Griz open championship month back at Bozeman
2/5/2015 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 open the month of February by competing Friday at the Montana State Invitational at Bozeman. The meet begins at 4 p.m. with the field events. Track events start at 5 p.m.
The meet will feature Montana, Montana State and Carroll.
The MSU Invitational will be the first of three consecutive Fridays the Grizzlies will be in Bozeman. Double duals with Montana State and Weber State are scheduled for Feb. 13, and MSU hosts the Bobcat Open Feb. 20.
The Big Sky Conference indoor championships will be held at Flagstaff, Ariz., Feb. 26-28.
"We just want to keep getting better," said UM coach Brian Schweyen. "People are getting in better shape and getting more comfortable with their form and technique and everything they need to do. And we're getting a little more confidence, which makes them go out with more excitement.
"We just need to keep building on that and get some more meets under our belt. If we do that, I think we'll be pretty happy going into conference with this young team."
With three regular-season meets down and three remaining before the Big Sky championships, Montana has just seven athletes from its women's team and three from the men's side holding automatic qualifications, but that is simply reflective of changes to the qualifying standards.
The easier marks of years past that rarely changed have been replaced by a formula-based system. Now the eighth-best mark in an event at the conference championships averaged over the three previous years is the new standard each winter.
It's made a big difference in the number of automatic qualifiers within the Big Sky (though it won't change the depth of fields competing at the championships).
At the midpoint of the indoor season, men's events have an average of 6.1 automatic qualifiers from the Big Sky's 12 schools. The women's events have an average of just 5.9 qualifiers.
"I've always been a proponent of having higher qualifying standards than we used to," said Schweyen. "People shoot for standards. If it's low, they aim low. If it's high, they'll keep working to get there. So I think it's a good thing."
Four of Montana's eight women's qualifications are in the pentathlon, which saw a shakeup in the top five after two Sacramento State multi-event athletes posted scores better than 3,500 last week.
Sophomore Nicole Stroot ranks fifth with her track-converted score of 3,430. Freshman Erika McLeod (3,373) is ninth, senior Shayle Dezellem (3,326) is 12th and sophomore Lakyn Connors (3,301) is 13th.
Junior Sammy Evans holds two of the women's team's eight qualifications. She ranks first in the triple jump with her school-record mark of 40-7.75 from Montana State on Jan. 23, and she ranks third in the long jump at 18-7.25, which she jumped in early December at Eastern Washington.
Montana's other two automatic qualifications are in the pole vault. Junior Nicole Anskaitis, who cleared 12-11.5 last week at the Mountain States Games at Pocatello, Idaho, ranks second, freshman Claire Dalman, at 11-11.75, is tied for sixth.
The Grizzlies have never had a Big Sky Conference indoor pole vault champion from its women's team. Anskaitis could become the first. At 12-11.5, she trails only Eastern Washington sophomore Courtney Bray, who went 12-11.75 last week.
"Nicole is still pretty new to the event, but she's got some talent, and she's aggressive and not afraid," said Schweyen. She's got speed, she's got height, and she has good body awareness, so she is able to come off the top really well. She's a competitor and someone who really wants to be good."
The men's team's automatic qualifiers are limited to sophomore Pierce Frazier in the pole vault, sophomore Nick Jackson in the shot put and senior Jacob Leininger in the 60-meter hurdles.
Leininger ran a season-best and altitude-adjusted 8.29 last weekend at Pocatello. He is tied for fourth on the Big Sky performance list.
Griz Notes
* Sophomore Dominique Bobo hasn't hit the automatic qualifying standards yet, but he still ranks sixth in the 200 meters (adjusted 22.07) and ninth in the 400 meters (adjusted 49.21).
* The men's pole vault should be a wide-open event in three weeks at Flagstaff. Eight athletes have reached the Big Sky standard of 15-9, but none have gone higher than 16-2.75. Frazier is tied for seventh at 15-9.
* Jackson is one of just five athletes automatically qualified in the shot put. He ranks fifth with his career-best effort of 52-8.25 last weekend at Idaho State.
* Like the men's pole vault, the women's 800 meters will be anyone's race at Flagstaff. No one has reached the Big Sky standard of 2:13, but eight runners have posted times in the 2:13s and 2:14s. Sophomore Reagan Colyer ranks third with her adjusted time of 2:13.51 two weeks ago at MSU.
* PRs last week at the Mountain States Games: Caitlin Caraway in the weight throw (53-2.5), Lakyn Connors in the triple jump (35-0.5) and shot put (35-10.75), Shayle Dezellem in the long jump (18-0.5), Heather Fraley in the mile (adjusted 5:06.99), Alanna Vann in the 60 meters (adjusted 7.95), Tyler Van Oort in the shot put (49-6).
Players Mentioned
