Three days of action this week at Dornblaser

Thursday, April 28

Missoula, Mont.

Montana

Montana Open

4/27/2016 3:02:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana Performance List | Big Sky Performance List | Schedule of Events

The Grizzly track and field teams, now just two weeks out from the Big Sky Conference championships in Greeley, Colo., will host the three-day Montana Open this week at Dornblaser Field in Missoula.

The meet opens Thursday at 1 p.m. with day one of the women's heptathlon and men's decathlon. The multi-events conclude on Friday, with an anticipated start time of noon.

The women's and men's hammer throws will be held Friday afternoon, starting at 3 p.m. The rest of the meet will take place Saturday, with field events beginning at 10:15 a.m., running events at 11:15 a.m.

The other schools competing this week will be Montana State, MSU Billings, Carroll, Great Falls and Rocky Mountain.

Montana will host the Tom Gage Classic on Friday, May 6, then travel to Colorado the following week for the four-day Big Sky championships. Regional qualifiers will compete at Lawrence, Kan., the last weekend of May.

This week's decathlon will feature just three athletes: Montana redshirt freshman Charlie Bush and freshman Jess Beaman, and an unattached athlete from Montana State.

Bush competed in his first collegiate decathlon in late March at the Montana State Open but did not finish. After no-heighting in the pole vault, the eighth of 10 events, he threw the javelin before sitting out the 1,500 meters.

Beaman will be competing in his first decathlon this week.

The heptathlon will have a fuller field of eight athletes, headlined by Montana sophomore Erika McLeod, who won the Big Sky pentathlon title in February. Juniors Sammy Evans and Lakyn Connors will also be representing the Grizzlies.

Former Griz heptathlon all-American Lindsey Hall will be competing unattached, and Carroll has four entries.

McLeod won the pentathlon and long jump at the Big Sky indoor championships, and earned both Most Valuable Athlete and Outstanding Performer awards.

She posted a Big Sky-qualifying heptathlon score of 4,548 while finishing third in wintery conditions at the Montana State Open last month. Thursday and Friday will be her only other multi-events of the season leading up to the Big Sky championships.

"Hopefully I'll come out of this meet with a good enough score that it gives me some confidence going into the championships," said McLeod.

Since the MSU Open, McLeod has met the Big Sky qualifying standard in the 400-meter hurdles, with her adjusted time of 1:00.94 from the Al Manuel Northwest Dual, and her long jump of 18-9.25 at the same meet.

She's twice gone faster than 15 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles this spring, threw the javelin a career-best 117-7 at Eastern Washington, and she is coming off some of her best high-jump practices of her career.

"Erika has been very solid. I don't think her competitive level has been as high as it was at the indoor championships, but she's still putting up very solid marks," said UM coach Brian Schweyen. "When her competitive level picks up, there is the potential for very big marks. She's ready."

She'll need to be, because Montana State's Danielle Rider, whom McLeod rallied to beat in February for the pentathlon title with a smoking-fast 800 meters, put up a score that everyone else in the Big Sky is looking up at enviously when she totaled 5,225 points at the Mt. SAC Relays two weeks ago.

"There is some great talent out there in the conference, which is great," said Schweyen. "That's what the conference needs, people stepping up and having big marks. It gives the people who are competitive something to shoot for.

"Erika needs to go out and be relaxed and confident and do the things she's capable of. That should be her sole focus this week. If she does that, she's going to come away with a great mark herself."

After a number of solid meets to open the outdoor season, Montana had its first off meet last Saturday when it dropped both head-to-head competitions to Montana State at the annual Griz-Cat Dual in Bozeman.

On paper, according to Montana State coach Dale Kennedy, the Montana men were 29-point favorites, the Griz women nine-point favorites. MSU won the men's dual 100.5-93.5, the women's dual 104-96.

Rather than put together a lengthy bullet-point list of where and how Montana came up short, a simple summary:

"We had had so many good weeks in a row that we were probably bound to have a down week," said Schweyen. "I just didn't anticipate it being last week.

"We had some off performances and some other things that caused those results, but we'll move forward. We're still focusing on having our best performances at conference. That's the most important thing, to beat these teams at conference."

A spectator's guide to the Montana women

* Sophomore Jessica Bailey didn't break 11:35 in the steeplechase once last spring. This year she has three times gone sub-11 minutes, including last Saturday's career-best adjusted 10:47.87. She ranks sixth in the Big Sky and will be the favorite when the women's steeplechase kicks off Saturday's running events.

* Lindsey Dahl, who ranks third in the Big Sky, threw a career-best 155-10.5 in the javelin two weeks ago at the Oregon Relays. Saturday at Bozeman was her first meet this spring coming up short of 140 feet, finishing second at 135-3. She'll look to get back on track Saturday at 10:15 a.m.

