Montana faces top competition at Riverfront Invite

Thursday, February 6

Spokane, Wash.

Montana

Riverfront Invite and Multi

Photo by: Torrey Vail

2/5/2025 11:37:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

Performance List

By: Montana Sports Information

After a week off, the Montana track and field team resumes the indoor season for the final push of the regular season. The Grizzlies will be at the Riverfront Invite and Multi, facing off against possibly the best field that they will see during the regular season.

It's the perfect entrance back into competition after resting last week. The competition around the Big Sky Conference heats up once the calendar turns to February, and Montana will need to take what they learned in the first two meets and translate it to improvements this weekend in Spokane.

"It's been great having last weekend off where we could spread out training and really hit on areas of need based on our first two meets," head coach Doug Fraley said. "They gave us a lot of information on things we needed to improve on. It also gets the kids really excited to compete again after a weekend off, so we're really excited to see the progress continue."

The event will feature athletes from an impressive collection of schools, including Colorado, Washington State, Boise State, Gonzaga, Grand Canyon, and others. There will also be several Big Sky schools – Montana State, Eastern Washington, Portland State, Weber State, and Idaho – in competition.

Montana may have been off last week, but many other teams were in action, which led to drastic shifts in the Big Sky performance lists.

The Grizzlies have seven men currently ranked in the top five in the league and three women. There are 29 total Grizzlies that are currently in the top 10 of the league, giving them plenty of possible point-scoring opportunities at the Big Sky Championships.

But they will need to continue with the improvements to remain toward the top of the league as they progress through the month.

"Once the calendar turns to February, you're either getting better or you're getting passed up," Fraley said. "If you look at the league standings just from this past weekend with teams that competed, the Big Sky event lists changed a lot. They will continue to do so in the next two weeks until everybody shuts down to get ready for conference."

Erin Wilde currently sits atop the league standings on the women's side in the high jump. She has won three straight Big Sky titles in the event between indoor and outdoor, and her mark of 5-9.75 is currently the best in the league.

The Grizzly women have two more athletes in the top five of the league. Shealyne McGee's season-best mark of 12-11.75 in the pole vault is currently 5^th in the rankings, and Lily Meskers' time of 24.52 in the 200m is also 5^th.

On the men's side, the Grizzlies have a good number of top three athletes. Alex Shields (56-8) and Donaven Humphries (55-7.5) are second and third in the men's shot put as an area of strength so far for Montana.

Patrick Kremer is currently second in the men's high jump standings with a season-best mark of 6-9.75, and Gordon McMillion has the second-best long jump mark this season at 23-8.75.

"We've worked through January and made progress, had a weekend off, but really the next two weekends are where we need to make some hay in positioning ourselves for the Big Sky Conference meet," Fraley said.

Montana will also have two women's athletes make their debut in the multis this week in Spokane. Whitney Morrison and Kensey Gault will both compete in the pentathlon on Thursday.

"We're really excited for the multis to get going on Thursday. Whitney and Kensey will be in the pentathlon, and that's a strength area for our women's team. They have both been doing really well in their individual events throughout January and so we're very excited to see them put together a multi in Spokane to see where they are at."

The Grizzlies will return to Spokane on Feb. 14-15 for the Whitworth Invite, which will conclude the regular season. The Big Sky Conference Championships will take place Feb. 27 through March 1 in Flagstaff, Ariz.

"We definitely have some areas of strength on our team right now, and we've got some areas that should be strengths that haven't quite developed yet. In this two week push that we're in now, we're just trying to get everybody, in all event areas, moving in the right direction."

MONTANA MEN'S ENTRIES
60m- Karsen Beitz, Malaki Simpson, Brody Thornsberry
200m- Karsen Beitz, Braden Ankeny, Malaki Simpson, Taylor Johnson, Ty Ferguson, Jay Beagle, Brody Thornsberry, Garrett Dahlke
400m- Jay Beagle, Braden Ankeny, Taylor Johnson, Ty Ferguson, Garrett Dahlke,
800m- Lane Cole, Morgan Amano, Michael Jump, Colin Shaules
Mile- Lane Cole, Morgan Amano, Colin Shaules,
3,000m- Luke Mest
5,000m- Carson Steckelberg
60mH- Easton Brotherson, Carter Petersen
High jump- Patrick Kremer, Zachary Travis, Adam Maxwell
Pole vault- Carson Hegele, Carter Petersen, Corbin Luce
Long jump- Gordon McMillion, Caiden Sekuterski, Patrick Kremer, Brody Thornsberry
Triple jump- Caiden Sekuterski, Dylan Zink
Shot put- Alex Shields, Donaven Humphries, Wade Rykal
Weight throw- Donaven Humphries, Tyler Bates

MONTANA WOMEN'S ENTRIES
60m- Tara Ohlwiler, Brooke Zetooney, Lily Meskers, Rileigh McGree, Jayel Dovichak, Isabelle Berry,
200m- Lily Meskers, Tara Ohlwiler, Claire Hutchison, Sophia Clark, Jayel Dovichak, Cosley Bruno, Rileigh McGree, Isabelle Berry
400m- Lily Meskers, Sophia Clark, Claire Hutchison, Cosley Bruno, Katie Whitehurst,
800m- Katie Whitehurst, Libby Hartz
Mile- Libby Hartz
3,000m- Iris McKean, Shay Pederson,
60mH- Jayel Dovichak, Kensey Gault, Ainsley Shipman, Whitney Morrison, Isabelle Berry
High jump- Erin Wilde, Maddie Kremer
Pole vault- Samantha Serex, Shealyne McGee, Emaa Weeden, Molly Chambers, Chesnee Lawrence, Hannah Moses
Long jump- Rileigh McGree
Triple jump- Ainsley Shipman
Shot put- Scout Nadeau, Cathlene Van Zyl, Morgan Thomas
Weight throw- Savana Ramirez, Morgan Thomas, Scout Nadeau
Pentathlon- Whitney Morrison, Kensey Gault