Head Montana State track and field coach Dale Kennedy had a tear in his eye when speaking about this year's track and field squads.
The second place team finish by the MSU men was the highest finish of any indoor squad Kennedy had ever coached. MSU had a total medal count of 20 for both squads, far surpassing the eight won in 2009.
“But that's not the most impressive thing about this team,” Kennedy said. “The leadership on this team is inspiring,” he said, holding back the tears. “These guys just give and give.”
Kennedy talked about the buzz that began running through the men's team last summer.
“Those guys were on a mission. They started thinking they could win this thing and then it just started to go from there. They've been working on this all season,” Kennedy said.
Montana State's men led the entire meet until after the men's 3000 when Northern Arizona's distance runners took first and second in the event and Nick Atwood placed third. After that, MSU was solid in second for the rest of the meet.
MSU women took fifth in the team portion of the meet with 73.5 points. That total included six all-conference honors with three conference championships. All-conference honorees included Kris Schaffer in the women's shot put (third place), Camille Marchand in the 55-meter dash (second) and Olivia Rider in the 200 (third). Heather Haug won a conference championship in the mile, Amanda Murphy took the shot put crown and Stacey Irvine got an NCAA qualifying mark and conference gold in the pole vault. Her medal marks the fifth consecutive indoor season that Bobcat women have won the pole vault event
On the men's side, the medal count was 14 including three individual medals won by junior Asa Staven and two each by sophomore Patrick Casey and junior Nick Atwood.
“Asa Staven is one of the most inspiring guys on this team,” Kennedy said. “He started warming up for the men's heptathlon at 8:00 in the morning on Friday and went all day Friday and all day Saturday giving everything he had.”
Staven placed second in the heptathlon, an eight-event marathon multi event over the course of two days. He also placed third in the individual long jump and third in the high jump.
Patrick Casey won the men's mile, one of the most anticipated events of the weekend, in a foot race with Northern Arizona's David McNeil, who sits atop the national ratings in the 3000 and 5000. Casey also placed second in the 800 just shortly after he ran the mile and ran a leg in the fourth place men's four-by-four hundred relay at the end of the meet on Saturday.
Senior Dustin Cichosz won the triple jump gold by one centimeter and Nick Atwood had a conference championship in the 5000 and a third in the 3000 behind NAU's David McNeil.
All-conference honors for the men also went to Bobby Biskupiak in the pole vault (third), the men's distance relay team of Tyler Heinz, Scott Peterson, Forrest Jarvi and Dan Jackson (third), and Pat Eckerson in the men's weight throw.
Sacramento State won the women's team crown and Northern Arizona won the men's team trophy.
Kennedy believes that Eckerson's medal in the first event of the meet on Friday got the team fired up.
“I think I would point to Eckerson's medal as the place where it all started,” Kennedy said. “When he got that medal early on Friday, the teams started talking about how they could do it. It wasn't anything we did as coaches,” Kennedy said. “Those kids just decided we aren't going to give this thing up.”
PDF of team results
PDF of Day Two results
