Griz in Flagstaff for Big Sky indoor championships
2/24/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Indoor Track, Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
Championships Start Lists || Championships Schedule
The Montana track and field teams will compete this week at the Big Sky Conference indoor championships. The three-day meet will be held at Northern Arizona's Walkup Skydome.
The meet opens Thursday with the women's pentathlon and day one of the men's heptathlon. The heptathlon concludes Friday, followed by the start of the running and field events. The meet wraps up Saturday afternoon.
Fans can follow the action through video and live results. A link to NAU's championship central, which has links to all the championships' tracking options, can be found on the indoor track and field schedule page at GoGriz.com.
Both Montana teams finished third last winter at Pocatello, Idaho. For the Griz men, who had finished sixth or lower the previous six indoor championships, it was their highest team finish since 2002. For the UM women, it marked their third top-three finish in five years.
Those performances will be tough to repeat this week, but the Grizzlies should still challenge for finishes in the top half of the 12-team standings.
"We'll need to have a lot of season bests and have some people do some things we maybe didn't anticipate," said UM coach Brian Schweyen. "I'd like to see us come out top five in both. We're still a young team, so I think that would be success at this point."
Championship Storylines
1. The championships open Thursday with the women's pentathlon. Gone is Lindsey Hall, who won pentathlon titles for the Grizzlies in 2011, 2012 and 2014 and who held the Big Sky pentathlon record of 3,969 points until it was broken last Friday by Montana State's Carley McCutchen, who scored 4,034.
In Hall's place are four pentathletes, three of whom are underclassmen: sophomores Lakyn Connors and Nicole Stroot and freshman Erika McLeod. Redshirt senior Shayle Dezellem also is competing.
All four are capable of scoring points for Montana, which come with top-eight finishes, because outside of McCutchen, the rest of the field is tightly packed.
Stroot, with a season-best 3,430 points at Montana State in early January, ranks sixth, McLeod (3,373) 10th, Dezellem (3,326) 13th and Connors (3,301) 14th. Connors, in particular, has been coming on strong lately.
"It's a young group that's talented," said Schweyen. "All four of them have the possibility of scoring, and that's we what expect. That's what we're looking for.
"If they have two or three PRs and their other events are right there, they should all be over 3,500, and some might be 3,600 or higher. The possibilities are there. They just have to put a meet together."
Interesting note about McCutchen. As a freshman in 2011, her best pentathlon score was a mere 3,381 points. Through her sophomore year she still hadn't cracked 3,600.
"Carley is the best pentathlete this conference has ever seen when you consider what she scored last week," said Schweyen. "And (the three underclassmen) we have competing are at or above where she was at their age.
"So these girls have the ability to be really, really good. But what kind of confidence and what kind of work ethic are they going to bring to reach that level?"
2. The men's heptathlon also begins Thursday with the first four of seven events. Montana, which got a heptathlon title last winter from Austin Emry, will have a single entry, freshman Charlie Bush.
Bush has just one multi-events competition under his belt as a collegiate athlete. He scored 4,533 points in early January at Montana State, a total that has him ranked seventh in the Big Sky.
Three athletes this winter have scored more than 5,000 points, led by Idaho State senior Logan Henderson's 5,331. Nobody else has cracked 4,800, which opens the door for Bush to come away with a top-five finish.
"If Charlie competes with some confidence, he could put a couple hundred points on his score (from January) real easily," said Schweyen. "He's going to be in the mix, which should help him.
"I see him having a great meet and coming out with a good placing and some good points. If Charlie goes in and is Charlie, he's top five."
3. There are only a handful of events in which the top-ranked athlete appears to be untouchable to the rest of the field. McCutchen in the pentathlon. Sacramento State's Zach Coniglio in the shot put. Montana State's Cristian Soratos in the mile. Add to that list Montana junior Sammy Evans in the triple jump.
Evans, who swept the indoor and outdoor triple jump titles last year, has gone 41-8.5, a Montana record, this winter and has jumped farther than 40 feet four of the last five weeks.
The Big Sky's No. 2 ranked triple jumper is Eastern Washington freshman Morena Mannucci, who has a season best of 39-2.25, a mark that was recorded more than two months ago at EWU's Candy Cane Invitational. Sacramento State senior Brianna Cole ranks third at 38-0.75.
"There have been a lot of years when the conference has had three girls over 40 feet, but right now you've got Sammy and no one else," said Schweyen. "That's great for her, because she can relax and not have to feel the pressure, and that's when you're going to pop your best marks."
And that's what Evans will need to do to extend her season beyond this weekend. To make nationals, which will be held March 13-14 at Fayetteville, Ark., Evans will need to go at least 42-6, if not farther.
"Competing at Flagstaff's elevation and with the adrenaline of a championship environment, you couldn't ask for a better place to hit the type of mark she needs," said Schweyen. "It's certainly something she could do."
One other bit of motivation for Evans: She will be redshirting both the upcoming outdoor season and next winter's indoor season, meaning when this season is over she won't compete again in a Montana uniform until March 2016.
With Kellee Glaus's triple jump title in 2013 and her own a year ago, Evans will be trying to make it a three-peat in the event for the Grizzlies. But she could also do a lot more to help her team. She ranks fourth in the long jump (18-7.25) and is tied for 10th in the high jump (5-5.75).
"It's going to be the last time Sammy jumps in more than a year, so I expect her to go in really relaxed and jump great," said Schweyen. "She has two other events where she can be a big factor, and from the team perspective, we need her to be a factor."
