Montana
Montana State
Griz peaking as Big Sky indoor championships draw near
2/21/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Indoor Track, Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
Results
The Montana track and field teams completed their pre-championships indoor season Friday night at the Bobcat Open at Bozeman, and nobody took more advantage of the last-chance meet than Brett Dringman.
The freshman pole vaulter from Billings, who was competing in front of a vocal cheering section, went 16-0.75 to win the event and add 14 inches to his PR.
Dringman, one of eight children, entered the meet with a season best of 14-9, a mark tied for 19th on the Big Sky Conference performance list. He's now tied for third and one of only a handful of athletes in the conference who has cleared a 16-foot bar this winter.
"His whole family was there cheering for him, and he got excited and vaulted great," said UM coach Brian Schweyen. "His run was as good as I've seen it, and everything was clicking.
"The meet went long because of it, but it was worth staying for. It was fun to watch."
Dringman's performance and a number of his teammates' efforts sent the Grizzlies home Friday night thinking about next week, when they'll compete at the Big Sky indoor championships at Flagstaff, Ariz.
Junior Sammy Evans, the defending indoor champion and nonpareil in the Big Sky this season, broke 41 feet in the triple jump for the second straight meet and 40 feet for the fourth time in five weeks. No other Big Sky athlete has gone farther than 39-3 this winter.
Next week's championships will open Thursday with the multi-events. Nobody in the Big Sky is in the class of Montana State's Carley McCutchen, who scored a Big Sky-record 4,034 points in the pentathlon Friday, but Griz sophomores Lakyn Connors and Nicole Stroot should be competing for top-five finishes.
Connors posted a pair of PRs Friday evening, going 9.14 in the 60-meter hurdles and 17-3.5 in the long jump. Stroot matched her season best in the hurdles with a time of 9.17 and was an inch off her season best in the long jump. She went 17-8.75 to finish second in the event.
"Those were both PRs for Lakyn," said Schweyen. "That's going to be really good for her confidence going into conference."
The Montana men's team finished a surprising third at last year's indoor championships, their fortunes buoyed by some unexpected point-scorers. History may be repeating itself.
In addition to Dringman now looking like a sleeper in the pole vault, Montana once again should score points in the 800 meters.
The Grizzlies didn't have anybody ranked in the top 10 in the event before Friday. They now have two runners in the top eight after senior David Norris ran an adjusted 1:52.15 and senior Ben Williamson a 1:52.93.
For Norris, who now ranks fifth in the Big Sky, it was a PR of more than two seconds. Williamson's was a half-second PR.
"That's huge for those two and fantastic for our men's team," said Schweyen. "We've got some guys stepping up who can get us some points next week."
Junior Joe Lesar ran a career-best 1:55.31 in the 800 meters, and senior Brian Maus, who's been struggling to approach the 54-foot weight throw he had in early December at Eastern Washington, finally got his breakthrough effort. He went 55-4.75, a 14-inch PR.
"Brian finally hit one," said Schweyen. "He was putting more speed on it and being more aggressive, and it showed. He's capable of bumping that up even farther. I think he can add a couple of feet to that at conference."
Freshmen Megan Franz and Emily Cheroske both started the indoor season last month running times in the 2:20s in the 800 meters. Friday night they gave a glimpse of the future. Franz ran an adjusted 2:14.88 to finish third, Cheroske a 2:15.03 to finish fourth.
It's the same type of progression being made by freshman Morgan Sulser, who began her collegiate career with a time of 9.62 in the 60-meter hurdles. That time has been dropping every meet since. On Friday she went 9.01.
Sulser also ran a season-best time of 8.15 in the 60 meters.
"Morgan just keeps getting better every week," said Schweyen. "And there is a lot more for her to get once she gets some more confidence."
Junior Nicole Anskaitis went under nine seconds in the hurdles for the third time this winter and finished second in the pole vault at 12-7.5, freshman Claire Dalman went 11-11.75 in the pole vault for the fourth time this season, and freshman Makenzee Cleveland-Aguirre ran an adjusted 57.76 in the 400 meters.
Senior Caitlin Caraway (53-11) and junior Anna Pershouse (53-7) led Montana to a one-two finish in the weight throw.
Players Mentioned
