Griz continue outdoor season at Montana State Open
4/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Outdoor Track, Women's Track and Field
Montana Performance List || Big Sky Conference Performance List
The Montana track and field teams will continue their outdoor season Saturday when the Grizzlies compete at the Montana State Open at Bozeman.
The meet, which will feature athletes from Montana, Montana State, MSU Billings, Carroll and Rocky Mountain, begins at 10:30 a.m. with the women's hammer. Track events start at 11:30 a.m. with the mixed 10,000 meters.
It is the first of three straight weeks on the road for Montana, which opened its season last weekend hosting the Al Manuel Invitational at Dornblaser Field.
The Grizzlies will compete on Saturday, April 11, at Eastern Washington's Pelluer Invitational at Cheney, Wash., then spend a number of days in Southern California the following week at the Mt. SAC Relays and Beach Invitational.
Montana will remain relatively close to home after that. It will host the Griz-Cat Dual on Saturday, April 25, and the Montana Open May 1-2. The Grizzlies will compete at the Tom Gage Classic at Bozeman on Friday, May 8.
The Big Sky Conference championships will be held at Cheney, Wash., May 13-16.
Despite less-than-ideal weather conditions at Dornblaser Field last Saturday, Montana came away with a handful of lifetime bests and nine Big Sky Conference qualifiers.
The Griz women had six qualifications from five athletes in six events. The men had three qualifications in two events from three athletes. Junior Samantha Hodgson, in the shot put and discus, was a double qualifier.
"I thought there was a lot of good stuff for a season opener," said coach Brian Schweyen. "There were some areas where we didn't perform like we would have liked, but looking at what we were able to do for a first meet, I thought it was really good.
"For this meet, I think those areas that were down a bit will elevate, and I think everything else will be as good or better."
The Hot List
* In just her fourth career steeplechase race, redshirt senior Keli Dennehy ran an adjusted 10:56.38 to finish as the top collegiate runner Saturday. She finished second overall behind former Idaho State standout Erica Wendt-Richardson, who was runner-up to former Griz Kara DeWalt in the steeplechase at the 2011 Big Sky championship. DeWalt met the Big Sky standard of 11:00.
* Montana's other Big Sky qualifier on Saturday from the track was junior Nicole Anskaitis in the 100-meter hurdles. She won the race in an adjusted time of 14.39 into a headwind to come in just under the Big Sky standard of 14.40. Notably she had a faster time than Montana State's Carley McCutchen, the Big Sky's top multi-events athlete. McCutchen ran an adjusted 14.43.
* Sophomore Nicole Stroot had PRs in both hurdle races Saturday. She improved her best in the 100 hurdles from 15.37 to an adjusted 15.26 and cut her 400 hurdles time from 1:12.10 to 1:07.19. The multi-eventer also finished second in the long jump at a distance of 17-4.25.
* Freshman Morgan Sulser is the state prep record-holder in the 100 hurdles at 14.11. Saturday she ran a season-opening and adjusted time of 14.90. It's the first time she has opened a track season in her career with a hurdles race under 15 seconds.
* Freshman Emily Cheroske opened her outdoor season with a runner-up time in the 800 meters of an adjusted 2:15.94, which points toward good things in the coming weeks. During the indoor season she opened with a time of 2:25.79, which she improved to 2:15.03 by season's end. With Reagan Colyer redshirting, Cheroske is the team's top half-miler.
* Montana has a solid three-athlete group in the women's 400-meter hurdles with Stroot, freshman Erika McLeod and redshirt senior Shayle Dezellem. McLeod ran an adjusted 1:04.88 at the Al Manuel in her first attempt at the 400-meter hurdles, which is a solid starting point. Dezellem ran a 1:06.20, Stroot a 1:07.19. Look for all three to be under 65 seconds on Saturday. For reference: a time of 1:03.83 scored points at last year's outdoor championships. "I think we'll have some really good times this week in that event," said Schweyen. "They just didn't get out fast and didn't know how to get out. "We've spent some time on that this week. I think they now understand how to get out and what kind of pace they need to be on through the first three or four hurdles. If they do that and maintain their cadence and strides, I think we're going to see some really good times."
