Griz holding lead at Big Sky championships

5/13/2016 10:38:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

By: Montana Sports Information

Results

Montana used three individual championships, a school record in the women's hammer and a top-three sweep of the women's long jump to highlight a banner day Friday at the Big Sky Conference track and field championships at Greeley, Colo.

The Griz women's team, behind victories from Sammy Evans in the long jump and Kayla Holmes in the discus, takes 60 points into Saturday, 21 more than second-place Weber State. The men's team, led by Jensen Lillquist's victory in the javelin, is in fifth place with 26.5 points.

"It was an incredible day, as good as we ever could have imagined," said coach Brian Schweyen. "Athletes stepped up all over the place. It was absolutely incredible all the way around, men and women."

Schweyen's women's program has been close, finishing second at the 2011 and 2014 outdoor championships, scoring 133 points at the former, 119.5 at the latter, but Montana has never won a Big Sky Conference title.

"If we repeat tomorrow what we did today, we can score 110 points or more. If we fall off a little bit, we'll probably be around 90 points," he said. "Who knows what these other teams are going to do and how they're going to split the points, but I think we're sitting really good."

Montana barely had to wait until lunch before it had something to celebrate. Lillquist came first, winning the javelin with a career-best throw of 223-1. With Daniel Jones finishing fourth at 204-8 and Nate Deming fifth at 203-2, both career bests, it was a 19-point event for the Grizzlies.

Shortly after that, Feilzer finished second in the hammer while breaking her own school record. She went 196-1 to surpass her old mark of 194-9.

With a second-place finish in hand, first-year Griz throws coach David Paul turned his attention to Holmes. All she did was launch a 12-foot PR to go 164-11, become only Montana's second discus champion since 1985 and put herself in contention to make the NCAA West Regional as a freshman.

"A 12-foot PR. Not many people do that, but David got her fired up today," said Schweyen. "Kayla answered the bell and did fantastic. David's done a great job with all those throwers."

Montana's top event was the women's long jump, where the Grizzlies collected 24 points. Evans, who will go over 40 feet Saturday in the triple jump, became a member of the 20-40 club when she went 20-2.25, an eight-inch PR, for her fourth Big Sky title in the jumps.

Nicole Stroot went 19-7, a seven-inch PR, to finish second. Erika McLeod, the meet's heptathlon champion, went 19-4.25 to finish third.

The women's team's other scoring performances came from Evans, who went 5-5 in the high jump to finish seventh, and Jessica Bailey in the steeplechase. The sophomore ran a 10:55.67 to place fifth. Altitude-adjusted to 10:40.55, Bailey's time was a seven-second PR.

The men's team scored 19 points Friday in the javelin. The Grizzlies' other 7.5 points came in the jumps. Brett Dringman, at a season-best 15-5, placed fifth in the pole vault. Dylan Reynolds finished seventh in the long jump at a career-best 23-0.75, and Pierce Frazier tied for seventh in the pole vault at 14-5.25.

Most of Friday's track races were preliminaries that feed the best of the best into Saturday's finals. Montana had 11 qualifiers, including Alex Mustard in the 100 and 200 meters and three in the men's 400-meter hurdles.

Mustard had the day's fifth-fastest time in the 100, clocking a season-best 10.56. He outdid that in the 200, taking his PR from the mid-21s down to 20.88 to finish third.

In the hurdles, Reynolds, Jacob Leininger and Callum Macnab all advanced. Reynolds, the favorite to win on Saturday, had the third-fastest prelims time of 52.81. Leininger placed fourth at 53.32, Macnab fifth at 53.59. Both were PRs.

Leininger was a double qualifier, advancing also in the 110-meter hurdles with a fifth-place and career-best time of 14.35, as was Sterling Reneau, who had the day's top time in the 400 meters of 47.61 and placed sixth in the 200 meters with a half-second PR of 21.29.

Advancing for the women's team were Morgan Sulser, who ran a career-best 14.22 to place seventh in the 100-meter hurdles, Alanna Vann, eighth in the 100 meters in a season-best time of 11.99, and Emily Cheroske, seventh in the 800 meters in a career-best time of 2:11.43.

Saturday's eight field events begin at 10 a.m. with the men's hammer, women's triple jump and women's javelin. The 20 scoring track events start at noon with the 4x100-meter relays.

Women's team scores
1. Montana … 60
2. Weber State … 39
3. Eastern Washington … 37
4. Northern Arizona … 30
5. North Dakota … 25
6. Sacramento State … 20
7. Montana State … 19.5
8. Northern Colorado … 14
9. Portland State … 12
10. Idaho … 10
11. Idaho State … 6.5
12. Southern Utah … 0

Women's point scorers
10, Erika McLeod, 1st, heptathlon
10, Sammy Evans, 1st, long jump
10, Kayla Holmes, 1st, discus
8, Nicole Stroot, 2nd, long jump
8, Hana Feilzer, 2nd, hammer
6, Erika McLeod, 3rd, long jump
4, Jessica Bailey, 5th, steeplechase
2, Lakyn Connors, 7th, heptathlon
2, Sammy Evans, 7th, high jump

Men's team scores
1. Northern Arizona … 54
2. Montana State … 34
3. Idaho … 33
4. Idaho State … 32.5
5. Montana … 26.5
6. Eastern Washington … 23
7. Southern Utah … 20
8. Sacramento State … 16
9. Weber State … 15
10. Portland State … 12
11. Northern Colorado … 4
12. North Dakota … 3

Men's point scorers
10, Jensen Lillquist, 1st, javelin
5, Daniel Jones, 4th, javelin
4, Brett Dringman, 5th, pole vault
4, Nate Deming, 5th, javelin
2, Dylan Reynolds, 7th, long jump
1.5, Pierce Frazier, t-7th, pole vault