Griz continue indoor season Friday in Bozeman

Friday, January 22

Bozeman, Mont.

Montana

Montana State (UM-MSU-ISU-USU)

1/21/2016 5:47:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana track and field teams will be back in action Friday when the Grizzlies go up against athletes from Montana State, Idaho State and Utah State at MSU's Brick Breeden Fieldhouse in Bozeman.

The meet starts at 4 p.m. with five different field events. Running events start at 5:15 p.m. with the women's mile.

Montana competed at the Montana State Open last Friday night, its first time this season employing its full team. The Grizzlies had nine event victories, six more than they had at the same meet last year. The teams also added a pair of new Big Sky Conference qualifications, bringing the early-season total to 10.

"It was a nice start, but I'm quite sure nobody maxed out their potential," said UM coach Brian Schweyen. "And we had some people who fell short of expectations, so this week is about reaching those expectations and getting closer to lifetime bests."

Montana entered the meet holding eight Big Sky qualifications from the Eastern Washington Candy Cane VIII in early December and the MSU Combined Events Dual in Bozeman earlier this month.

Joining the list of qualifiers on Friday were junior Dominique Bobo, already a qualifier in the 60 meters and long jump, in the 200 meters and freshman Carrie Jacka in the pole vault.

Bobo's track- and altitude-adjusted time of 21.81 in the 200, an indoor career best, ranks second on the Big Sky performance list behind Northern Arizona junior James Fisher, the 2015 Big Sky indoor and outdoor champion. Bobo, at 23-5.25, also ranks second in the long jump.

Jacka is one of just five Big Sky athletes to reach the qualifying standard of 11-11.75 in the pole vault. Jacka finished second to Montana State's Casey Teska last Friday. Teska's vault of 12-9.5 leads the conference.

A smaller group of athletes will travel to Seattle next weekend for the Washington Invitational. Then it will be back to Bozeman for three straight Friday meets before the Big Sky championships, which also will be held at Montana State.

"It can get old going to Bozeman as much as we do, but it's an easy trip, and the kids don't have to miss much school," said Schweyen, whose team buses and returns from Bozeman the day of the meets. "And it gives the athletes Saturday and Sunday to rest and recover, so it's a nice situation.

"And having conference there this year is really going to benefit us as much as we compete there. It's basically like a home facility for us, and most of the teams will be competing there for the first time. That will really help us out a lot."

The Hot List

* Though none of them have hit the Big Sky qualifying time of 8.75, Montana has the athletes sitting Nos. 3-5 on the Big Sky performance list in the women's 60-meter hurdles: sophomore Morgan Sulser (8.95), junior Nicole Stroot (9.01) and junior Lakyn Connors (9.11).

* 5-5 is now the new normal for sophomore Maddie Taylor in the high jump, a bar she cleared at both Eastern Washington and last Friday at Montana State. The Big Sky automatic qualifier is 5-7, which only one athlete has hit: Eastern Washington sophomore Tierra White.

* Stroot ranks No. 2 on the long jump list at 18-1.5, though 18-foot jumps should start arriving from Big Sky athletes with regularity in the coming weeks. The qualifying standard is 18-4.5. Northern Colorado senior Alisha Allen, at 19-0, is the only qualifier to date.

* Counting down the days until the return of Sammy Evans for the outdoor season and both seasons next year when she's a fifth-year senior. Evans won the long jump (18-7) and triple jump (40-3.5) last Friday while competing unattached. The top triple jump mark in the Big Sky this winter is a pedestrian 37-0.25.

* Junior Samantha Hodgson ranks fifth in the shot put (46-2.5), sophomore Hana Feilzer is seventh in the weight throw (55-7.5). Both are qualifying marks.

* Sophomore Erika McLeod finished fourth in the pentathlon at Montana State in early January with 3,285 points. With altitude and track adjustments, McLeod's score got bumped up to 3,307, which hits the qualifying standard of 3,300 and has her sitting No. 8 in the Big Sky.

* Montana has a pair of athletes qualified in the men's 60 meters. Junior Dionee Marrero, a transfer from Paradise Valley (Ariz.) CC, is tied for fourth at 6.94, Bobo is tied for sixth at 6.96. Both of those times are converted from the 55-meter times they ran at Candy Cane.

* Sophomore Matt Quist, who has gone 6-8.75 and 6-9 in two meets this winter, is one of only two athletes to have hit the Big Sky qualifying standard of 6-8.75 in the high jump. Weber State junior Anthony Gregory leads the league at 6-10.75.

* Redshirt freshman Sterling Reneau is tied for fourth in the 400 meters with an adjusted time last Friday of 49.47. Eleven Big Sky athletes have cracked 50 seconds this season. Only two of them have gone faster than 49.

* It's either a down year or a slow start in the men's pole vault. Only five athletes have gone higher than 15 feet. One of them is sophomore Charlie Bush, who is tied for fourth in the Big Sky at 15-3.