Montana track & field makes long-awaited return

Friday, March 26

Missoula, Mont.

Montana

Al Manuel Northwest Invite

Photo by: Todd Goodrich

3/25/2021 12:17:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

Meet Schedule Heat Sheets

By: Montana Sports Information

When the Montana track & field team begins its 2021 season on Friday, it will have been 685 days since its last outdoor competition. Montana's 2020 outdoor slate was wiped out last March due to COVID-19, two weeks before the Griz were supposed to open their season, and the 2021 indoor season was canceled earlier this winter.

Montana's extended delay will cease this weekend when the Grizzlies host the Al Manuel Northwest Invite (Friday-Saturday) at Dornblaser Field. Joining the Grizzlies in Missoula will be athletes from Eastern Washington, Montana State, Utah State and Carroll College.

"The excitement level in our program is very high right now," head coach Clint May said. "It's a mix of emotions of being super excited but also nervous because it's been so long. I think it's possible to have both of those emotions at the same time, but this group wants to get things going because they're so excited."

The last race that fans saw Montana compete in Missoula, a Grizzly quartet capped the Big Sky Championships with school and facility records in the 4x400-meter relay, winning a conference title with a time of 3:09.69. Three of those runners – now just sophomores – are still on Montana's roster, while the other, Sterling Reneau, will be in the press box on Saturday working the meet while supporting his former teammates. Another member of that record-setting relay team, sophomore Cade Johnstone, will be back after two years away due to injury and the pandemic. The last race Johnstone competed in was when he ran the second leg and handed off the baton to his twin brother, Paul Johnstone, followed by sophomore Xavier Melice.

Much will be the same when Montana begins competition this weekend.

Of those who scored points for the Grizzlies at the 2019 Big Sky Championships, 11 are still on roster. Six athletes return on the men's side, including Melice – who in addition to winning the 4x400-meter relay placed second in the 200 meters and fourth in the 400 meters – and junior Brent Yeakey, who scored in both the discus and shot put, qualifying for regionals in the latter before setting an indoor school record in January 2020. For the women, Jansen Ziola returns for her sophomore season after scoring in four events in 2019 – not to mention her three All-Big Sky performances in indoor, including an individual title in the pentathlon.

There will also be some differences, however. May, who had previously served as Montana's head cross country coach, added head track & field coach to his job description last August and will be overseeing his first track meet at Montana. One of his assistant coaches, Maryn Lowry, will now be guiding athletes instead of competing alongside them; Lowry placed third in the women's 1,500 meters at the 2019 Big Sky Championships.

Additionally, 36 athletes are expected to make their outdoor debuts for the Griz this weekend, an unusually large number brought on by a heavy senior class in 2019 and two incoming classes in 2020 and 2021.

"We have some athletes who are finishing up their sophomore year of college who will be competing in their first meet this weekend," May said. "I think we'll see a little bit of everything, from athletes performing really well because of the excitement to not as well because of nerves or rust or inexperience. Regardless, though, there's room to build upon whatever marks or times we see."

May knows that in many ways his athletes will be at a disadvantage this weekend. The Grizzlies will be competing in their first track meet in more than a year and their first outdoor meet in nearly two full years.

Eastern Washington, on the other hand, has competed each of the past two weekends. Utah State sent athletes to Las Vegas last weekend, and to Colorado Springs in February for an indoor meet. Montana State was in action a week ago and competed in three indoor meets earlier this winter.

At the same time, May has high expectations for his group, even coming off an extended pause.

"I hope that we see some marks that, by the end of the weekend, rank in the top 10 in the conference," he said. "We have been training, and I think we have athletes who rank in the top five in the conference for their events and have the ability to hit big marks.

"Even though we haven't competed in outdoors for two years, we should have some athletes that get there, and for some of them, I think we'll see that right away."

May knows he has some top-line talent, but the biggest question will be the team's depth, and how some of the younger athletes step up throughout the spring. In the preseason polls, announced earlier this week, the Big Sky Conference's head coaches picked Montana's men to place seventh and the women eighth.