4. Montana's only other pre-meet favorite is junior Nicole Anskaitis in the pole vault. But, unlike Evans, she has plenty of challengers if she is to become Montana's first Big Sky women's indoor pole vault champion.
Anskaitis joined the team in January and needed just three meets to break the program record with her vault of 13-3.5 at Montana State on Feb. 6.
That mark has her atop the Big Sky performance list, but three other jumpers from Eastern Washington and Montana State have cleared 12-11.5 or better this season.
"There are some good vaulters, so it is going to come down to who is on and who is mentally in it that day," said Schweyen. "And Nicole could certainly be that person. She isn't rattled by much and is competitive enough that I think she is going to go down and take care of business."
To make nationals, Anskaitis would need to clear 14 feet. That would require an eight-inch PR, but at Flagstaff and with the championship environment, it's not out of the question.
"Because of the elevation your speed is going to be a little greater. And the competition is a more than we're used to, and it's a championship meet, which means you're going to have more adrenaline," said Schweyen.
"You add all those together for someone like Nicole, and it means bigger poles, which means more height. So it is realistic."
5. The men's pole vault is even tighter than the women's, with the top eight athletes within five inches of one another. Idaho senior Dylan Watts has cleared 16-5.5, Montana State senior Ryan Kropp 16-4.75. Six other athletes have gone 16-0.75, including Griz freshman Brett Dringman.
Dringman's will be an interesting case study. He had a prep best of 14-7 and hadn't gone higher than 14-9 before using his family's vocal support to clear 16-0.75 last Friday night at Bozeman.
Dringman skipped the entire 15-foot window, but is his going 16 feet now the expectation for this weekend, or was he a one-night wonder?
"That success is so fresh for him that I think it's a perfect situation to be in," said Schweyen. "The confidence he had last weekend, he made it look easy. He most certainly can repeat that again this week and be in the mix. I expect him to come in excited, confident and ready to roll."
With four of the championships' 17 men's vaulters, Griz athletes will make up nearly a quarter of the field, but only Dringman is projected to be a point-scorer.
Redshirt freshman Pierce Frazier (15-9) is tied for 10th, redshirt freshman Riley Neville (15-5) is tied for 12th, and redshirt freshman Peter Sirmon (15-3) is tied for 14th.
"I truly believe we have three or four guys who could be top five at conference," said Schweyen. "What Brett did last weekend goes to show that anybody is capable of anything. The only things you're not capable of are the things you don't allow yourself to believe you're capable of."
6. Evans and sophomore Reagan Colyer are Montana's only returning champions from last winter's championships. Colyer won the 800 meters, but she is entering the championships with less momentum than she had last February.
Colyer set a new Montana record in the 800 meters of 2:08.96 last February, two weeks out from the conference championships. This winter she's been dealing with injuries. Her 2:11.50 two weeks ago at the Husky Classic in Seattle was a season best.
The good news is that time has her ranked third in the Big Sky and just six-hundredths of a second behind Montana State sophomore Kaylee Schmitz. The top eight athletes competing this week have clocked times this winter between Schmitz's 2:11.44 and 2:12.96.
"That is going to be fun to watch and see how it all unfolds," said Schweyen. "When it comes to the end of the race, who is going to be willing to lay it all out?
"Reagan is not where she could be, but she is physically good enough to repeat if the mental side is there. She's tough and brings it when she needs to, so I don't have any worries about her ability to bring it and compete."
7. Sac State's Zach Coniglio has gone 60-3.75 in the shot put. No one else in the conference has gone even 55 feet. Which gives Griz sophomore Nick Jackson a good shot at finishing as high as second.
Northern Arizona senior Gus Margiotta ranks second at 54-7.5, Jackson third at 54-2.75. Northern Arizona sophomore Shawn Collins and Sacramento State junior Richard Casas also have gone farther than 53 feet.
Jackson finished outside of the top eight and outside of the points at both the indoor and outdoor championships as a true freshman in 2014.
"Nick has come a long ways mentally and physically this year, and I think he's going to be a major factor this week," said Schweyen.
"He's been competing very consistently, so I anticipate him having a great meet. With the adrenaline of being at that type of meet, I could see him go 56 or 57 feet.
Team Notes
* Sophomore Dominique Bobo ranks fourth in the 200 meters with a time of 21.88. The top eight athletes in the event are bunched with seed times between 21.57 and 21.95.
* Junior Dylan Reynolds enters the championships ranked seventh in the 400 meters at 48.69.
* If she advances out of the preliminaries in the 800 meters, Reagan Colyer will double up Saturday afternoon. She'll run the mile at 12:15 and the final of the 800 meters at 1:40.
* Senior Jacob Leininger, who finished fourth last year, ranks fourth this year in the 60-meter hurdles. He has a career best of 8.15. He'll likely need to go sub-8.10 to finish in the top three and earn All-Big Sky honors.
* Montana's men's 4x400-meter relay team of redshirt senior Drew Owens, redshirt junior Andrew Monaco, Dylan Reynolds and Dominique Bobo ranks second entering the championships.
* Running the distance medley relay (1,200m, 400m, 800m, 1,600m) Friday night for the Montana women: redshirt senior Keli Dennehy, freshman Makenzee Cleveland-Aguirre, Shayle Dezellem and freshman Megan Franz. For the Griz men: Senior David Norris, Andrew Monaco, Drew Owens and junior Cody Curtis.
* The event with the most Montana athletes competing: the women's long jump. Sammy Evans will be joined in competition by Shayle Dezellem, Erika McLeod, Nicole Stroot and sophomore McKenzie Weber.
Players Mentioned
