Griz land Texas sprint champion
5/21/2013 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Outdoor Track, Women's Track and Field
May 21, 2013
Texans are known for their swagger. So are champion sprinters. Combine the two and you get Dominique Bobo, who has a message for the top returning speedsters in the Big Sky Conference: He's coming for them.
Bobo, of Wichita Falls, Texas, is one of three prep athletes who signed National Letters of Intent this spring and will be joining the Montana men's track and field program in the fall. Also signing were Joshua Strasser of Jackson, Wis., and Nolan Nagle of Santa Rosa, Calif.
When Montana competed two weeks ago at the Big Sky Conference outdoor track and field championships at Forest Grove, Ore., the Grizzlies did so with a travel roster of 25 athletes. Of those 25, 19 were freshmen or sophomores, and the team had just one senior on this year's roster, Nathan Klug.
Which means that with limited scholarship money available, Montana track and field coach Brian Schweyen could recruit one of two ways: spread the remaining money around and go for quantity or keep the number of newcomers low but cast for the big fish. He chose the latter. And he succeeded.
Bobo recently won the Texas Class 3A state championship in the 200 meters in a school-record time of 21.39. That time would have been Montana's top clocking this season by nearly half a second and would have placed Bobo third at the Big Sky meet, just 0.13 behind Northern Arizona's Miles Di Sabella.
"I just want to come in and work hard," Bobo says humbly before switching into Texas and champion-sprinter mode. "And if the guy who won the 200 is coming back, I just want him to know who I am, because my goal is to beat him."
Montana assistant football coach Kefense Hynson, who has a recruiting contact in Texas who also happens to be a friend of the Bobos, helped bring the two sides together. Things were going well until Bobo started posting times of his life this season.
"Dominique's just been running some fantastic times this spring," Schweyen said. "He split a 46.8 in the 4x400 relay and ran a 21.5 earlier in the 200, and by then every school was after him, including Texas Tech.
"I think because we'd been on him for a while and brought him up on a visit to check things out, we ended up getting him, but it was close."
With Dylan Hambright, who is one of the Big Sky Conference's top 400-meter runners, only two years into his collegiate career and now Bobo on the roster, a long drought may soon be coming to an end.
Montana has not won a Big Sky Conference outdoor championship in the 100, 200 or 400 meters since Marcus Mial swept the 100 and 200 meters in 1982.
"I liked the program, and the area is a lot different than where I'm from," Bobo said Monday night from Wichita Falls. "It's a young team. Hopefully with me, we can make it into a conference champion."
Bobo should develop into one of the Big Sky's top runners in the 200 and 400 meters. He'll also compete in the 100 and be a part of both relay teams.
"He's the type of guy who can bring you a lot of points at a Big Sky championship, and we need a few of those," Schweyen said. "You can't have a roster of just one-event athletes and contend. You need some multi-eventers."
Strasser posted times of 49.36 in the 400 meters and 22.82 in the 200 as a junior at Kettle Moraine Lutheran High. Any further development his senior year has been delayed by the scourge of spring-sport athletes everywhere across Wisconsin: A winter that extends well into spring.
"Josh hasn't had any good training this season because they have been hit with snow, snow and more snow," Schweyen said. "But based on his marks from last year, I think he'll be a good one."
Nagle, also a standout lineman for Cardinal Newman High's football team, is new to track and field, but he's already gone 56-5 in the shot while putting the 12-pound prep implement. Given his success in the trenches on the football field, he should have the strength necessary to adjust to the 16-pound college shot.
"He's only thrown for two years, so he's new to the whole game," said UM throws coach James Stanton, Nagle's primary recruiter.
Seven athletes have signed NLIs to join the Montana women's track and field team. Those signees will be announced later this week.
Players Mentioned
