Griz back in Bozeman Friday for duals
2/12/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Indoor Track, Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
Montana Performance List || Big Sky Performance List
The Montana track and field teams will be back in Bozeman Friday to compete in the Montana State Double Duals at MSU's Brick Breeden Fieldhouse. The Grizzlies will compete in duals against the Bobcats and Weber State. The meet begins at 4 p.m.
Montana will be competing head-to-head for the first time this winter with Weber State but for the second time against Montana State. The Grizzlies lost both duals to the Bobcats on Jan. 23 at Bozeman, the men losing 87-57 and the women falling 88-61.
"Having another dual will allow us to see what kind of progress we've made. Where are we this week compared to where we were three weeks ago? It's a good measuring stick for us," said UM coach Brian Schweyen.
"With the way we're coming along and performing, I anticipate we'll be way ahead of where we were three weeks ago."
The dual-scoring nature of the meet will alter the way Montana enters its athletes. Athletes will be entered in their strongest events, and every event will have enough entries to ensure every point that's available is scored.
Scoring for the individual events is 5-3-2-1, and only two entries per team can score. So if both teams in a dual have at least two athletes competing, the best a team can do is win that event 8-3.
"At other meets we're kind of building toward conference and getting this and that taken care of," added Schweyen. "But with this meet we kind of change the way we enter. We want to have all the events covered and have our kids in their strongest events.
"We want our kids to continue to get better, which never changes from week to week and meet to meet, but this week we're going in with the understanding that we're competing against two other schools. Our goal is to beat as many athletes as we possibly can and win those duals."
Friday is the antepenultimate meet of the indoor season for Montana. The Grizzlies will return to Bozeman next Friday for the Bobcat Open, then travel to Flagstaff, Ariz., for the Big Sky Conference indoor championships, which will be contested Feb. 26-28.
Both Montana teams placed third at last winter's Big Sky indoor championships at Pocatello, Idaho. Duplicating that will be a challenge. Doable but a challenge.
"If everything works out in our favor, absolutely we could do that again, but it's difficult for all of that to line up," said Schweyen. "We're not as deep as we were last year, but we're deep enough where we could do well. We have the talent to maintain what we've been doing."
The Montana women's team will be down two athletes on Friday. Both redshirt senior Keli Dennehy and sophomore Reagan Colyer will be in Seattle for the Washington Husky Classic. Montana State will also have athletes competing at Washington.
Dennehy will be competing in the 3,000 meters on Saturday, Colyer in the 800 meters.
Montana Notes
* Two school records were broken last week at the Montana State Invitational. Junior Sammy Evans broke her own indoor record of 40-7.75 in the triple jump from Jan. 23 with a jump of 40-10.5. And junior Nicole Anskaitis broke Suzanne Krings' pole vault record of 13-1.5 from 2001 with a jump of 13-3.5. The performance earned Anskaitis, who joined the Grizzlies in January, Big Sky Conference Athlete of the Week honors. Note: The Montana outdoor triple jump record is 41-0.75, set by Renee Dunn in 2003. Anskaitis's mark in the pole vault is better than Montana's outdoor record of 12-10, which three athletes have reached.
* Evans and Anskaitis both lead the Big Sky Conference in their events. Evans is the only league athlete to go over 40 feet in the triple jump this winter. Eastern Washington freshman Morena Mannucci ranks second at 39-2.25. No one else has gone farther than 38 feet. Anskaitis has more company near her spot atop the pole vault performance list than Evans does as she attempts to become Montana's first women's indoor pole vault champion. Eastern Washington sophomore Courtney Bray has cleared 13-1.75, Montana State junior Casey Teska has gone 12-11.5.
* Junior Dylan Reynolds' adjusted and career-best time in the 400 meters of 48.69 Friday ranks No. 4 in the Big Sky. Southern Utah junior Arnold Carrillo (47.65) is the only athlete in the Big Sky so far under 48 seconds.
* Senior David Norris's adjusted 800 meters time of 1:54.27 moved him into the top 10 in the Big Sky. His time was just off his PR of 1:54.17.
* Senior Jacob Leininger is still sitting fourth in the 60-meter hurdles after running a season-best and adjusted 8.18 on Friday. His PR is 8.15. Sacramento State junior Paul Lyons tops the hurdles field with his season-best time of 7.88. He is the only athlete under eight seconds.
* Dylan Reynolds, redshirt senior Drew Owens, redshirt junior Andrew Monaco and sophomore Dominique Bobo ran an adjusted 3:15.51 for the 4x400 meters on Friday. That is the top-ranked time this winter in the Big Sky.
* Montana's deepest event is the men's pole vault. The Grizzlies have six athletes ranked in the top 20 in the Big Sky, but only redshirt freshman Pierce Frazier, who is tied for seventh at 15-9, ranks in the top 10.
* Sophomore Nick Jackson's 54-2.75 effort in the shot put Friday moved him up to No. 3 on the Big Sky performance list, five inches behind Northern Arizona senior Gus Margiotta. If he's got his best stuff, nobody at the Big Sky championships is beating Sacramento State senior Zach Coniglio, who's gone 60-3.75.
* The weight throw is a learned event that only improves through time and work. The top nine on the Big Sky performance list are juniors and seniors. The only underclassman in the top 10? Montana sophomore Nolan Nagle.
* Reagan Colyer, the 2014 Big Sky indoor champion, will be trying to move up the Big Sky performance list when she races the 800 meters in Seattle on Saturday. She currently ranks fifth with her adjusted time of 2:13.51 from Jan. 23. Topping the list is Idaho State senior Katie Nicholls with a time of 2:11.49. Colyer has a PR of 2:08.25.
* Keli Dennehy, in the 3,000 meters, also is ranked fifth with her adjusted time of 9:48.13 from Jan. 23. Southern Utah junior Ashley Hawks ran a league-leading 9:29.72 two weeks ago at Washington.
* Freshman Claire Dalman, who three times has gone 11-11.75, joins Anskaitis to give Montana two of the Big Sky's 10 athletes automatically qualified in the pole vault.
* Sammy Evans ranks third in the long jump (18-7.25), sophomore McKenzie Weber (18-4.25) ranks eighth, though both of those marks came in early December at Eastern Washington.
* Freshman Madison Page's triple jump of 36-11 on Friday moved her up to 10th in the Big Sky.
* Notable career-best performances from Friday (all times track- and altitude-adjusted): Redshirt senior Caitlin Carawy, weight throw (53-3.5); senior Heather Fraley, 5,000 meters (17:46.18); freshman Morgan Sulser, 60 meters (8.19), 60-meter hurdles (9.18); freshman Alanna Vann, 60 meters (7.92), 200 meters (26.23); freshman Logan Laird, 200 meters (23.28), 400 meters (51.84); junior Joe Lesar, 800 meters (1:56.61); freshman Kerson Lubin, 200 meters (22.29); senior Mark Messmer, 5,000 meters (14:55.15); redshirt senior Drew Owens, 200 meters (22.89); junior Tyler Van Oort, weight throw (51-6.25).
Players Mentioned
