Montana
Big Sky Conference Championships
Anskaitis wins Big Sky pole vault title
2/27/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Indoor Track, Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
Results 
Junior Nicole Anskaitis won the pole vault and junior Sammy Evans finished second in the long jump to highlight Montana's performance on the second day of the Big Sky Conference indoor track and field championships at Flagstaff, Ariz. Both jumpers also set new Montana indoor records.
With one day of competition remaining, the Griz women are in fifth place with 23 points. The men's team has six points and is tied for ninth.
Anskaitis, who was ranked No. 1 in the Big Sky entering the championships, cleared 13-4.5 to win the pole vault. In the process she broke her own school record of 13-3.5 she set earlier this month and became Montana's first women's indoor champion in the event.
The Geelong, Australia, native also competed in the preliminaries of the 60-meter hurdles, and both events started within a 15-minute window Friday afternoon.
"Nicole's warmups were not good at all," said coach Brian Schweyen. "I think she was a little frantic about the pole vault and hurdles, but she calmed herself down and vaulted the way she was supposed to."
Anskaitis cleared 12-8.75, 13-0.75 and 13-4.5 with just a single miss at each height and nearly made it over 13-8.5. The top five finishers all went 12-8.75 or higher.
"Nicole was supposed to win, and that's not always the easiest thing to do," added Schweyen. "It was a tight competition, and she did what she was supposed to do, so she gets the credit."
Evans is favored to win Saturday's triple jump, and she entered Friday's long jump competition ranked fourth in the Big Sky. She was fifth through the preliminaries, with a jump of 18-8.5, then improved upon that with a mark of 19-1.5 on her first attempt in finals.
On the runway for her final attempt, Evans had the jump of her life to move up to second in the final standings. Her jump of 19-4.75 broke Lindsey Hall's record of 19-4.25 from 2012.
Northern Colorado junior Alisha Allen won the event with an impressive jump of 20-5.75. In all, six athletes went farther than 19 feet.
"Sammy kept her head on her shoulders and kept herself competitive and amped up. She did what she needed to do on her last jump, and that's big time," said Schweyen.
The 23 points the Montana women have scored through two days have come from Anskaitis and Evans, and the five points senior Shayle Dezellem and sophomore Nicole Stroot totaled in Thursday's pentathlon.
The men's six points came from sophomore Nick Jackson's sixth-place finish in the shot put and eighth-place finishes by freshman Charlie Bush in the heptathlon and freshman Matt Quist in the high jump. The Grizzlies' distance medley relay team also finished eighth.
It will be a significant drop-off for the men's team, which finished third at last year's championships with 87 points.
"There is one positive that does ease the pain a little bit," said Schweyen. "We had a lot of athletes who just missed moving on to finals and scoring points for us, and a lot of those were freshmen and sophomores, so that's encouraging. We've got a young team that's close."
The athletes who were projected to score points for Montana on Friday -- Anskaitis, Evans, Bush and Jackson -- did. Quist, who was ranked 17th, was the only athlete to move into the scoring from a ninth or lower ranking. He went a season-best 6-5, one of 10 season or career bests for Montana on the day.
"A lot of people had season bests. Other schools' season bests were just a little better," said Schweyen.
Senior Caitlin Caraway had a career-best effort of 55-10.25 in the weight throw to finish 10th, and sophomore Nolan Nagle went 51-3 to finish ninth in the shot put, a PR of nearly two feet.
Preliminaries of five running events were held Friday, and Montana will have four athletes moving on to Saturday's finals.
Senior Jacob Leininger, ranked fourth in the Big Sky, claimed the eighth and final spot in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.28, and sophomore Dominique Bobo advanced in the 200 meters with a fifth-place time of 21.82.
Senior Ben Williamson and sophomore Reagan Colyer moved on in the 800 meters. Williamson ran a 1:54.23 to finish seventh and advance. Colyer, the defending indoor champion, ran a fourth-place time of 2:14.56 to advance.
Of those who did not advance, freshman Morgan Sulser broke nine seconds in the hurdles for the first time, running an 8.94, and freshman Kerson Lubin, a walk-on, had a big PR in the 60 meters with a time of 6.98, his first time under seven seconds.
"Kerson was so focused and so excited when he got into those blocks. That's what everyone needs to do," said Schweyen. "If everyone was as determined as he was, this would be a great team. He was one of the athletes I was really proud of the way they took care of business today."
Evans' attempt to add to the indoor and outdoor triple jump titles she won in 2014 tops the list of events to watch on Saturday. She'll also be competing in the high jump.
Montana will have four athletes competing in the men's pole vault, and Colyer will be doubling up in the mile and 800 meters.
"We need a big day tomorrow," said Schweyen. "We need a lot of big things to happen and some surprises. If we get that, there are still some possibilities out there."
Players Mentioned
