Montana
Montana State
Veterans lead Montana at first indoor meet
1/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Indoor Track, Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
Jan. 18, 2014
Montana's veteran athletes led the way Friday night as the Griz track and field teams opened their 2014 indoor season at the Montana State Open at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse in Bozeman, Mont.
Redshirt senior Lindsey Hall won three events, redshirt senior Austin Emry won two, and the Grizzlies had 13 performances that met the Big Sky Conference-qualifying standards.
"I was hoping to get 20 qualifiers, which would have been a lot," said UM track and field coach Brian Schweyen, "but we still had a lot of good performances."
The most uplifting of those was by redshirt junior Keli Dennehy, whose long run of injuries have kept her from being at her best since her promising debut in 2010-11.
Dennehy ran away from her field in the mile on Friday evening to post an altitude-adjusted time of 4:59.54. Her time was only three seconds off her PR and seven seconds faster than she's ever opened an indoor season in the mile.
"Keli was able to get in some consistent training over the break, which meant it wasn't such a shock coming into indoor this year," UM distance coach Vicky Pounds said. "This is as fast as she's ever opened up."
Dennehy was an All-Big Sky Conference cross country runner as a true freshman, placing fourth overall, and finished fifth in the 5,000 meters that same year at the outdoor championships, but the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons became a series of setbacks.
"Keli has such positive energy that even when she wasn't racing she was a positive presence on the team," Pounds added. "But it's a lot more fun when you're having your own success as well."
Hall and Emry, both rock-solid competitors whose immense talents put them head and shoulders above most of their competitors at small meets like Friday's, combined to win five events.
Emry won the high jump at 6-9.75 and won the 55-meter hurdles in an altitude-adjusted time of 7.57 to come within two-hundredths of his PR. Junior Jacob Leininger was close behind in second at 7.70, a PR.
Hall won the 55-meter hurdles in an altitude-adjusted time of 8.03, the long jump with a mark of 18-4.5 and the high jump at 5-5, a three-event effort in mid-January that should be the precursor for a big month of February and her first trip to nationals to compete in the pentathlon in March.
"Lindsey is ready to get a big-time mark," Schweyen said. "And I don't say that to put any pressure on her. I say it with excitement, because it's this close to clicking for her."
Emry picked up the lone wins for the men's team, while Dennehy and Hall had four of the seven victories for the women's team.
Redshirt senior Kourtney Danreuther, the Montana record-holder in the indoor and outdoor 400 meters and six-time Big Sky Conference champion in events when she's had to run 400 meters or less, raced her first 800 meters since her freshman year Friday.
In 2010 she ran the 800 meters three times, with a collegiate PR of 2:22, but those were all part of the pentathlon in a multi-events career that was short-lived.
On Friday night she led from gun to tape and ran an altitude-adjusted 2:12.35, the fastest indoor 800 meters for Montana since Brooke Andrus ran a 2:10.93 in 2010.
Senior Kellee Glaus led a 1-2 finish in the triple jump by going 38-7.5. Sophomore Sammy Evans, who no-heighted in the high jump but showed the pop to go 5-5, which would make her an All-Big Sky Conference threat in a pair of events, placed second at 38-6.25, a season best.
Like Hall in her events, sophomore Samantha Hodgson is putting up consistent efforts in the shot put that portend bigger efforts to come. She won the shot at 46-8.25, an indoor PR, but what pleased Schweyen was the proximity of Hodgson's attempts.
"Samantha is consistent as all get-out now at that distance," he said. "And when you start to become consistent at a distance, a big one is waiting to come out."
That same formula is working for redshirt senior Keith Webber in the pole vault. He went 16-4 or better in three of his final four meets during last spring's outdoor season, and he's now cleared 16-5 or better three times in three meets this winter.
Webber made 16-6.75 look easy Friday and just missed on his final attempt at 17-1, which would have been his first time over the 17-foot barrier and matched the Montana record. He finished second in a jump-off with Carroll's Easton Padden, the 2013 NAIA indoor national champion.
"Keith can now come out all day long and jump 16-7, and that's a big step forward for him," Schweyen said. "Soon that will become 17 feet, and then 17 feet will be an everyday out for him."
And that makes it too deep into the recap to finally be getting to the athlete whom Schweyen considers his MVP of the meet: Dylan Reynolds.
Reynolds opened his sophomore season Friday by finishing second in the 400 meters in an altitude-adjusted time of 49.64, a PR. He bettered that by an estimated two seconds when he ran the second leg of the Grizzlies' winning 4x400-meter relay.
Reynolds, a point-scorer for Montana at last year's Big Sky outdoor championships in the 400-meter hurdles, took the baton in third place and handed it off to sophomore Joe Lesar with the Grizzlies comfortably in control.
"Dylan had a great 400 and an even better 400 leg in the relay," Schweyen said. "He might be my MVP today, and it should mean a new confidence level for him. He's capable of doing a lot of good things. He's going to be good. Really good."
Montana had six runner-up finishes Friday: senior McKenzie Luth in the 400 meters (altitude-adjusted 58.90), junior Ben Williamson in the mile (altitude-adjusted 4:12.38), junior Lee Hardt in the high jump (6-4.75) and triple jump (46-0.75), sophomore Sarah Hastings in the 3,000 meters (altitude-adjusted 10:22.20) and redshirt freshman Bailee Jacka in the pole vault (career-best 11-3.75).
The Grizzlies will be back in Bozeman next Friday for the MSU Double Dual I, when Montana will square off in duals against both Montana State and Idaho State.
