.m. -- Women's hammer
3:30 p.m. -- Men's shot put
4:00 p.m. -- Men's long jump
4:30 p.m. -- Women's discus
5:30 p.m. -- Men's high jump
Friday's schedule (track events)
3:30 p.m. -- Men's steeplechase (final)
3:45 p.m. -- Women's steeplechase (final)
4:10 p.m. -- Men's 110-meter hurdles (prelims)
4:25 p.m. -- Women's 100-meter hurdles (prelims)
4:40 p.m. -- Men's 400 meters (prelims)
4:55 p.m. -- Women's 400 meters (prelims)
5:10 p.m. -- Men's 100 meters (prelims)
5:20 p.m. -- Women's 100 meters (prelims)
5:30 p.m. -- Men's 800 meters (prelims)
5:45 p.m. -- Women's 800 meters (prelims)
6:00 p.m. -- Men's 400-meter hurdles (prelims)
6:15 p.m. -- Women's 400-meter hurdles (prelims)
6:30 p.m. -- Men's 200 meters (prelims)
6:40 p.m. -- Women's 200 meters (prelims)
6:50 p.m. -- Men's 10,000 meters (final)
7:30 p.m. -- Women's 10,000 meters (final)
* Senior Richard Brumbaugh and sophomore Justin Meyer start the day for the Grizzlies in the men's javelin at 11:30 a.m. Brumbaugh has twice finished third in the javelin at outdoor championships and enters today's event ranked third behind Portland State senior Sean Mackelvie and Sacramento State junior Jesse Elvrom.
Brumbaugh is sporting the hair of Samson for the championships and hopefully has a Samson-like 220-foot throw in his right arm.
* In the men's pole vault at 1:30 p.m., sophomore Kaleb Horlick is tied for first on the Big Sky performance list with Idaho State juniors Clint Gossack and Thomas Thiel at 15-11.
The pole vault will also be the first event of the day for sophomore Austin Emry, who finished third in Wednesday and Thursday's decathlon.
* Potential surprise of the women's field events: Junior Kiandra Rajala in the hammer throw at 2 p.m. Rajala ranks sixth among the competitors and is the Montana school record holder at 174-0. The next four throwers on the performance list are all within Rajala's reach.
* Senior Nicole Ennen ranks first in the women's discus, which is being competed at 4:30 p.m. At 155-1 she is the Montana record holder in the event. Ennen was runner-up in the discus last year.
* Freshman Lee Hardt is one of several really good underclassmen who will be competing at 5:30 p.m. in the high jump. The top six guys on the Big Sky performance list are either freshmen or sophomores.
* Freshman Lynn Reynolds ranks first in the men's steeplechase, which opens Friday's track events at 3:30 p.m. Reynolds was runner-up in the steeplechase as a freshman in 2008 and will be trying to bookend his career today with another special performance.
* The most anticipated race Friday will be the preliminaries of the women's 400 meters at 4:55 p.m. Sophomore Kourtney Danreuther ranks first in the Big Sky in the 400-meter hurdles ... but she won't be competing in that event this weekend. Instead, with her spot at regionals in the hurdles already locked up, she'll be racing the 200 and 400 meters in effort to maximize her point production at the championships.
Danreuther won the 400 meters at February's indoor championships but has yet to run the quarter during the outdoor season. Her 54.17 in the indoor preliminaries broke the Montana school record, and she won finals with a time of 54.52. UM's coaches contend she is running faster than that in workouts now, which puts Loni Perkins' school record of 53.48 in play.
Weber State sophomore Amanda Alston, who was third indoors, and Idaho State senior Kylee Gleason have both run sub-55 seconds this outdoor season.
* The women's 800 meters at 5:45 p.m. will be senior Katrina Drennen's first race of the weekend. Her battles Saturday in the 1,500 and 5,000 meters against Weber State's best are highly anticipated, but the 800 should not be overlooked.
Drennen ranks fourth in the event and could make a run at Michelle Barrier's school record of 2:07.94, which has been standing since 1987.
* The men's 400-meter hurdles at 6 p.m. is similar in makeup to the high jump. Eleven of the top 13 athletes are either freshmen or sophomores. One of those is Montana sophomore Drew Owens, who ranks fourth and finished second last spring.
