Griz head to Pocatello as regular season winds down

Scenes from the Montana Open at Dornblazer Track on April 22, 2023.

Photo by: UM Photo/Tommy Martino

Griz head to Pocatello as regular season winds down

4/27/2023 10:57:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

Performance List Live Results Schedule of Events Live Stream

By: Montana Sports Information

The University of Montana track and field team will make the trip to Pocatello this weekend to participate in the Bengal Invitational hosted at Idaho State's Davis Field. It will be one of Montana's final chances to improve upon marks as there are just two weeks remaining in the regular season before the Grizzlies head to Greeley, Colo. for the Big Sky Championships on May 10-13.

The trip may prove to be the final time that many of Montana's top competitors take to the track during the regular season. Head coach Doug Fraley said that the team will compete hard this weekend, but next week's meet in Bozeman will likely be a time for much of his roster to rest.

"Really for the bulk of our group that will go to the conference meet we look at this as a big, final prep weekend," Fraley said of the Bengal Invitational. "The kids that are solidified on the conference roster and in their conference ranking, they will be off for the Bozeman meet. They will be doing their final tune-ups. The most important thing for those kids this time of year is getting their body tuned up and getting them rested and feeling good for the big conference meet."

The meet begins Friday and continues through Saturday evening. There are live results available, and a live broadcast with ambient sound will also be streamed on ESPN+.

It gives the Grizzlies one last chance to improve upon their marks before heading to Greeley. It is setting up to be a good environment for top performance as well, as temperatures are expected in the 60s and several fellow Big Sky teams will be there.

Montana have hosted three meets up to this point with adverse weather conditions impacting all three. The only road trip the Grizzlies have had came in mid-April with a weekend trip to California, where only a portion of the roster traveled. This weekend will be the first road trip for some of the roster, and the best chance to put a good mark up on the board.

"They are projecting good weather and from what I've heard it's a great venue," Fraley said. "The conference championship was there last year and the marks were very good, so if the weather prediction holds our kids should have every opportunity to compete well and improve their marks."

The Grizzly men currently have 15 different marks inside the top eight of the Big Sky performance lists, while the women have 13. For a Montana team that was picked to finish eighth in both preseason conference polls, they are hoping that some of the 18 athletes in the 9-12 range plus a few more on the outside will be able to breakthrough with big improvements before the conference meet.

The javelin continues to be a strength for Montana, and the men had a big weekend at the Montana Open last weekend. Evan Todd has moved up to 14^th in the NCAA West Region with the Big Sky's best throw (226-2), while Matthew Hockett is 23^rd in the region and fourth in the league at 217-8. Both throws came at home, and both have the potential to go even further in the elevation at Pocatello.

The two throwers should be locked into a regional spot, and they are joined in the top 48 currently by Zane Johnson in the pole vault. His best mark of 16-11 is tied for first in the conference and 36^th in the region, and while he didn't reach that bar last weekend, he still came away victorious in a competition that featured all of the best vaulters in the league. It was a good preview of what to expect in Greeley.

The women got a PR from Erin Wilde in the high jump last weekend, clearing 5-8 to move into second place in the Big Sky. It's been a tremendous season of improvement for the freshman, who had a lifetime best of 5-3 entering college. She is the only Grizzly on the women's side currently in the top 48 of the West Region, the cutoff line for the NCAA First Round meet.

Montana started to see some breakthroughs in other areas at the Montana Open with PR's coming across the board. It's that continued progress that Fraley is hopeful for again this weekend in Pocatello.

"It's really just seeing the event areas move forward," Fraley said. "Really, teamwide it is just about continuing the improvement progression. If you can do that in your last meet getting ready for conference, even if it's not a PR but you're still increasing your average performance, that's really what we're looking for."

The meet format will also give Montana a sample of what they can expect when the conference meet does roll around in a few weeks. Friday will feature several finals in several field events and distance races, but a bulk of the sprints and hurdles will see preliminary races on Friday that lead to finals on Saturday.

