Montana's top athletes head to California for trio of meets

Thursday, April 17

Long Beach, Calif.

Montana

Pacific Coast Invitational

Photo by: Ryan Brennecke/ University of Montana

Montana's top athletes head to California for trio of meets

4/15/2025 1:31:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

By: Montana Sports Information

The Montana track and field team will head to California this week for a trio of meets in the Golden State. The Grizzlies will enter athletes in the Pacific Coast Invitational and Beach Invitational hosted at Long Beach State, and the Bryan Clay Invitational at Azusa Pacific.

It's the third full meet week of the season for the bulk of Montana's roster. Whitney Morrison was the only athlete to compete last weekend, scoring 5,327 points in the heptathlon at the Bryan Clay Multis and earning Big Sky Athlete of the Week honors.

Now, the rest of the Griz travel party will look to follow Morrison's lead in Southern California.

"It's a trip we look forward to every year, being able to take the top end of our roster who through the indoor season and early part of outdoor season, has earned their ticket to California," head coach Doug Fraley said. "It's a great venue, always tremendous competition from all over the country out there at those two meets, and it's really an opportunity for the top end of our roster to make some moves in the quality of their performances this week."

The meets will feature some of the best teams from across the west, and also a lot of Big Sky teams. It gives Montana a much better idea of where they stack up as they inch closer to the Big Sky Championships in May.

There will be big fields across all events, giving the Grizzlies good competition to try to improve upon marks as they near the mid-point of the outdoor season.

The Grizzlies will start things off on Thursday with a pair of meets. The bulk of the travel party will be at Long Beach State for the Pacific Coast Invitational, a one-day meet. The Grizzlies will also have a pair of distance runners competing at the Bryan Clay Invitational.

They will close out the weekend with the two-day Beach Invitational back at Long Beach State. It will give most of the Grizzly athletes two attempts at their events, and a chance to improve upon personal bests and move up in the league's performance lists.

"This is kind of a moving weekend in college track and field. You get to mid April and by then everybody is competing in their key events," Fraley said. "Especially this weekend with all the invitationals going on down in Southern California that so many schools go to, you will have a really good idea after this weekend where you stand as far as the Big Sky Conference goes because every school will be out there and going hard."

The Grizzlies have a couple of the Big Sky's best marks this year in the men's javelin with Matthew Hockett (223-2) and Morrison's heptathlon score (5,327). There are seven more individuals in the top three of the league currently.

Ashley Carroll is second in the women's javelin after a throw of 147-1 at the Whitworth Peace Meet. Erin Wilde is second in the high jump with her season-opening mark of 5-10 at the Al Manuel Invitational.

Savana Ramirez is currently third in the league in the women's hammer with a mark of 176-0 recorded on opening weekend.

The men also have a pair of athletes, both vertical jumpers, right off the Big Sky lead in the performance lists. Patrick Kremer has the second-best high jump mark in the league with his 6-9 jump at the Whitworth Peace Meet and Carson Weeden is second at 16-7.5 in the pole vault.

Kevin Swindler is right behind Weeden in the event at 16-3.5. Freshman Braden Ankeny is also currently in the top three in the men's 200m with a time of 21.31.

The Grizzlies have plenty of athletes inside the top 10 in the league, but as the competition heats up they will need to continue making progress to stay towards the top. California provides a great opportunity for some Grizzlies to set new PRs and continue to make progress through the outdoor season.

"This is a weekend where you either start moving or you start getting left behind in the league standings," Fraley said.

MONTANA MEN'S ENTRIES

Bryan Clay Invitational
800m- Truman Thompson, Lane Cole
1,500m- Lane Cole, Truman Thompson

Pacific Coast Intercollegiate
100m- Karsen Beitz, Cooper Hewett, Malaki Simpson
200m- Karsen Beitz, Braden Ankeny, Malaki Simpson, Cooper Hewett
400m- Braden Ankeny, Ty Ferguson
400mH- Cutter Thatcher
4x100m- Simpson, Ankeny, Beitz, Hewett
High Jump- Patrick Kremer
Pole Vault- Carson Weeden, Carson Hegele, Kevin Swindler, Corbin Luce
Long Jump- Gordon McMillion, Caiden Sekuterski
Shot put- Alex Shields, Donaven Humphries
Hammer- Donaven Humphries
Javelin- Matthew Hockett, Kyle Iorg

MONTANA WOMEN'S ENTRIES

Pacific Coast Intercollegiate
100m- Tara Ohlwiler, Lily Meskers, Rileigh McGree,
200m- Tara Ohlwiler, Lily Meskers, Sophia Clark, Jayel Dovichak,
400m- Sophia Clark, Claire Hutchison
100mH- Jayel Dovichak, Ainsley Shipman
4x100m- Meskers, McGree, Clark, Ohlwiler, Dovichak
High Jump- Erin Wilde
Pole Vault- Samantha Serex, Shealyne McGee, Molly Chambers, Emma Zimmerman-Weeden
Long Jump- Ainsley Shipman
Discus- Morgan Thomas
Hammer- Savana Ramirez, Morgan Thomas, Scout Nadeau
Shot Put- Scout Nadeau, Morgan Thomas,
Javelin- Ashley Carroll, Ella Moodry