* After three straight meets running times of 2:12 or 2:13 for the 800 meters, Emily Cheroske ran a 2:22 last Saturday. She'll be pushed on Saturday by Carroll's Sandy Torres who, like Cheroske, has a seed time of 2:12.

* After competing in the heptathlon Thursday and Friday, Sammy Evans will do the long and triple jumps on Saturday. She is the Big Sky triple jump leader by 15 inches, but is now ranked No. 2 in the long jump. Northern Colorado's Alisha Allen went 20-2.5 last weekend while Evans was going a career-best 19-5.5 at Bozeman. Game on.

* Hana Feilzer is scheduled to be back throwing this week after missing Saturday's meet with an injury. The school record-holder in the hammer continues to rank second in the league behind Eastern Washington's Kaytlyn Coleman, a five-time Big Sky Athlete of the Week this spring.

* Samantha Hodgson will be competing in the throws this week unattached. Alongside Kayla Holmes, it will provide a glimpse of what Montana will have during the 2017 indoor and outdoor seasons. Hodgson won the indoor title in the shot put, Holmes ranks third in the Big Sky in the discus.

* Carrie Jacka has cleared 12-1.5 in the pole vault two of the last three weeks. She is tied for seventh in the Big Sky and one of 12 athletes who have cleared 12 feet this spring. Only Sacramento State's Danielle Brandon, at 13-4.5, has gone over 13 feet.

* Erika McLeod will follow the heptathlon with the 400-meter hurdles on Saturday. She ranks No. 4 in the Big Sky in the event.

* Carla Nicosia went 37-1.25 in the long jump on Saturday, her first time going beyond 37 feet as a collegiate athlete. She is still outside the top 10 in the Big Sky but not far from the top six.

* Morgan Sulser's adjusted time of 14.46 in the 100-meter hurdles on Saturday, a season best by more than three-tenths of a second, moved her into the top 10 in the Big Sky.

* With Reagan Colyer, Lauryn Wate and Emily Pittis competing together (and against one another) in the 1,500 meters, someone should be breaking 4:30 for the first time in her career.

A spectator's guide to the Montana men

* Paden Alexander ran a career-best 15:08 in the 5,000 meters the last time he raced at Dornblaser. Adam Wollant is coming off a 15:06 at Oregon, and Will Rial, running unattached, enters with a seed time of 15:09. None of that will matter if Montana State's Matthew Gotta runs close to his seed time of 14:29.

* Cody Curtis has reemerged in his final season as a Grizzly. The half-miler, who hasn't been heard from in a while, ran an adjusted 800 meters time of 1:54.85 on Saturday. Curtis last made waves when he finished third in the event at the 2014 indoor championships.

* Jonathan Eastwood, who missed Saturday's meet because of illness, should be back on Saturday and competing in the 800 and 1,500 meters.

* Gavin Hasty made his outdoor collegiate debut last week in the steeplechase. He ran an adjusted 9:44.73 and is scheduled to race the same event on Saturday.

* Jacob Leininger, who has a season best of 14.43 from the Oregon Relays, dropped from second to third in the Big Sky in the 110-meter hurdles after Southern Utah freshman Devon Montgomery ran a 14.31 last week. Everyone in that event is chasing Sacramento State's Paul Lyons and his season-best time of 13.93.

* In six meets this spring, Jensen Lillquist has six results of better than 200 feet in the javelin, and he is one of five in the Big Sky who have landed beyond 210 feet. One of those, MSU's Tanner Gambill, will be competing against Lillquist on Saturday. No one in the Big Sky has yet reached 220 feet.

* Alex Mustard is coming off the best 100-200 performance of his collegiate career, sweeping both races last Saturday in raw times of 10.74 and 21.75. He'll be the favorite in Saturday's races, though he'll be pushed in the latter by Dominique Bobo, who is redshirting this season and competing unattached.

* Fun times ahead in the men's 800 meters on Saturday. Curtis is peaking, Karsten Pease ran a 1:53.76 two weeks ago at the Oregon Relays, and Jonathan Eastwood and Levi Cramer have both ran a 1:55 this spring.

* Matt Quist returns to the scene of his career performance. The high jumper cleared 7-1 earlier this month at the Al Manuel Northwest Dual at Dornblaser Field. He hasn't yet duplicated that effort, going 6-8.75, 6-7 and 6-4.75 at his last three meets.

* Sterling Reneau is holding steady at No. 4 in the Big Sky in the 400 meters with another time in the mid-47s on Saturday. Everyone, like indoor, is chasing Idaho senior Ben Ayesu-Attah, who has a season-best time of 46.60.

* Dylan Reynolds took over the top spot in the Big Sky in the 400-meter hurdles with his career-best adjusted time of 52.56 on Saturday. He took over the top spot from Idaho freshman Zion Stuffle, who has ran a 52.75 this spring.

* (Cue up the soundtrack from Jaws) Taylor Trollope's times this spring in the 400-meter hurdles: 15.46, 15.07, 14.98, 14.83.