Johnson's PR highlights day one at regionals

Zane Johnson's PR in the pole vault highlighted the four performances from the Montana men's track and field team at the NCAA West Regional in Sacramento on Wednesday.

Johnson entered the meet with a PR of 16-11 and was coming off a fourth-place finish at the Big Sky Conference meet with a mark of 16-6.5. His seed placed him in 39^th of the 48 competitors entering the event. He opened with a miss at 16-0.75, but cleared on his second attempt.

The next bar was set at 16-6.75, and again Johnson missed the first but cleared on his second attempt. The progression then advanced to 17-0.75. At the start of the year, Johnson had never reached the 16-foot mark. Now, at the end of a season in which he has been among the best vaulters in a very talented Big Sky, he set his target on a clearing a new foot barrier.

Johnson stayed true to the form he had shown the rest of the meet. He missed on the first attempt at the height. Then on the second, he cleared to become the only Big Sky athlete over 17 feet this season and the first Grizzly to reach that height since Keith Webber set the school record of 17-2.75 in 2014.

The junior from Dillon then attempted 17-4.5, which would have been a new school record. He came up just short, but it was still a fantastic performance from Johnson.

"To improve on his seed as much as he did with this being his first time at the regional championships and to be one of the few people in the field to PR is just fantastic," head coach Doug Fraley said. "It's been a great year for him because he not only broke one foot barrier, but two this year.

"That is a huge level of improvement for that young man this year. I'm really proud of the way he competed and represented himself and us really well at his first regional meet."

In men's javelin, Evan Todd improved on his regional finish for the third straight year, but it wasn't enough to earn the junior from Kalispell a trip to nationals. Todd's best throw of 214-11 earned him a 19^th place finish. The top 12 advanced to Austin. Jared O'Riley of Arizona claimed the final spot with a throw of 224-11.

In the third trip to the West Regional in Todd's career, he recorded his best finish. He placed 26^th as a freshman and 25^th as a sophomore. The two-time Big Sky Champion will return in 2024 as one of the favorites in the west.

Matthew Hockett threw in the second flight of the men's javelin, improving with all three of his throws. Hockett started at 193-2 and eventually finished with a throw of 199-7. He placed 35^th in the event in his second regional appearance, moving up from last year's 41^st place finish.

Hockett ends his junior season with a career-best throw of 217-8. Last year at regionals, Hockett threw 190-5 and Todd threw 205-0.

"I said look, I know you are disappointed but you both moved up significantly not only in the place you got but also how far you threw," Fraley said. "I'm sure they are disappointed, but the message to them is to keep grinding because I know they're making progress. They both had a really good year."

Jaydon Green ran what could potentially be the final race of a highly decorated career in the men's 110-meter hurdles. The school record holder nearly matched his record-breaking time in a wind-legal race by running a 14.24. It's just .01 seconds behind his own school record.

He ran in the lane next to Phillip Lemonious of the #1 Arkansas Razorbacks, who won the heat in 13.65 seconds. Green finished sixth in his heat and 40th overall in the loaded event.

"Jaydon has had a great year and that was his second-best wind legal performance of the season," Fraley said. "It was a good race for him. Competition was really tough. He didn't finish as high as he would have liked to in that race, but we're really proud of him. He's had a great year and ran really well today."

The Grizzly women will take to the track on Thursday. Shealyne McGee will look to recreate Johnson's success in the pole vault beginning at 7:30 and Holly Sudol will compete in the 400-meter hurdles beginning at 9:20 p.m.

University of Montana Athletics

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Players Mentioned

Jaydon Green

Matthew Hockett

Zane Johnson

Evan Todd

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