Montana
Big Sky Championships
A day of struggles at the Big Sky championships
5/10/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Outdoor Track, Women's Track and Field
May 10, 2013
Coming off Austin Emry's decathlon title a day earlier, the Montana track and field teams got off to a fast start Friday morning at the Big Sky Conference outdoor track and field championships at Forest Grove, Ore., when Emry and Lee Hardt combined to score 10 points in the men's high jump.
It was just the kind of start to the championships' third day that UM track and field coach Brian Schweyen was hoping to see.
Eight hours later, however, the best Schweyen could do to express his feelings on what he had just witnessed was to lapse into a string of ugly metaphors.
"We started out great today," he began, "but then all four wheels fell off the wagon, and the wagon went into a belly-skid. And I don't think we have the shovels to dig it out."
After producing 10 points in the day's first event, the Grizzlies -- the men and women combined -- scored only 13 more Friday and had just five athletes advance out of the 12 preliminary track events that sent qualifiers to Saturday's all-important scoring finals.
Some of the struggles can be attributed to untimely injuries. Lindsey Hall, who is nursing an Achilles injury, is a shell of her usual point-producing self. Keli Dennehy, one of the Big Sky's top steeplechasers, had to pull out midrace Friday because of a preexisting heel injury, and Dylan Hambright, the No. 2 ranked quarter-miler, placed 18th out of 18 in the 400-meter preliminaries because of a bad hamstring.
And some of it was the result of athletes underperforming, but all of it can be explained by the team's talent base. It's spread wide enough to challenge on a perfect day but not deep enough to cover the missteps when things don't go as planned.
"Depth is such a key in track and field," Schweyen said. "You always come into these meets with expectations based on the points you have laid out beforehand.
"You're going to have some down performances, and you're going to have some surprises, and usually those will kind of balance out. But our downs are far outweighing our surprises right now."
The Montana women, projected for a third-place finish, scored just five points Friday, all coming from a single athlete, and are sitting in 10th place with just 10 points. The men have 29 points and are in sixth place. Emry has accounted for 19 of those points.
"If you have a good team but one that is shallow in talent, if one or two bad things happen this is the result," Schweyen continued.
"We put a lot of weight on the women's team in Lindsey Hall and Kourtney Danreuther and a ton of weight on Austin, and you can only pack so much on them."
But points were scored Friday and athletes advanced out of the preliminaries, so all was not dire news.
The day's biggest surprise came from freshman Emily Mendoza. She was ranked a nonthreatening 14th in the pole vault entering the championships with her season-best height of 11-9.75. On Friday she added 10 inches to that PR and finished fourth, which accounted for all of the women's points on the day.
"Emily had a great day. Everything really started clicking for her," UM jumps coach Adam Bork said. "Things have actually been coming around for her the last couple of weeks, and she's been getting better and better.
"She's more confident in her approach, and today she used a bigger pole than she's ever used before."
Of the men's 18 points Friday, 10 came in the high jump. Lee Hardt, who was ranked first in the Big Sky with his jump of 7-1 at the Griz-Cat Dual two weeks ago, tied for second at a height of 6-10.25, Emry finished sixth at a height of 6-8.
Northern Colorado's Trevor Evanson, who won the indoor high jump title, added an outdoor championship as the only jumper to clear 6-11.5. Hardt tied for second with Northern Arizona's Deante Kemper, the indoor runner-up to Evanson.
Montana's other points Friday came from Emry in the long jump and sophomore Jordan Collison in the steeplechase.
Emry went 23-7.5 in his third of six attempts to finish behind Weber State's Cylor Morgan, the indoor champion, who went 24-11.25, and Sacramento State's Oleg Ryabokorovka, who went 23-10.75.
After competing in the decathlon Wednesday and Thursday, Emry had the high jump, long jump and the preliminaries of the 110-meter hurdles Friday. He had a pre-championships ranking of fifth in the hurdles but did not advance to Saturday after running a 14.95 to place 10th.
"Austin didn't have the speed he needed today for those events after competing hard the last two days," Schweyen said. "Coming off a decathlon, some things just aren't going to be there."
The day's other two points came from Collison, who had a 12-second PR to finish seventh in the steeplechase in a time of 9:09.75.
"It was nice to see Jordan have that kind of a race," Schweyen said. "He has the talent. We've been waiting for it to come out, and today it did at a perfect time."
Montana had just five athletes advance in only three of the 12 track events that had their preliminary round Friday. All five came from 400-meter races.
In the men's 400, two of Hambright's teammates, sophomore Andrew Monaco and freshman Joe Lesar, were not ranked in the top eight, but both finished there Friday.
Monaco ran a career-best 48.24 to finish fourth, Lesar a PR of 48.72 to grab the eighth and final qualifying spot for Saturday's final.
"Andrew we know can run fast," Schweyen said. "Joe stepped up with a lifetime best, and that's what you're looking for out of your freshmen."
The Montana women had three of the top five entries in the 400. Only two will race Saturday.
Kourtney Danreuther, the defending outdoor champion in the quarter mile, tied for first with Portland State's Dominique Maloney in a season-best time of 54.93. Emily Eickholt also advanced with a seventh-place time of 55.87.
"And Kourtney ran that time even though she let up the last 20 or 30 meters and almost walked across the finish line," Schweyen said. "I expect her to run a fast time tomorrow and come out on top."
McKenzie Luth, ranked fourth, finished 10th in the 400 in a time of 56.78.
Danreuther was also the defending champion in the 200 meters, but she won't be racing in the finals Saturday. She finished 10th in the preliminaries with a time of 24.70, not far off her career best.
"The 200 is a different race this year," Schweyen explained. "There are some really fast girls."
The Grizzlies' only other athlete to advance to Saturday's finals was freshman Dylan Reynolds in the 400-meter hurdles. Ranked seventh, he finished fifth in a season-best time of 52.85.
Montana won't be a much of a scoring factor in Saturday's running events, but there are still plenty of field events to watch.
For the women, junior Kellee Glaus, the Big Sky indoor champion, ranks first in the triple jump, Sammy Evans third. Junior Gwenn Abbott ranks second in the high jump, freshman Samantha Hodgson second in the discus.
For the men, junior Keith Webber is tied for third in the pole vault, while junior Kaleb Horlick ranks fourth. Junior Lukas Scherer ranks third in the javelin, sophomore Brandon Forson fifth in the discus.
