Veterans, newcomers alike deliver strong performances in Bozeman

Friday, April 5

Bozeman, Mont.

11:30 AM

Montana

Griz-Cat Dual

Photo by: Jackson Wagner

Veterans, newcomers alike deliver strong performances in Bozeman

4/5/2024 8:42:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

Results Photo Gallery

By: Montana Sports Information

The final score may not have gone Montana's way in the Griz-Cat Dual in Bozeman on Friday, but there was still plenty to like from the Grizzlies' fight against a pair of Bobcat teams that should compete for Big Sky Championships in May.

Montana had several bright spots on the day with veteran contenders performing well in event wins to younger athletes having breakthrough performances that could put them near the conference scoring and regional qualifying marks.

"We knew we had our work cut out for us coming in and they are as good as advertised," head coach Doug Fraley said. "There's a reason they're ranked in the top 25 in the men and second in the conference in the women, and they proved that today.

"The way I want our team to look at this is when we compete against our rival that's that good, it tells us exactly what we need to strive for in the future," Fraley said. "But having said that, we had a lot of really good highlights in different areas for both the men and women. I feel like we are continuing our upward trajectory as we move to the middle of the season and we're very proud of the way the kids competed today."

The Grizzlies were able to pick up six event wins on the women's side of things and two individual winners to go along with victories in both relays on the men's side.

The highlight of the day came in the women's hammer throw, where Ariel Clark has carried over her success during the indoor season into a spectacular start to her senior outdoor campaign. Clark won the hammer throw by over 10 feet with a new PR of 186-3. It's the second-best throw in the Big Sky this season.

The younger throwers on Montana's roster had big days as well with Cathlene Van Zyl, Scout Nadeau, Mary Mickelson, and Morgan Thomas all hitting PR marks. It made for a good day in the throws department for the Griz.

"Ariel Clark hit about a three-meter PR to win the hammer, and that's a top mark in the league right now. It was definitely the best performance that we had on the female side today," Fraley said. "And then the young group of throwers, a lot of them in their first year throwing the hammer, we're getting a lot of improvement with that group. I feel like that's going to be a real strength for our team in the future."

Clark wasn't the only Grizzly veteran to get a win on Friday. Jaydon Green, the defending Big Sky champ in the 110-meter hurdles, won the event with a time of 14.30. He's fifth in the conference right now but rounding into shape as the season goes along.

Zane Johnson picked up the other individual win on the men's side with a 16-6 mark in the men's pole vault. The event also saw both Carson Hegele and Carter Petersen set big PRs at the height of 15-8.25.

Evan Todd, another Big Sky champion from 2023 who also won the javelin in 2022, had the second-best throw of his career at 227-7 and finished second in the men's javelin.

"Evan coming back and throwing over 69 meters for only the second time in his life in a real good competition proves he is where he needs to be at this point in the season and will give himself a real good chance to defend his crown once the Big Sky Championship comes around," Fraley said.

Mikenna Ells (56.13, 400m) and Katie Whitehurst (2:13.88, 800m) both won their events on the women's side. Whitehurst had a good indoor season and backed up a strong opening 800m that she ran nearly a month ago in Sacramento.

Whitney Morrison ran the 400-meter hurdles for the first time in her Grizzly career and won by more than a second with a time of 1:02.39, and freshman Jayel Dovichack came in as the runner-up with a time of 1:03.55.

The women also won in the women's 4x400m relay in a competition that featured just one group from Montana and three different teams from MSU.

The final event win on the women's side came from Erin Wilde, who topped the leaderboard in the women's high jump. Wilde missed Montana's home meet after dealing with some minor injuries, but returned on Friday and nearly matched her career PR, winning with a mark of 5-8.

"We've given Erin a couple of weeks off because she had some shin pain," Fraley said. "We got back into some hard training and so we purposefully held her out of our home meet to get some base back underneath her and she came back today feeling real good and got close to regional qualifying."

The Grizzly men won both of the relay events. They ran uncontested in the 4x400m relay, but in the 4x100 faced off against another top-level team in one of the first races of the day. Montana took an early lead and held on down the stretch thanks to a great final leg from freshman Karsen Beitz.

The Grizzlies finished in 40.38 seconds, just narrowly missing out on breaking the school record that they set at the Al Manuel Invitational two weeks ago. It was part of an excellent day for Beitz, who led Montana in the 100 and 200 as an individual as well.

"The men's 4x100m relay was one of the highlights. We ran real close to the school record and head-to-head against a really good Montana State sprint crew," Fraley said. "I thought Karsen Beitz had a really good day getting second in the 100, PR'ing in the 200, and then anchoring the 4x100m in Cooper's place while he's out. I thought those were definitely the highlights for that group."

The youth for Montana also had a strong performance in the men's distance group. Henry Ballinger ran a 3:50.34 in the 1,500m to finish fifth. His altitude adjusted time of 3:45.38 is also fifth in the Big Sky so far this season. Lane Cole (3:53.16) and Truman Thompson (3:53.32) also ran PR times that converted to sub 3:50 after altitude adjustments.

"Henry, Lane, and Truman all ran well. Henry's time is really close to what it took to make the NCAA First Round last year and that speaks for itself," Fraley said. "It was a really good run for those guys."

