Montana returning to Bozeman, two weeks from championships

Friday, February 12

Bozeman, Mont.

Montana

Montana State (UM-MSU-WSU)

Montana returning to Bozeman, two weeks from championships

2/11/2016 8:19:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana Performance List | Big Sky Performance List

The Montana track and field teams will bus to Bozeman Friday for duals against Montana State and Weber State at MSU's Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.

It is the second of four straight weeks the Grizzlies will be in Bozeman. Montana won four events and two duals last Friday while competing against Montana State, Eastern Washington and Sacramento State.

MSU will host a last-chance meet next Friday. The following week the best athletes from the Big Sky Conference will descend upon Bozeman for the conference indoor championships, which will go from Thursday, Feb. 25, to Saturday, Feb. 27.

With just two meets left before conference, Montana ranks seventh in the Big Sky with 15 automatic qualifications. Eight of those are from the women's team, seven from the men's squad.

Northern Arizona leads the league with 32 qualifications, followed by Eastern Washington with 26 and Sacramento State with 25. No other Big Sky program has reached 20 qualifiers.

Montana has historically had its breakthrough meet the first weekend of February, as fitness, technique work and repeated access to an indoor track finally come together. The Grizzlies showed signs last Friday, but it wasn't quite the meet coach Brian Schweyen was hoping for.

"Last week is typically when we see an uplift in performances," he said. "And that should carry through to this week and the last-chance. I saw a few performances, and we had some really nice bright spots, but I didn't see the jump that we normally have and that I want to see.

"But I think we're in a good spot, and overall everyone is moving forward."

Montana's new qualifiers on Friday were sophomore Erika McLeod, who ran an adjusted time of 56.09 in her first 400 meters since competing at Butte High, and sophomore Matt Quist, who went a career-best 45-1.5 in the triple jump.

McLeod was one of four event winners. Junior Dominique Bobo won the 200 meters in an adjusted time of 21.58, Quist tied for first in the high jump at 6-8.75, and Bobo teamed with senior Andrew Monaco, freshman Callum Macnab and redshirt freshman Sterling Reneau to win the 4x400-meter relay.

Montana Notes

* The Montana women have a projected point-scorer (a top-eight ranking on the latest Big Sky performance list) in seven of 14 individual events, plus another in the pentathlon.

The only event with two Griz athletes in the top eight is the long jump, where Nicole Stroot (18-1.75) ranks seventh and Erika McLeod is sitting eighth (18-1.5).

The other top-eight rankings: sophomore Alanna Vann, seventh in the 60 meters (7.79); McLeod, second in the 400 meters (56.09); Stroot, fourth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.82); sophomore Maddie Tayler, tied for eighth in the high jump (5-5); sophomore Madison Page, fourth in the triple jump (37-6); and junior Samantha Hodgson, fourth in the shot put (46-11).

Stroot also ranks seventh in the pentathlon. The top eight pentathletes in the Big Sky have season-best scores in the 3,500s.

* Which athletes among Montana's top-eighters have the best chance of becoming a Big Sky champion in two weeks? Using strictly the evidence at hand, here are three:

McLeod in the 400 meters. In her first quarter mile since high school, McLeod scorched a 56.09 on Friday, a time just 0.23 seconds behind the Big Sky lead of North Dakota sophomore Tianna McKinney, who has a 55.86 this winter. Note: McLeod will open the championships by competing in Thursday's pentathlon, which may or may not impact her other events once Friday and Saturday roll around.

Page in the triple jump. Page's jump of 37-6 on Friday was a career best and has her sitting just 7.5 inches behind the Big Sky lead of Eastern Washington sophomore Dominique Butler, who has gone 38-1.5.

Hodgson in the shot put. Her season best of 46-11 is well back of North Dakota senior Alyssa Lueck's 49-3.75, but Hodgson, who holds the school record of 50-8.25, has yet to show off her best stuff this winter.

* Sophomore Emily Cheroske dropped her season-best time in the 800 meters by nearly four seconds on Friday, to 2:16.56. Only the top five half-milers in the Big Sky have gone faster than 2:15 this winter.

* Sophomore Hannah Feilzer four times this winter has gone in the 54s and 55s in the weight throw. She ranks ninth in the Big Sky in a strong event. The top six athletes have surpassed 60 feet.

* Mariah Harvey, a freshman from Manhattan, had season-best efforts on Friday in both the shot put (42-0.75) and weight throw (46-5.25).

* Samantha Hodgson's 47-1.75 in the weight throw on Friday was a career best.

* McLeod not only went 56.09 in the 400 meters on Friday, she broke 18 feet in the long jump in competition for the first time since last spring, going 18-1.5.

"Erika works hard. She wants it, and she believes she can get it," said Schweyen. "We talked last year about how good she could be and her potential, and now it's coming together. Deep down I think she has something to prove, and she is doing everything she can to do it. She's performing fantastically."

* Stroot went a season-best 5-3 in the high jump on Friday. She'll need that type of jump or better to be a serious contender at conference in the pentathlon, which has no patience for sub-5-3 jumpers.

* Things are a little leaner on the men's side, where only five individual performances rank in the top eight. Dominique Bobo ranks second in the 200 meters (21.59) and third in the long jump (23-5.25), Matt Quist ranks second in the high jump (6-9), junior Dionee Marrero is tied for fourth in the 60 meters (6.94), and freshman Taylor Trollope is tied for sixth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.34).

The depth may not be there, but there is quality. It's not hard to see three Big Sky titles.

Dominique Bobo in the 200 meters. The outdoor championships runner-up has been slicing time off his season best all winter, and now his 21.58 is within a tenth of a second of Northern Arizona junior James Fisher's 21.50. Fisher won indoor and outdoor titles last year, so championships go through him.

Bobo in the long jump. He ranks third in the Big Sky with his season-best mark of 23-5.25. That came more than two months ago, at Eastern Washington's Candy Cane XIII, but similar (and better) efforts are there. The Big Sky lead, held by Idaho State senior Deante Gaines at 23-10.75, is well within reach.

Matt Quist in the high jump. Quist has gone 6-8.75 or 6-9 three times this winter in four meets. A one-bar breakthrough could make him a champion, since no one in the Big Sky has gone 6-11 this season.

* Freshman Jonathan Eastwood ran an adjusted 4:14.77 mile on Friday in his collegiate debut at that distance. That time has him sitting in 11th place in the Big Sky. Only the top five athletes have gone faster than 4:10.

* Sophomore Alex Mustard had career-best adjusted times in both the 60 (7.02) and 200 meters (22.13) on Friday. The automatic qualifying standards in those events are 7.00 and 22.00.

* Junior Adam Wollant's adjusted 3,000 meters time of 8:40.16 on Friday was a career best.