Griz set for regular season finale

Friday, February 10

Bozeman, Mont.

Montana

Bobcat Performance Meet

Ainsley Shipman at Spokane Indoor Challenge (1.14.23)

Photo by: Torrey Vail

2/9/2023 10:58:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

Performance Lists Meet Schedule

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana track and field team will wrap up its regular season this Friday, travelling to Bozeman for the Bobcat Performance Meet. The season has come and gone quickly, with a Montana team that features plenty of young athletes showing improvement through the four-event slate.

The big show is still upcoming. The Big Sky Indoor Championships will be held on Feb. 23-25 in Moscow, Idaho and the brand-new Lauren McCluskey track. It's what all the other events are for, honing in your skills to compete against the best in the Big Sky. Before the Griz can get there, though, they have the single-day event in Bozeman as one last test run.

"I look at this as our fourth dress rehearsal," head coach Doug Fraley said. "Opening night of the real play is going to be on the first day of the conference meet, so this is the last dress rehearsal that we've got so we're looking to tighten and sharpen things up a little bit to where we can go into recovery mode and peaking mode in that two-week period between Bozeman and the Big Sky Championships."

The Grizzlies have several athletes already within the top 10 in the Big Sky Conference and in a good position to be a scoring threat at the Indoor Championship. On the women's side, there are 11 women and six men currently sitting in the top 10 of the Big Sky performance lists.

There are multiple athletes within the top 10 in multiple events. For the women, Holly Sudol is within the top 10 currently in both the 200m and the 400m. Morgan Radtke put together the best pentathlon of her career last week, and it also moved her into third place in the Big Sky. Radtke's strength has been the high jump, where she also finds herself in eighth in the conference performance lists.

On the men's side, Noah Ramirez had a PR last weekend and now finds himself in the top 10 of multiple events. He's currently sixth in the shot put (54-11.25) and 10^th in the weight throw (53-4.25).

But for Fraley, this weekend is more about fitness and health for his top competing athletes.

"For a meet like this, we won't compete a lot of our top athletes real hard," Fraley said. "The ones we feel like are in a good position in the conference standings and for where they are at in their abilities this may just be a refresher type meet where they just go through the process one last time."

Instead, this meet will be more for the athletes on Montana's roster that are currently on the outskirts looking in in regards to the Big Sky Championships. Friday in Bozeman is their chance to improve on marks and make the conference roster.

"There are some where this weekend will determine whether or not they can go to the conference championships," Fraley said. "For people that haven't necessarily done quite enough yet to get on that conference roster, this is one more opportunity for them to really go out and bust it to try to hit a performance that will get them on that roster."

The track in Bozeman is a 200-meter flat track, and with the elevation of Bozeman there will be multiple conversions. The Grizzlies haven't dealt with that yet this indoor season. There are no conversions on the newer tracks of Idaho and Spokane.

Montana won't be running its full complement of athletes in some of the distances, particularly the 400. The Grizzlies are very deep on the men's side with five athletes in the top 14 of the Big Sky performance lists, but the relay team is still sixth in the conference.

On Friday, the Grizzlies will get some speed work in early and then look to move up the lists with a solid relay performance.

"We will run 60 meters for a lot of the 400 and 200 meter guys, instead of running the full event, and then we will try to put together a good relay at the end of that," Fraley said.

Additionally, the compact schedule of the meet will focus in Montana's participation.

"It's a real tight time schedule, and so the distance runners will only run one race," Fraley said. "Typically they would go one race on Friday and come back with a second on Saturday. So really a lot of the athletes are not doing as many of the events as they would be because it's a four-hour meet program instead of a full day or two-day meet program."

The same can be said of Montana's athletes in the pentathlon. There are currently three Grizzlies in the top eight of the Big Sky performance lists. As they get ready for the Big Sky Championships, they will all compete in a few events where they most need the improvement.

"We're kind of picking the specific events that the athletes can get the most benefit out of this week," Fraley said. "(Our pentathletes) will be picking two or three events that they can key on during that four-hour period. The ones that they need the most work on."

Bobcat Performance Meet Entry List
Men's 60m – Teagun Holycross, Jason Upton, Paul Johnstone, Jay Beagle, Xavier Melice, Ty Ferguson, Taylor Johnson
Men's 400m – Cutter Thatcher
Men's 800m – Casey Crouch, Will Dauenhauer, Maxwell Scott
Men's Mile – Maxwell Scott, Rogelio Mares, Lane Cole, Nathan Carter, Truman Cowan, Colin Shaules, Brady Woods, Cooper Morris
Men's 3,000m – Maxwell Scott,
Men's 60mH – Jaydon Green, Porter Coffield, Adam Maxwell
Men's 4x400m – Two squads
Men's High Jump – Patrick Kremer, Adam Maxwell, Alfred Peterson
Men's Pole Vault – Zane Johnson, Carson Weeden, Carter Petersen, Carson Hegele
Men's Long Jump – Jason Upton, Gordon McMillion, Dylan Zink
Men's Triple Jump – Dylan Zink, Jason Upton
Men's Shot Put – Noah Ramirez, Wade Rykal, Walker McDonald
Men's Weight Throw – Noah Ramirez, Walker McDonald, Wade Rykal

Women's 60m – Holly Sudol, Audrey Smith, Lily Meskers, Cosley Bruno
Women's 200m – Audrey Smith, Cosley Bruno
Women's 400m – Katie Whitehurst, Mikenna Ells
Women's 800m – Katie Whitehurst, Mikenna Ells, MacKenzie Dean, Mackenzie Morgan
Women's Mile – Jaylyn Hallgrimson, Kayla Ingraham, Bridget Boyle, Iris McKean, Shay Pederson, Abby Sherwood
Women's 3,000m – Kayla Ingraham
Women's 60mH – Brooke Stayner, Kara Mattson, Ainsley Shipman, Ailsa Gilbert, Whitney Morrison, Morgan Radtke
Women's 4x400m – Two Squads
Women's High Jump – Erin Wilde, Morgan Radtke, Brooke Stayner, Whitney Morrison
Women's Pole Vault – Shealyne McGee, Aly Tekippe, Molly Chambers, Emma Zimmerman, Ani Smith
Women's Long Jump – Kara Mattson, Ainsley Shipman, Morgan Radtke, Ailsa Gilbert, Brooke Stayner, Whitney Morrison, Perry Paffhuasen
Women's Triple Jump – Ainsley Shipman, Kara Mattson
Women's Shot Put – Ariel Clark, Madi Arneson
Women's Weight Throw – Savana Ramirez, Ariel Clark