The biggest excitement of the weekend though, even before anyone competes, is that track & field is back at Montana. After so long without it, that isn't lost on May and his student-athletes.

"When I looked at the heat sheets, it got my nerves going because it's now here," May said. "It's actually happening. Once the first even gets going, I think most of the nerves will settle in. They won't go away, but they'll settle and everything will kind of return to normal."

Montana will be allowing general-admission entry on a limited, first-come basis with face masks required at all times. Action will begin Friday with the hammer and shot put, as well as the 3,000-meter steeplechase, before competition continues in full on Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

Montana's competitors:
Men's 100 meters – Peterson Bohannon, Cooper Craig, Teagun Holycross, Kip Krebsbach, Xavier Melice, KC Robinson IV
Women's 100 meters – Emma Normand
Men's 200 meters – Cooper Craig, Cade Johnstone, Kip Krebsbach, Xavier Melice, KC Robinson IV
Women's 200 meters – Ailsa Gilbert, McKinlee Mihelish, Emma Normand, Morgan Radtke, Faith Rebish, Holly Sudol
Men's 400 meters – Trevor Henry
Women's 400 meters – Cree Bell, McKinlee Mihelish, Faith Rebish
Men's 800 meters – Quincy Fast, Colton Hess, Jacob Lamb, Chandler Nill
Women's 800 meters – Amara Christensen, Carly Dahms
Men's 1,500 meters – Truman Cowan, Will Dauenhauer, Hunter May, Ellis McKean, Joel Mendez, Ben Vanderbosch
Women's 1,500 meters – Emily Foote, Olivia Lackland Henry, Hannah Wylie
Men's 5,000 meters – Nathan Carter, Ben Cikutovich, Kyle Peterson
Women's 5,000 meters – Rachel Torrey
Women's 100-meter hurdles – Ailsa Gilbert, Jaree Mane, Holly Sudol, Jansen Ziola
Men's 400-meter hurdles – Chase Armstrong, Teagun Holycross, Cutter Thatcher
Women's 400-meter hurdles – Abby Harmon
Men's 3,000-meter steeplechase – Will Dauenhauer, AJ Eckmann, Ellis McKean, Rogelio Mares, Joel Mendez, Chandler Nill
Men's 4x100-meter relay – Kip Krebsbach, Cutter Thatcher, Xavier Melice, Cade Johnstone
Women's 4x100-meter relay – Emma Normand, Abby Harmon, Jansen Ziola, Jaree Mane
Men's 4x400-meter relay – Cutter Thatcher, Jacob Lamb, Cade Johnstone, Xavier Melice; Chase Armstrong, Colton Hess, Quincy Fast, Trevor Henry
Women's 4x400-meter relay – Abby Harmon, Cree Bell, Jaree Mane, Jansen Ziola
Men's high jump – Alfred Peterson, Jordan Stow
Women's high jump – Abby Dodge, Ailsa Gilbert, Jaree Mane, Morgan Radtke, Holly Sudol, Jansen Ziola
Men's pole vault – Zane Johnson, Lawrence Moore, Carson Weeden
Women's pole vault – Kahsiah Benson, Jadyn Campbell, Aly Tekippe
Men's long jump – Peterson Bohannon, Alfred Peterson, Jordan Stow, Jason Upton
Women's long jump – Ailsa Gilbert, Morgan Radtke, Holly Sudol, Aly Tekippe
Men's triple jump – Zane Johnson
Women's triple jump – Abby Dodge
Men's shot put – Brent Yeakey
Women's shot put – Ariel Clark, Ailsa Gilbert, Emilie Hinrichs, Jaree Mane, Morgan Radtke, Jansen Ziola
Men's discus – Matt Ward, Brent Yeakey
Women's discus – Holly Houston, Erin Murphy
Men's hammer – Matt Ward
Women's hammer – Ariel Clark, Emilie Hinrichs, Holly Houston, Tanessa Morris, Erin Murphy
Men's javelin – Everett Fred, Matthew Hockett, Dylan Kipp, Evan Todd
Women's javelin – Kimberly Earhart, Emilie Hinrichs, Jaree Mane, Tatum McNamara, Autumn Morse, Jansen Ziola