After two intense days of high-level competition, the Montana State Track and Field team returns to Bozeman with several top-notch performances under their belts. (
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At the Beach Invitational, hosted by Long Beach State in Cerritos, Calif., the Bobcats continued with strong performances and many Big Sky Conference Championships qualifying performances. The Big Sky Championships are being held May 11-14, in Sacramento, hosted by Sacramento State.
After a 3.75m performance at the Mt. SAC Relays, Stacey Irvine nearly matched her season best with a fourth place finishin the pole vault with a height of 3.74m. Both performances were improvements from her first time out this season, back on April 2.
Willie Sullivan finished fifth in the javelin (63.67m), which improves his rank within the Big Sky.
Heather Haug took Bobcat gold in the 3,000 steeplechase. The Livingston, Mont. native clocked in at 10:47.01, which ranks her second on the all-time performance list for MSU. Patrick Casey, as in the women's race for Haug, took first in the steeplechase with a time of 9:02.17.
In the 1,500, Nick Atwood bested his previous day's time, taking sixth place among 112 competitors in a time of 3:51.54.
At the Montana Open, an unscored meet hosted by the University of Montana, MSU wasted little time making their mark in the men's competition.
Gage Pickering and John McDonald finished one-two in the 100m with times of 10.94 and 11.04, respectively. Gage's time just missed the Big Sky Conference (BSC) automatic qualifier mark by four-hundredths of a second. Both performances should rank among the top-10 in the BSC. McDonald and Pickering were joined by Nick Melone in the 200 where McDonald took the gold, Melone, the silver (22.54) and Pickering the bronze (22.64). McDonald crossed the finish line in 22.50, also narrowly missing the Big Sky mark (22.00). Melone picked up a second medal of the day in the 400 with a third place finish time of 49.81.
Seth Garbett also nabbed a gold medal in the 3,000 steeplechase with a time of 9:50.95. MSU also took gold in the 4x100 when the quartet of Keenen Stangle-Melone-McDonald-Pickering collectively crossed the finish line in 43.07. The relays proved to be lucrative for MSU, when the Bobcats also won the 4x400 (Melone-Pickering-McDonald-Matt Tex; 3:25.36).
In the field events, MSU also garnered a fair share of hardware. Matt Nicholas earned second in the long jump (6.48) and Ryan Kropp took third in the Pole Vault (4.40m). In the throws, Michael Vaira earned the top spot in the shot put with a throw of 13.78. Will Rockett took third in the discus with a hurl of 44.57m. Eddie Stevenson placed second in the hammer throw, also narrowly missing the Big Sky mark with a distance of 49.35m.
For the women at the Montana Open, Olivia Rider was one of the top finishers for the Bobcats after earning dual golds in both the 100 (12.56) and the 200 (25.67). Joining Rider as one of the best of day was Lierin Flanagan who earned her BSC mark in the 400 with a time of 57.25.
Other top finishers for the Bobcat women included ReBecca Sorenson in the 5,000 (18:25.52) and Loni Havlovick in the shot put (13.10) who also made the Big Sky qualifier.
On Friday, Montana State also competed at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut, Calif. Casey finished in 10th place in the 1,500 Invitational Elite Division with a time of 3:43.69, which also marks a new MSU program. His impressive time is also a Big Sky qualifier and the top time in the conference.
Also in Walnut, many of the field events yielded impressive outcomes. Adam Hutter took 18th in the high jump with a Big Sky Qualifying mark of 2.00m, which ranks him among the top-five of the conference. Bobby Biskupiak took an impressive fifth place finish in the pole vault after launching himself to a 5.00m performance. His height also qualifies him for the Big Sky Championships and is among some of the best in the league. Much like his teammates, Nick Lam also had a break out week. He finished 22nd overall in the javelin with a conference- qualifying distance of 61.95m, nearly a seven meter improvement from the week before.
“We came into this weekend with a lot of anticipation of success,” said head coach Dale Kennedy. “We had a lot of great performances at a really high level of competition and it will only help us meet our goals at the conference meet.”
On April 23, Montana State will travel to Missoula, Mont. one more time this spring for the annual Cat-Griz Dual. Last year, Montana won both the women's and men's duals.