Women's Results
100m- Audrey Smith (12.57, 2^nd), Tara Ohlwiler (12.60, 3^rd), Lily Meskers (12.64, 6^th), Destiny Santiago (13.00, 8^th)
200m- Lily Meskers (25.08, 3^rd), Claire Hutchison (25.26, 4^th), Audrey Smith (25.71, 5^th), Tara Ohlwiler (25.83, 6^th), Brooke Stayner (26.35, 9^th), Destiny Santiago (26.84*, 12^th)
400m- Mikenna Ells (56.13, 1^st), Cosley Bruno (58.51*, 3^rd)
800m- Katie Whitehurst (2:13.88, 1^st), MacKenzie Dean (2:19.05, 7^th)
1,500m- Iris McKean (4:57.21*, 10^th), Jaylyn Hallgrimson (4:58.52, 11^th), Layne Lathrop (5:24.53, 13^th)
5,000m- Kayla Ingraham (18:26.15, 7^th), Jade Hallgrimson (18:53.53, 9^th)
100mH- Jayel Dovichak (14.18, 2^nd), Brooke Stayner (14.55, 3^rd), Ailsa Gilbert (14.81, 4^th), Ainsley Shipman (15.10, 5^th)
400mH- Whitney Morrison (1:02.39*, 1^st), Jayel Dovichak (1:03.55, 2^nd)
4x100m- Meskers, Ells, Hutchison, Ohlwiler (46.16, 2^nd)
4x400m- Hutchison, Ells, Whitehurst, Meskers (3:53.40, 1^st)
High Jump- Erin Wilde (5-8, 1^st), Brooke Stayner (5-2.25, 3^rd), Claire Hutchison (5-0.25, 5^th)
Pole Vault- Samantha Serex (11-9, 4^th), Emma Zimmerman (11-9, 5^th), Molly Chambers (11-3, 7^th), Chesnee Lawrence (10-9*, 8^th), Hannah Moses (10-9*, 9^th)
Long Jump- Perry Paffhausen (17-9, 4^th), Ainsley Shipman (17-6, 6^th), Ailsa Gilbert (17-4.25, 7^th), Whitney Morrison (17-2.25, 8^th)
Triple Jump- Ainsley Shipman (37-8.75, 3^rd), Ailsa Gilbert (37-0.25, 4^th)
Shot Put- Cathlene Van Zyl (44-2.5*, 2^nd), Scout Nadeau (42-9*, 3^rd), Ariel Clark (42-5.5*, 4^th), Morgan Thomas (40-4.25, 5^th)
Hammer- Ariel Clark (186-3*, 1^st), Savana Ramirez (171-4, 3^rd), Morgan Thomas (148-7*, 6^th), Mary Mickelson (143-4*, 7^th), Molly O'Dell (134-10, 8^th), Cathlene Van Zyl (130-10*, 9^th)
Discus- Morgan Thomas (139-1, 3^rd), Cathlene Van Zyl (124-3, 4^th), Mary Mickelson (124-2, 5^th)
Javelin- Ashley Carroll (125-4, 3^rd), Tatum McNamara (120-7, 4^th)

Men's Results
100m- Karsen Beitz (10.76, 2^nd), Jason Upton (10.84*, 4^th)
200m- Karsen Beitz (21.51*, 3^rd), Xavier Melice (21.53, 4^th), Cody Lease (22.29*, 9^th)
400m- Paul Johnstone (48.04, 3^rd), Jay Beagle (48.26*, 4^th), Taylor Johnson (48.37, 6^th), Ty Ferguson (48.62, 7^th)
800m- Casey Crouch (1:56.05, 2^nd), Garrett Dahlke (1:58.94*, 5^th), Michael Jump (1:59.84, 6^th)
1,500m- Henry Ballinger (3:50.34*, 5^th), Lane Cole (3:53.16*, 7^th), Truman Thompson (3:53.32*, 8^th), Truman Cowan (4:04.32, 10^th), Brady Woods (4:20.67, 11^th)
5,000m- Lane Cole (15:38.81, 9^th), Zachary Giesch (16:10.34, 12^th)
110mH- Jaydon Green (14.30, 1^st), Easton Brotherson (15.01, 2^nd)
400mH- Adam Maxwell (57.25, 2^nd)
Steeple- Carson Steckelberg (10:01.51, 2^nd)
4x100m- Montana A (40.38, 1^st)
4x400m- Montana B (3:24.77, 1^st)
High Jump- Patrick Kremer (6-4.75, 2^nd), Zachary Travis (6-2.75*, 3^rd)
Pole Vault- Zane Johnson (16-6, 1^st), Carson Hegele (15-8.25*, 2^nd), Carter Petersen (15-8.25*, 3^rd), Kevin Swindler (15-2.25, 6^th), Jackson Merrill (14-8.25, 7^th)
Long Jump- Jason Upton (23-11.75, 2^nd), Gordon McMillion (23-1.75, 3^rd), Jethro Thorne (22-3.75, 4^th)
Triple Jump- Jason Upton (42-11.5, 2^nd), Dylan Zink (42-3.5, 3^rd)
Shot Put- Wade Rykal (49-6.5*, 3^rd), Alex Shields (47-8, 4^th), Memphis Black (46-1.25*, 5^th), Porter Coffield (35-5.75, 7^th)
Hammer- Walker McDonald (180-4*, 5^th), Wade Rykal (152-6, 7^th), Alex Shields (143-0*, 8^th), Memphis Black (142-2*, 9^th)
Discus- Wade Rykal (143-8, 3^rd), Walker McDonald (143-3, 4^th), Porter Coffield (108-1, 5^th)
Javelin- Evan Todd (227-7, 2^nd), Everett Fred (188-0, 4^th), Porter Coffield (141-8)