Records fall in Spokane for Griz track and field

Photo by: Torrey Vail

2/7/2025 8:51:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

By: Montana Sports Information

It was a record-breaking night for the Montana track and field team at the Riverfront Invite in Spokane, Wash. on Friday. Freshman Braden Ankeny broke a 25-year old school record, Erin Wilde tied a 31-year old record, and Lily Meskers came within inches of a record as the performances stacked up inside the Podium.

Ankeny, a true freshman, had already tied David Blair's 200m school record set in 2000 earlier this season at the very same venue. It gave the freshman high hopes that in a return trip to The Podium, the record would be his.

He made good on his goal, running a time of 21.49 to break the record and finish 7^th in a highly competitive field. Ankeny's time is the fourth-best in the Big Sky this season.

"It was great. His goal coming in was to try to get under that school record and he slid right under there and had a really solid race," head coach Doug Fraley said. "Any time you break a record it's a special thing, especially when they are a quarter of a century old. It's something to be real proud of and we are real excited for him."

For Wilde, it was more of a question of when, not if, the junior would finally eclipse Brenda Naber's 1994 record in the high jump. Wilde has won three straight Big Sky Championships between indoor and outdoor, and is already the school's outdoor record holder.

On Friday night, Wilde cleared 5-10, the best mark of her indoor career. It brought her into a tie with Naber's record, and ties her for 36^th nationally in the event. She is the Big Sky's leader.

"Erin has been so consistent. She's having an unbelievably good year, and she was really close at the next bar which would have given her the outright school record. She did what she's been doing the entire indoor season, which is just really consistent, solid performances meet after meet."

Ankeny wasn't the only Grizzly to put forth a fantastic effort in the 200m. On the women's side, Lily Meskers competed in the Invite portion of the 200m and had the best run of her career.

Meskers came within .01 seconds of Loni Perkins-Judisch's 17-year old school record in the women's 200m. Meskers, running in the Invite portion of the meet, cut her personal best time down by over a tenth of a second, finishing in 11^th with a time of 24.40.

She has improved in every meet this year for Montana, and currently sits in 5^th in the Big Sky performance lists in the event.

"It was a great run from Lily. Her goal coming in was to break the school record, and unfortunately she missed it by one one-hundredth of a second, which really is about an inch," Fraley said. "It's a big PR for her and a good finish, and all-in-all a very solid performance."

On Thursday, Montana's multi-athletes competed in a pentathlon for the first time this season. It was a great start to the year in the event for both Whitney Morrison and Kensey Gault.

Morrison, a senior, had the best multi of her career, and did so behind several impressive performances. The Missoula product had a PR in four of the five events, leading to a nearly 500 point improvement on her previous PR. She scored 3,905 points. It's the 29^th best score in the country this year.

"Whitney had a tremendous outing for her first multi of the year," Fraley said.S"he's been trending so well in her individual events that we expected her to do something really good, and she delivered on that. It's so rare to go into a multi and get PR's in four out of five events, and the event she didn't PR in was still very solid. It's a big improvement from her PR last indoor season and really sets her up in the Big Sky standings for a potential podium finish."

The freshman Gault had quite an impressive first collegiate multi. In a very competitive field, Gault had two top five finishes in the five events. She finished with 3,547 points, the 5^th-best total in the Big Sky this year.

"We're also really proud of Kensey Gault in her first collegiate multi to go over 3,500 points," Fraley said. "She solidified her position in the top 8 of the league, so very good to see those multis come in and have a combined effort like they did."

There were several other impressive performances in Spokane on Friday. The weight throw was a strength for Montana. Donaven Humphries set a PR by clearing the 60-foot mark for the first time, finishing 3^rd with a mark of 60-4.5.

On the women's side, Savana Ramirez had a new PR of 55-7.75 to finish 6^th.

The Grizzlies also had PRs in middle distance, jumps, and sprints to round out a solid first day.

"It was great to see Donaven and Savana hit big throws in the weight and place well in competitive fields. They are continuing to climb the ladder in the league standings," Fraley said. "I felt like for the first day, riding over this morning on the bus, jumping right into competition we had a really good day in all the area. Sprints, jumps, throws, and middle-distance. Very encouraging start, and we're looking forward to getting back in there tomorrow morning and hopefully producing some good performances."

🚨 𝙎𝘾𝙃𝙊𝙊𝙇 𝙍𝙀𝘾𝙊𝙍𝘿 🚨

Freshman Braden Ankeny ran a 21.49 second 200m today, breaking a 25-year old school record in the event!#GrizTF | #GoGriz pic.twitter.com/d60JqzML6F
— Montana Griz TF & XC (@MontanaGrizTFXC) February 8, 2025

MEN'S RESULTS
200m Invite- Braden Ankeny (21.49*^, 7^TH/18), Karsen Beitz (21.72, 13^th)
200m Collegiate- Malaki Simpson (21.85, 7^th/49), Jay Beagle (22.12*, 10^th), Taylor Johnson (22.20, 12^th), Ty Ferguson (22.43*, 15^th), Garrett Dahlke (23.45, 32^nd)
800m- Lane Cole (1:53.88*, 10^th/52), Morgan Amano (1:55.30*, 17^th), Michael Jump (1:57.65*, 28^th), Colin Shaules (1:58.72, 30^th
High jump- Patrick Kremer (6-9, 3^rd/16), Zachary Travis (6-4.75, 6^th), Adam Maxwell (6-0.75, 9^th)
Long jump- Caiden Sekuterski (22-4.25, 4^th/25), Gordon McMillion (22-2.5, 5^th), Brody Thornsberry (20-9.75, 15^th)
Weight throw- Donaven Humphries (60-4.5*, 3^rd/30), Tyler Bates (54-3.75, 10^th)

WOMEN'S RESULTS
200m Invite- Lily Meskers (24.40, 11^th/19)
200m Collegiate- Tara Ohlwiler (24.60*, 4^th/68), Sophia Clark (25.26, 13^th), Rileigh McGree (25.31*, 15^th), Claire Hutchison (25.73, 24^th), Jayel Dovichak (25.84, 26^th), Cosley Bruno (25.86, 27^th), Isabelle Berry (26.45, 40^th)
800m- Katie Whitehurst (2:18.95, 20^th/50), Libby Hartz (2:20.32, 29^th)
High jump- Erin Wilde (5-10*^, 1^st/31), Maddie Kremer (5-2.25, 11^th)
Long jump- Ainsley Shipman (17-2.75, 16^th/33), Rileigh McGree (16-10.75, 19^th)
Weight Throw- Savana Ramirez (55-7.75*, 6^th/32), Morgan Thomas (49-11, 12^th), Scout Nadeau (49-1, 15^th)

Women's Pentathlon- Whitney Morrison (3,905*, 2^nd/22), Kensey Gault (3,547, 9^th)
Pentathlon 60mH- Morrison (8.67*, 3^rd), Kensey Gault (8.70, 4^th)
Pentathlon high jump- Whitney Morrison (5-4.5*, 4^th), Kensey Gault (5-1, 10^th)
Pentathlon shot put- Whitney Morrison (37-10.75*, 3^rd), Kensey Gault (33-10.75, 10^th)
Pentathlon long jump- Whitney Morrison (17-9.5, 10^th), Kensey Gault (16-7.75, 13^th)
Pentathlon 800m- Whitney Morrison (2:19.21*, 3^rd), Kensey Gault (2:24.32, 5^th)

*Denotes PR
^Denotes school record