Griz conclude regular season with four event wins

Friday, February 10

Bozeman, Mont.

Montana

Bobcat Performance Meet

Photo by: Montana State Athletics

2/10/2023 9:55:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

By: Montana Sports Information

Montana track and field wrapped up its regular season schedule on Friday night in Bozeman, and they did it in impressive fashion. The Grizzlies placed four different athletes atop the podium with event wins, and were highly competitive across the board in the final tune-up before the Big Sky Indoor Championships.

As they have done for most of the season, Montana showed improvement across the board. There were some standout areas, but overall the Grizzlies saw improvement in practically every category.

"It was a really good day," head coach Doug Fraley said. "We had a lot of season bests and personal bests in a lot of different areas, which as a coach you're always looking for improvement across the board and I think we had that today. We had solid performances and event wins throughout."

Katie Whitehurst continued her stellar season with another event win, crossing the line first in the women's 800-meter race. It's the second win of the season for the sophomore from Whitehall. The Grizzlies also had a winner in the mile, where the team dominated as a whole. Jaylyn Hallgrimson will come back to Missoula a winner with a time of 5:19.05, but Bridget Boyle and Iris McKean also found themselves in the top three of the event as Montana swept the podium.

One of the big highlights of the weekend came in the women's pole vault, where a couple of Grizzlies improved on their career bests and moved up in the Big Sky rankings. Shealyne McGee went 12-10.75 for second place, while Aly Tekippe went 12-6.75 for fourth.

McGee should jump into fourth place in the conference and Tekippe will move up to sixth, as the duo put themselves firmly in the scoring discussion. McGee is also within six inches of Nicole Anskaitis' school record.

"In the women's pole vault we had two big PR's," Fraley said. "Tekippe had a great PR which will move her up in the conference, and then (McGee) had a double PR going 12-6 and then 12-10 which moves her way up in the conference and is pretty close to school record territory. Those ladies stepping it up in an event that is getting very difficult in our conference was huge for us."

The men had a pair of event winners on their side as well. Jaydon Green continued his dominant indoor season with a win in the 60-meter hurdles. He has been under eight seconds and in the top three overall in every event he has competed in this season.

Lane Cole also picked up an event win in the mile, running a time of 4:22.91 that will convert even better. The Griz ran one through four in the event, but it was the freshman from Hamilton that led the pack.

"He ran away with that race and it's going to convert to a really good time with the flat track and the altitude. He ran a really good race and just continues to make really good strides for a freshman, and is leading our distance group right now and that's really exciting for a local guy to be running that well as a freshman."

A particular highlight for Fraley and his squad was the performance of senior thrower Noah Ramirez. Last week in Spokane, Ramirez set a new personal record in the shot put with a toss of 54-11.25. This week, Ramirez upped his game even further, setting two new personal records.

He went 55-5.5 in the shot put, placing second in the event and breaking his old record by six inches. He made an even bigger stride in the weight throw, where he finished in third place with a toss of 56-2 to improve on his personal record by more than two feet.

"Another big weekend for Noah in both the weight throw and the shot put," Fraley said. "He had lifetime bests, and he is really putting it together at the right time as we're getting final preps done for conference meet. That was a real highlight."

The meet also ended on a very high note. Fraley said before the meet that one of the main focus areas for the team would be the men's 4x400-meter relay. The Big Sky Championships are split into two heats of five, with the fastest five times from the season running together. Montana sat at sixth going into Friday night, but felt they had the potential for more.

The Griz ran a 3:19.23, which should move them up in the league performance lists.

"The relay was a huge highlight. We had set a goal to run under 3:21 to get the conversion to give us a chance to get into the fast heat at the conference," Fraley said. "Those guys came back and ran 3:19-low which will convert to 3:16-high for us which gives us a great chance to get into the fast race at the conference meet which is exactly what our objective was and those guys knocked the objective out of the park."

There were plenty of other personal best times, including Audrey Smith in the 60-meter and Mikenna Ells in the 400-meter. Mackenzie Morgan and MacKenzie Dean both had personal bests in the 800-meter, while several jumpers also showed great improvement.

Adam Maxwell on the men's side high jumped 6-2.75 to set a new personal record and take fourth in the event. Teagun Holycross ran his best time ever in the 60-meter qualifying before beating that in the final with a time of 6.89 that placed him third overall.

Facing off against a couple of other Big Sky schools, Montana put a great bow on the regular season. Now they will have a week off before heading to Moscow for the Big Sky Indoor Championships.

"We had progress in a lot of areas. I was really happy with the way the kids competed against two conference schools in Montana State and Idaho State," Fraley said. "Great exposure to what it's going to be like in a couple of weeks in kind of a small, intimate setting here. All-in-all I think it was a really successful weekend and we made some good strides."

