Montana State earned 13 medals at the Big Sky Championships as the men finished in third place with 95.50 points and the women finished sixth with 67. Sacramento State won both the men's and women's titles with 133 and 144 points, respectively. (Complete Results)
The Bobcat women grabbed five medals, all silver, while the men garnered eight; four gold three silvers and a bronze.
Friday and Saturday's competition had several bright performances by MSU including 13 All-Big Sky Conference nods.
Camille Marchand finished second in both the 60 Meter Dash (7.57) and the 200 (24.40). The Pocatello, Idaho native also notched personal bests in both events. Jessie Greany took silver in the High Jump with a height of 1.67 (5-05.75).
The women's other medals came on Friday with Stacey Irvine's Pole Vault and Sarah McGree in the Pentathlon, who are also All-Big Sky selections.
While the women's relays did not finish in medal contention, they did set season's best times. The Distance Medley (Heather Demorest-Katie Niemeir- Madeline Fuchs-Heather Haug) set a new season best with a time of 12:05.95. In the 4x400 (McGree-Niemeir-Fuchs-Lierin Flanagan) clocked in at 3:48.66 and finished in fourth.
Most notably, the Men's Distance Medley (Patrick Casey-Nick Melone-Forrest Jarvi-Dan Jackson) earned a gold medal with a time of 9:58.66, a probable new school record for MSU, as well as All-Big Sky.
After winning the Shot Put on Friday, David Phillips used the momentum and also took home the gold in the Weight Throw. Phillips, who did not lose a single Weigh Throw competition this season, threw to a distance of 19.93 (65-04.75), which was also a personal best for the junior.
Morgan Norgaard finished behind Phillips in the Shot Put to give MSU a 1-2 finish.
The MSU Men had a strong showing in Pocatello in several events. Casey continued his own Big Sky dominance in the Mile which he won with a time of 4:10.23. In the Men's 3,000, Dan Jackson earned silver and also set a new personal record with a time of 8:22.46. Slater Powell also crossed the finish line second in the Hurdles with at time of 8.11. Jeff Mohl, who competed in several events over the course of the weekend, took third in the Heptathlon with 5,263 points.
“I thought our kids competed pretty darn well,” said head coach Dale Kennedy. “While we didn't get the team score outcome we had hoped for, we had a lot of lifetime bests this weekend and got several kids on the podium.”
The Big Sky Championships mark the close of the indoor track and field season for most of the squad; however, MSU may be sending a few athletes to an NCAA Qualifier on Mar. 5. Patrick Casey has already qualified in the Mile and the 800 for the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships being held Mar. 11-12 in College Station, Texas.
