Al Manuel Invitational kicks off outdoor season
3/25/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Outdoor Track, Women's Track and Field
Schedule of Events 
The Montana track and field teams will open their outdoor season this week when the Grizzlies host the annual Al Manuel Invitational at Dornblaser Field in Missoula.
The meet will get started on Friday afternoon with the weight throw. The women compete at 3 p.m., with the men to follow.
The remainder of the meet will be held Saturday. The women's javelin kicks off the field events at 10 a.m., the women's steeplechase starts the running events at 11:15 a.m.
Joining Montana at the meet will be athletes from Montana State, Eastern Washington, MSU Billings, Carroll, Great Falls and Rocky Mountain. There is no charge for spectators.
The Montana women are coming off an eighth-place finish at the Big Sky Conference indoor championships last month at Flagstaff, Ariz. The Griz men were 10th.
The women's team has three athletes who have won individual Big Sky Conference titles, and two of them -- junior Sammy Evans, a three-time triple jump champion, and sophomore Reagan Colyer, a one-time champion in the 800 meters -- will be redshirting the outdoor season.
That leaves junior Nicole Anskaitis, who won the pole vault at last month's indoor championships, as the only active Big Sky champion on the roster, but a number of athletes are either returning or getting into their stronger event areas.
Headlining the returners is junior thrower Samantha Hodgson, who spent the fall semester abroad and the indoor season training herself back into competition mode. She is the Montana record-holder in the shot put and discus, and is a two-time regional qualifier.
Redshirt senior Caitlin Caraway is also a record-holder and regional qualifier in the hammer.
Redshirt senior Nycole Devers, who sat out last year, and junior Stephanie Wells are both former regional qualifiers in the javelin. Wells finished 13th at regionals last spring, one spot from advancing to nationals.
Redshirt senior Keli Dennehy, who finished third in the 3,000 meters at last month's indoor championships, will be competing in the steeplechase Saturday, and Montana has a strong contingent of multi-event athletes who will be spread across running and field events.
"Not having Sammy and Reagan will hurt, but we've still got some good individuals," said coach Brian Schweyen. "I still think we can be very respectable and have a successful outdoor season, but we'll have to have some individuals perform."
The Montana men scored just 17 points at the indoor championships, with no athlete finishing higher than fifth in any event. It was a big drop-off from a third-place indoor finish in 2014, but with 25 underclassmen on the roster, it maybe could have been expected.
"I'm sure hoping we can do better. We just didn't perform (at the indoor championships)," said Schweyen. "We need to come out of the gate performing on Saturday, with some lifetime bests. If we don't, then we're probably looking at a long season.
"It's not an excuse I like, but we're young, and when you're young, you're going to take some knocks as you learn. We're not as solid as I'd like to be across the board, but I still think we can do well in some areas."
The headliner for the men is redshirt senior Drew Owens, who is a three-time regional qualifier in the 400-meter hurdles. Owens won his first Big Sky title in the event last spring after runner-up finishes as a freshman and sophomore.
With senior Lee Hardt, a two-time regional qualifier in the high jump, redshirting, Owens is the only active athlete on the outdoor roster with experience beyond the Big Sky championships level.
Three other athletes who likely would have been point-scorers at May's outdoor championships also are redshirting: senior Jacob Leininger, junior Dylan Reynolds and sophomore Nolan Nagle.
As usual, one of the team's areas of strength will be the javelin. Junior Henry Lilly scored points at the Big Sky championships with top-eight finishes in both 2013 and 2014, and the Grizzlies added freshmen Jensen Lillquist of Ellensburg, Wash., and Luke Hilmes of Spokane, Wash. Both broke 190 feet as preps.
Sophomore thrower Nick Jackson is coming off a breakout indoor season, when his PR in the shot put went from mid-51 feet to better than 54, and senior Brian Maus, who had a PR in the weight throw at the indoor championships, was ninth last spring in the hammer.
On the track, sophomore Dominque Bobo was fourth at last May's outdoor championships in the 200 meters, and freshman Sterling Reneau of Missoula, who redshirted the indoor season, will be making his collegiate debut Saturday in the 400 meters.
Montana also has one of the deepest collections of pole vaulters in the Big Sky Conference, though that depth, most of it young, has yet to produce significant points at the championship level.
The Al Manuel Invitational is the first of three home meets for the Grizzlies this spring. They will host the Griz-Cat Dual on April 25 and the Montana Open May 1-2.
The Big Sky championships will be held May 13-16 at Cheney, Wash., the NCAA West Regional May 28-30 at Austin, Texas.
Players Mentioned
