Montana
Whitworth Twilight Invite
Griz 16-time winners at Whitworth Twilight Invite
4/18/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Outdoor Track, Women's Track and Field
April 18, 2014
The Montana track and field teams produced 16 wins Thursday evening at the Whitworth Twilight Invitational at Spokane, Wash.
A bulk of the entries at the meet were from Montana and Whitworth, with athletes from Gonzaga, Idaho, Lewis-Clark State and Spokane Community College sprinkled in on a mild but wet evening.
With the Grizzlies' A-listers in California this week for the Mt. SAC Relays and Long Beach State Invitational, it was a chance for the rest of Montana's athletes to have the spotlight.
Underclassmen claimed 10 of the teams' 15 individual wins. Many of those were first-time victories as collegiate athletes.
"It was a good confidence boost for a lot of the athletes who were there. They knew they had a chance to win most of the events, so they were there to compete, and it was fun to watch that," said Collin Fehr, the lone Griz coach who did not travel to California.
"People were competing better than I've ever seen them compete before, because they were in their events to win it."
The Montana women's team had nine individual winners, and the Grizzlies also won the 4x100-meter relay. Junior Madison Worst was a two-time winner, sweeping the 200 (26.22) and 400 meters (59.35). She also ran a leg of the relay.
Montana took the top six places in the 200 meters and the top four spots in the 100 meters and 100-meter hurdles, with freshman Anna Weber winning the 100 meters (12.67) and freshman Lakyn Connors claiming the 100-meter hurdles in a season-best time of 15.10.
Sophomore McCalle Feller won the high jump at 5-1 and had a third-place throw in the javelin of 137-7, a Big Sky Conference-qualifying mark that was short of her season best of 142-5.5.
The men's team picked up six event victories, four coming on the track from underclassmen.
Freshman Josh Strasser won the 200 meters (22.94), freshman Micah Drew the 5,000 meters (16:01.25), freshman Adam Wollant the 10,000 meters (32:02.94) and sophomore Bobby Smollack the 400-meter hurdles (56.80).
In the field events, junior Randy Koon won the long jump at 21-2.5, and freshman Nick Jackson claimed the shot put at 48-0.5 to give Montana a one-two finish in that event with freshman runner-up Nolan Nagle (46-10.75).
Junior Brian Maus took second in the hammer with a Big Sky-qualifying distance of 177-10. Maus was already a qualifier with his season-best throw of 178-10 at Montana State two weeks ago.
"More than anything I was just impressed with everyone's attitude," Fehr added. "It was rainy and pretty crummy and most of the athletes didn't have their event coaches there, but they were positive and went out and competed well."
Players Mentioned