* On Friday redshirt senior Caitlin Caraway threw the hammer 187-9. During last spring's record-setting season, in which she went 194-2, she opened at the Al Manuel with a throw of 177-5. Expect the 200-foot mark to be reached in an upcoming meet and maybe with regularity as it gets deep into the outdoor season.
* How impressive was freshman Hana Feilzer's hammer throw of 148-8 on Friday? As a true freshman in 2011, Caraway's top throw was 140-3. With a full season still ahead of her, Feilzer is just getting warmed up.
* Junior Stephanie Wells had a great start to the season, going 143-9 to win the javelin. Last year, when she finished one spot away from making nationals -- she placed 13th at regionals, with the top 12 advancing -- she threw 135-9 at the Al Manuel. "I think our performances in some of our throws were pretty encouraging," said Schweyen. "The javelin is such a timing event, and we haven't done a lot from a full approach yet."
* Wells, Caraway and Hodgson, in the shot put and discus, had Montana's four qualifications in the field events.
* Hodgson, the school record-holder in both the shot (48-3.5) and discus (168-2), won the former on Saturday by four feet at 46-8.25 and the discus at a distance of 155-4. With those marks she ranks third in the Big Sky Conference in the shot put and fourth in the discus.
* In addition to taking the hurdles, Anskaitis also won the pole vault at 11-3.75. It was a relatively low height for the first-year Griz athlete who set a UM indoor/outdoor record of 13-4.5 while winning the Big Sky indoor title in February, but it was a good height considering the wet, windy conditions. Five women no-heighted in the pole vault, as did seven of the 10 competitors on the men's side.
* Redshirt junior Anna Pershouse (136-5) and sophomore Allie Keleti (118-9) both had career-best throws in the discus.
* With Montana's Sammy Evans, a three-time Big Sky champion, redshirting, only one athlete broke 36-and-a-half feet in the triple jump Saturday. Eastern Washington's Morena Mannucci, who finished third at the Big Sky indoor championships last winter, went 39-1 and sits atop the current Big Sky performance list.
* Senior Mark Messmer finished second in the men's steeplechase Saturday in an adjusted time of 9:47.52. The time was just seven seconds off his PR.
* Freshman Sterling Reneau made his Griz debut Saturday after redshirting the indoor season. He ran an adjusted 49.55 to finish third in the 400 meters. Sophomore Josh Strasser ran an adjusted 49.98 to give Montana two athletes under 50 seconds to open the season.
* Junior Cody Curtis (1:55.29) and senior David Norris (1:56.18) finished second and third in the 800 meters in nice season-opening times. Curtis opened the 2014 season with a time of 1:54.56 in better conditions on his way to finishing fifth at the Big Sky outdoor championships.
* Redshirt senior Drew Owens ran an adjusted time of 53.73 in the 400-meter hurdles in a season that should result in his fourth trip to regionals. Expectations are also that he should approach the UM record of 50.92, set by Nick Stewart in 1997, by May.
* Sophomore Dominique Bobo ran an adjusted 22.15 to finish second in the 200 meters, one-hundredth of a second off his season-opening time at the same meet last year. In 2014 he went sub-22 seconds in five of his last six races and finished fourth at the Big Sky championships in a career-best 21.22.
* With a unit of Strasser, Owens, Reneau and Bobo, Montana clocked an adjusted 3:18.48 to win the 4x400-meter relay Saturday. The Grizzlies had a better time than that just once during the entire indoor season.
* Freshman Jensen Lillquist had a Big Sky qualifier of 188-8 in the javelin in his first collegiate meet while placing third. Junior Henry Lilly, who threw 188-1, also reached the Big Sky standard of 187-0.25, which leads one to ask: Is Lilly maxed out in the high 180s? His PR is 189-0, and dating back to last season he has now four times landed a javelin within the 12-inch distance between 188 and 189 feet, but never farther. Consistent, but is it the best he's got? Doubtful. He opened with a throw of 177-2 at last year's Al Manuel, so it feels like something in the 190s is right around the corner.
* Freshman Luke Hilmes opened with a javelin throw of 185-10 to just miss the qualifying standard. Last year 183-2 scored at the Big Sky championships. Only two throwers broke 200 feet at the championships.
Players Mentioned