The challenge of running good times on consecutive days is something that Fraley is excited for his team to face.

"That's really an important test for the sprints and hurdles groups is to be able to not only run well enough to make the final, but to be able to back that up in the final on Saturday," Fraley said. "At the conference meet your first goal is to make the finals, but the second goal is to do as well as you can once there."

The meet should have good weather, a good venue, with good competition and a format similar to what Montana will face in a short time at the Big Sky Championships. When you combine all of that together, it should set up for a good weekend.

"We look for it to be a very good preview as far as seeing a lot of the competition that we will face in the Big Sky," Fraley said. "It will be just right for us with that conference preview weekend that we have with our kids that will be finishing their regular season. It should be just the right competition level for what we need to continue to improve and to get a good idea of where we're at, at this point of things."

Bengal Invitational Entry List
Men's 100m – Teagun Holycross, Xavier Melice
Men's 200m – Xavier Melice, Teagun Holycross
Men's 400m – Taylor Johnson, Ty Ferguson, Jay Beagle
Men's 800m – Will Dauenhauer, Casey Crouch
Men's 1,500m – Maxwell Scott, Truman Cowan, Rogelio Mares, Cooper Morris
Men's 5,000m – Maxwell Scott, Rogelio Mares, Truman Cowan
Men's 110mH – Jaydon Green, Adam Maxwell, Porter Coffield
Men's 400mH – Cutter Thatcher, Adam Maxwell, Porter Coffield
Men's steeplechase – Cooper Morris
Men's 4x100m relay – Two squads
Men's 4x400m relay – Two squads
Men's high jump – Patrick Kremer, Alfred Peterson, Adam Maxwell
Men's pole vault – Zane Johnson, Carson Weeden, Carter Petersen, Carson Hegele
Men's long jump – Jason Upton, Jethro Thorne, Gordon McMillion, Patrick Kremer, Dylan Zink
Men's triple jump – Dylan Zink
Men's shot put – Noah Ramirez, Wade Rykal, Walker McDonald
Men's discus – Walker McDonald
Men's hammer – Noah Ramirez, Walker McDonald, Wade Rykal
Men's javelin – Evan Todd, Matthew Hockett, Everett Fred

Women's 100m – Audrey Smith, Destiny Santiago
Women's 200m – Morgan Radtke, Destiny Santiago
Women's 400m – Mikenna Ells, Lily Meskers, Cosley Bruno
Women's 800m – Katie Whitehurst, Mackenzie Morgan, MacKenzie Dean
Women's 1,500m – Jaylyn Hallgrimson, Olivia Lackland Henry, Mackenzie Morgan, Kayla Ingraham, Iris McKean
Women's 5,000m – Olivia Lackland Henry, Jaylyn Hallgrimson, Kayla Ingraham
Women's 100mH – Ailsa Gilbert, Brooke Stayner, Ainsley Shipman, Whitney Morrison, Rileigh McGree, Kara Mattson
Women's 400mH – Holly Sudol, Brooke Stayner
Women's steeplechase – Iris McKean
Women's 4x100m relay – Two squads
Women's 4x400m relay – Two squads
Women's high jump – Erin Wilde, Morgan Radtke, Brooke Stayner, Whitney Morrison
Women's pole vault – Shealyne McGee, Aly Tekippe, Emma Zimmerman, Molly Chambers, Ani Smith
Women's long jump – Ailsa Gilbert, Perry Paffhausen, Kara Mattson, Whitney Morrison, Morgan Radtke, Ainsley Shipman, Rileigh McGree
Women's triple jump – Ailsa Gilbert, Ainsley Shipman
Women's shot put – Ainsley Shipman, Brooke Stayner
Women's discus – Madi Arneson, Molly O'Dell
Women's hammer – Savana Ramirez, Molly O'Dell
Women's javelin – Autumn Morse, Kylie Frohlich, Tatum McNamara, Lea Moose, Cyisa Weidman, Morgan Radtke, Ainsley Shipman