Grizzlies to face best of the West at NCAA First Round Meet

NCAA WEST FIRST ROUND
May 28-31 / College Station, Texas
WATCH / LIVE RESULTS / MEET CENTRAL

The Montana track and field program will have five athletes competing this week at the NCAA West First Round meet hosted by Texas A&M in College Station, Texas. The Griz will send one Big Sky Champion and four All-Conference performers to Texas.

It will be a mix of youth and experience representing the Grizzlies with two seniors, one junior, one sophomore, and one freshman all making the trip south. The group has four combined appearances at Regionals with two each from Matthew Hockett and Erin Wilde.

The action will begin on Wednesday afternoon with the men's javelin at 1:30 p.m. (MT) with Grizzlies competing Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.

"These kids are so deserving and we're excited to see what they can do against the best athletes in the western part of the United State," head coach Doug Fraley said. "It's a lot of fun to take a good group, especially a mixture between underclassmen and fifth year people, and I'm just really proud of all of them and looking forward to watching them under the bright lights in College Station."

Matthew Hockett and Kyle Iorg will both be representing Montana in the men's javelin competition, which has been a strength for the Grizzlies historically. Since the NCAA switched to two Regional First Round meets in 2010, Montana has had a men's javelin thrower at every meet.

It's the third appearance for Hockett at the regional meet. He finished runner-up at the Big Sky Championship in Sacramento two weeks ago with a throw of 213-2. Hockett's best throw of the season came on March 28 at the Al Manuel Invitational. He won the meet with a career-best mark of 223-2.

Iorg finished 3^rd at the Big Sky Championship with a mark of 209-4. He's improved steadily throughout the course of his freshman season. After throwing under 200 feet at his first two meets, he has since gone over that mark in four straight.

His PR came on May 3 at the Bengal Invitational, which he won with a throw of 226-10. It put him through ranked 21^st in the region. Hockett enters ranked 28^th. The top 12 athletes after just three throws will advance to the NCAA Championship at Hayward Field.

"It's awesome to have two javelin throwers on the men's side. For Matt Hockett, this is his third regionals and for Kyle it's a brand new experience. I know that Matt would like to do better than he has ever done at the regional meet and certainly he is prepared to do so. For Kyle, what a great experience to be able to go in as a true freshman and find out what that meet is all about. He's certainly capable of doing well, but it's just huge to get there and really find out what it's like to compete in that meet and in such an odd format with just three throws."

Carson Weeden will be the next Grizzly to take the field in Texas, competing in the men's pole vault at 4:30 p.m. Montana has had a representative in the NCAA First Round in the men's pole vault in all three years that Doug Fraley has been head coach.

Weeden broke the Montana school record at the Big Sky Championship in Sacramento two weeks ago by going 17-4.5 to finish in 2^nd. He had a triple PR performance on the day and pushed the five-time Big Sky Champion Colby Wilson within one miss of defeat.

It's been a fantastic journey to this point for Weeden. The Fergus HS graduate started his Grizzly career in 2021 with a mark of 13-11.75 at a home meet and has shown improvement each and every year. He cleared 15-feet for the first time as a sophomore, reached the 16-foot mark as a junior.

After redshirting in 2024, Weeden returned for his best year yet in 2025, going over 16-feet in every outdoor meet and clearing 17-feet in the final three. He no-heighted his freshman and junior years at the Big Sky Championships and finished 11^th as a sophomore. He got redemption in 2025 with a performance for the record books.

Weeden will enter ranked 27^th in the region.

"I'm so happy to see Carson get to this meet," Fraley said. "He's hungry for more. Carson is vaulting really well right now and he's not just going to the regional meet to say that he went there, he's really looking forward to going and trying to improve his personal record and raise the school record again. It's a great opportunity for him and I just couldn't be happier for a guy that has worked so hard to go from a 13-foot vaulter to a 17-4 vaulter."

Montana's next competitor will be Ashley Carroll in the women's javelin competition Thursday at 1:30 p.m. Carroll is the first women's javelin thrower to qualify for Montana since Kimberly Earhart in 2021.

The sophomore from Shepherd, Mont. has been a breakout star for the Grizzlies over the past two seasons after walking-on with the program as a late addition. The two-time Class B State Champion in high school has been fantastic in two seasons with Montana, finishing 4^th in the Big Sky as a freshman and 2^nd this year for All-Conference honors.

"She was just a student at MSU in the fall semester last year. She moved to Missoula, decided she wanted to throw the javelin, so we let her walk-on last spring and she ended up finishing 4^th as a freshman and making the podium this year," Fraley said. "She's been a tremendous success story for somebody that didn't even go to college originally to be an athlete."

Carroll's best throw of the season, which snuck her into the field in 47^th place, came in the regular season finale in Pocatello, Idaho. Carroll finished 2^nd at the Bengal Invitational with a mark of 152-7. She followed up that performance with a runner-up finish at the Big Sky Championship with a throw of 141-10.

"She will have an opportunity to go compete against the best 48 west of the Mississippi and that's a lot of tremendous athletes," Fraley said. "For her to experience that as an underclassman is so valuable to be able to compete against that caliber of athlete and see what it takes to qualify for the NCAA Championships."

Montana's regional schedule concludes on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. with the women's high jump. For the third straight year, Erin Wilde will throw her hat into the ring against the 48 best in the west.

The five-time Big Sky Champion has had an up-and-down outdoor season while dealing with some minor injuries, but performed at her best in Sacramento at the Big Sky Championships. Wilde cleared 5-8.75 to win her third straight outdoor high jump title.

She became one of just eight Grizzly women to ever win five Big Sky Championships between indoors and outdoors. She joins Sammy Evans (triple jump) as the only Grizzly women to win five individual titles in a field event.

Wilde's top jump this season came at the first outdoor meet of the year as she cleared 5-10 to win the Al Manuel Invitational. Two weeks prior, Wilde won the Big Sky indoor title by clearing 6-feet for the first time in her career.

The Whitefish product will be ranked 34^th going into the meet. She finished 38^th in her first year and 27^th last year, and will look to take another step as a junior.

"Erin has been there every year. Her first year there she cleared the opening height. The second year she cleared the opening height and a second bar," Fraley said. "She's looking to make progress again this year, and if you make that third bar you're going to really be jumping for something. I know her aim is to go there, compete hard, and do better than she's done in the last two years."

Grizzlies to face best of the West at NCAA First Round Meet

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Players Mentioned

Ashley Carroll

Matthew Hockett

Kyle Iorg

Carson Weeden

Erin Wilde

University of Montana Athletics