Bobcat Performance Meet Results
Women's 60m Q – Holly Sudol (7.83, 3^rd), Lily Meskers (7.91, 5^th), Audrey Smith (7.92*, 6^th), Cosley Bruno (8.26, 12^th)
Women's 60m – Holly Sudol (7.76, 3^rd), Lily Meskers (7.87, 5^th), Audrey Smith (7.93, 6^th)
Women's 200m – Audrey Smith (26.17, 2^nd), Cosley Bruno (26.73, 5^th)
Women's 400m – Mikenna Ells (57.8*, 3^rd)
Women's 800m – Katie Whitehurst (2:15.85, 1^st), Mackenzie Morgan (2:22.78*, 2^nd), MacKenzie Dean (2:26.04*, 3^rd)
Women's Mile – Jaylyn Hallgrimson (5:19.05, 1^st), Bridget Boyle (5:23.94, 2^nd), Iris McKean (5:24.87, 3^rd), Shay Pederson (5:43.95, 6^th), Aby Sherwood (5:58.89, 7^th)
Women's 3,000m – Kayla Ingraham (10:44.95, 3^rd)
Women's 60m Hurdles Q – Brooke Stayner (8.99, 2^nd), Ainsley Shipman (9.19, 5^th), Ailsa Gilbert (9.24, 6^th), Kara Mattson (9.27, 7^th), Morgan Radtke (9.48, 10^th), Whitney Morrison (9.67, 11^th)
Women's 60m Hurdles – Ailsa Gilbert (9.20, 4^th), Ainsley Shipman (9.30, 5^th)
Women's 4x400m Relay – Boyle, Ingraham, McKean, Hallgrimson (4:23.53, 4^th)
Women's Long Jump – Kara Mattson (17-5.5, 4^th), Ainsley Shipman (17-3.25, 6^th), Ailsa Gilbert (17-2.75, 7^th), Perry Paffhausen (17-1.5, 8^th), Whitney Morrison (16-10.5*, 10^th), Morgan Radtke (16-7.75, 11^th)
Women's High Jump – Erin Wilde (5-4.25, 2^nd), Brooke Stayner (5-2.25, 6^th)
Women's Triple Jump - Kara Mattson (35-2.5, 3^rd), Ainsley Shipman (34-9, 4^th)
Women's Pole Vault – Shealyne McGee (12-10.75*, 2^nd), Aly Tekippe (12-6.75*, 4^th), Molly Chambers (11-9, 7^th), Emma Zimmerman (11—9, 9^th), Ani Smith (11-3, 11^th)
Women's Shot Put – Ariel Clark (42-0, 5^th), Madi Arneson (40-9.5, 6^th)
Women's Weight Throw – Savana Ramirez (53-2.75, 4^th), Ariel Clark (53-2.75, 5^th)

Men's 60m Q – Teagun Holycross (6.92, 4^th), Jason Upton (6.95, 5^th), Xavier Melice (7.02, 8^th), Taylor Johnson (7.10, 10^th), Ty Ferguson (7.19, 13^th), Jay Beagle (7.19, 14^th)
Men's 60m – Teagun Holycross (6.89*, 3^rd), Jason Upton (6.97, 5^th)
Men's 400m – Cutter Thatcher (51.46, 7^th)
Men's 800m – Casey Crouch (1:56.79, 3^rd), Will Dauenhauer (1:57.46, 4^th)
Men's Mile – Lane Cole (4:22.91, 1^st), Truman Cowan (4:26.33, 2^nd), Nathan Carter (4:27.36, 3rd), Rogelio Mares (4:30.04, 4^th), Cooper Morris (4:34.10, 6^th), Brady Woods (4:37.09, 7^th), Colin Shaules (4:38.23, 8^th)
Men's 60m Hurdles – Jaydon Green (7.92, 1^st), Porter Coffield (8.47, 2^nd), Adam Maxwell (8.74, 3^rd)
Men's 4x400m Relay – Ferguson, Johnson, Beagle, Melice (3:19.23, 2^nd), Shaules, Carter, Morris, Cole (3:43.15, 5^th)
Men's Long Jump – Jason Upton (22-9.75, 2^nd)
Men's High Jump – Adam Maxwell (6-2.75*, 4^th), Patrick Kremer (6-2.75, 4^th), Alfred Peterson (6-2.75, 6^th)
Men's Pole Vault – Zane Johnson (15-7, 3^rd), Carson Weeden (15-1, 6^th), Carter Petersen (14-7.25, 8^th)
Men's Shot Put – Noah Ramirez (55-5.5*, 2^nd), Wade Rykal (44-7.5, 9^th), Walker McDonald (43-0.5, 10^th)
Men's Weight Throw – Noah Ramirez (56-2*, 3^rd), Walker McDonald (47-5, 9^th)