Rudy Wins Eighth Championship - MSU Women in Lead After Day One
5/15/2009 12:00:00 AM | Track & Field
“I know you’re not supposed to concentrate on winning, but today I just wanted to win,” Rudy said. "That was a pretty big deal to me to win that eighth championship. I haven’t had my best season this year, so I was really excited to be able to get that win.”
Rudy has set a meet record in all eight of her individual conference championships as well.
“I think this is a huge accomplishment for me considering I have no-heighted a couple times this year. Now I feel like I've really accomplished something this year,” Rudy said.
One of the best parts of the day for Rudy was teammate Brittany Speirs coming in third in the pole vault and having her stand on that podium with her. Speirs tied a season’s best 12’1.5” to take third place behind Rudy and Sacramento State’s Ericka Violett.
Friday’s meet started out with a strong performance in the men’s hammer where MSU freshman David Phillips unloaded a personal best toss of 189’2” to take second in the event and qualify for the NCAA regional meet in two weeks. Phillips was quick to credit teammate Pat Eckerson for helping him straighten out his form after his first throw went into the throwing cage nets for a foul. Coach Mike Carignan pointed out that Phillips will be one of only a few freshman at the regionals in the hammer.
“Sometimes we forget that freshman have never thrown the hammer before. It’s not a high school event,” Carignan said. “There won’t be many freshman at regionals and I expect David will make some more gains before then. He came in here and rather than just take a safe throw and get some points for the team, he went for it. He looked like a fifth year senior out there.”
Eckerson placed third in the hammer giving the Bobcats two all-conference honors in the event.
In the women’s shot put, the ‘Cats also had two all-conference performances. Junior Alli Jones, who won the event indoors, took second with a final throw of 48’2.75” and was followed by teammate Kris Shaffer in third with a toss of 46’11.75”, which qualified her for the regional meet.
“Regionals was my goal for this meet,” Shaffer said. “I wanted to be able to go with my teammates.”
Those teammates include Jones, and Amanda Murphy, who placed fourth in the shot put. Both Jones and Murphy already had regional qualifying marks in the shot.
Another big performance for MSU was turned in by junior Matt Adams placing second in the 3000 meter steeple chase. Adams led the event until the last 50 meters when Weber State’s Jace Nye pulled away to win. Adams’ time of 9:03.14 was a personal best. He started out at conference as a freshman in the event not placing, then made the top ten last year, and this year had a breakout performance in the event.
“I’ve always been better at starting in the back and working my way up,” Adams said. “But this year I started going out quicker because there’s no barriers for the first part of the race and I thought I could gain a couple seconds that way. But since I was trying to run for place and not time to get some points for the team, I started in the back again but was able to work myself up towards the front pretty quickly.”
“It’s pretty amazing what he did,” head coach Dale Kennedy said. “I know it’s hard to tell by watching but his performance was pretty unbelievable. He already had a regional time, so he was basically running for place but he ended up running to win.”
MSU’s women javelin throwers took second, fourth and sixth with Emily Tyrell placing second with a throw of 149’6”, almost 17 feet short of her season best. Tyrell had been hampered earlier in the year by an injury.
“In outdoor, there are just so many factors,” Tyrell said. “I felt good and may arm felt good, but it just wasn’t my day.”
Senior Dan Johnson had the fastest qualifying time in the 400. Freshman Nick Puckett also made tomorrow’s final. Freshman Patrick Casey posted the fastest qualifying time in the 800. Johnson also made the final in the 200.
Senior Autumn Domitrovich posted the fastest qualifying time in the 200. Toni Qunell also made tomorrow’s final. Domitrovich also qualified for Saturday’s 100 final.
After eight of 21 events have been scored for the women, Montana State has the lead with 65 points. MSU’s men are in fourth after six events.
Women’s Team Scores
School
Score
1 Montana State 65
2 Sacramento State 57
3 Montana 42
3 Idaho State 42
5 Northern Arizona 37
6 Eastern Washington 20
7 Weber State 23
8 Portland State 14
9 Northern Colorado 12
Men’s Team Scores
1 Northern Arizona 57
2 Weber State 45
3 Idaho State 38
4 Montana State 32
5 Sacramento State 24
6 Montana 14
7 Portland State 13
8 Eastern Washington 8
9 Northern Colorado 3
Full events results are available at www.montanagrizzlies.com.
Pictures are available in the photo gallery at www.msubobcats.com
Rudy has set a meet record in all eight of her individual conference championships as well.
“I think this is a huge accomplishment for me considering I have no-heighted a couple times this year. Now I feel like I've really accomplished something this year,” Rudy said.
One of the best parts of the day for Rudy was teammate Brittany Speirs coming in third in the pole vault and having her stand on that podium with her. Speirs tied a season’s best 12’1.5” to take third place behind Rudy and Sacramento State’s Ericka Violett.
Friday’s meet started out with a strong performance in the men’s hammer where MSU freshman David Phillips unloaded a personal best toss of 189’2” to take second in the event and qualify for the NCAA regional meet in two weeks. Phillips was quick to credit teammate Pat Eckerson for helping him straighten out his form after his first throw went into the throwing cage nets for a foul. Coach Mike Carignan pointed out that Phillips will be one of only a few freshman at the regionals in the hammer.
“Sometimes we forget that freshman have never thrown the hammer before. It’s not a high school event,” Carignan said. “There won’t be many freshman at regionals and I expect David will make some more gains before then. He came in here and rather than just take a safe throw and get some points for the team, he went for it. He looked like a fifth year senior out there.”
Eckerson placed third in the hammer giving the Bobcats two all-conference honors in the event.
In the women’s shot put, the ‘Cats also had two all-conference performances. Junior Alli Jones, who won the event indoors, took second with a final throw of 48’2.75” and was followed by teammate Kris Shaffer in third with a toss of 46’11.75”, which qualified her for the regional meet.
“Regionals was my goal for this meet,” Shaffer said. “I wanted to be able to go with my teammates.”
Those teammates include Jones, and Amanda Murphy, who placed fourth in the shot put. Both Jones and Murphy already had regional qualifying marks in the shot.
Another big performance for MSU was turned in by junior Matt Adams placing second in the 3000 meter steeple chase. Adams led the event until the last 50 meters when Weber State’s Jace Nye pulled away to win. Adams’ time of 9:03.14 was a personal best. He started out at conference as a freshman in the event not placing, then made the top ten last year, and this year had a breakout performance in the event.
“I’ve always been better at starting in the back and working my way up,” Adams said. “But this year I started going out quicker because there’s no barriers for the first part of the race and I thought I could gain a couple seconds that way. But since I was trying to run for place and not time to get some points for the team, I started in the back again but was able to work myself up towards the front pretty quickly.”
“It’s pretty amazing what he did,” head coach Dale Kennedy said. “I know it’s hard to tell by watching but his performance was pretty unbelievable. He already had a regional time, so he was basically running for place but he ended up running to win.”
MSU’s women javelin throwers took second, fourth and sixth with Emily Tyrell placing second with a throw of 149’6”, almost 17 feet short of her season best. Tyrell had been hampered earlier in the year by an injury.
“In outdoor, there are just so many factors,” Tyrell said. “I felt good and may arm felt good, but it just wasn’t my day.”
Senior Dan Johnson had the fastest qualifying time in the 400. Freshman Nick Puckett also made tomorrow’s final. Freshman Patrick Casey posted the fastest qualifying time in the 800. Johnson also made the final in the 200.
Senior Autumn Domitrovich posted the fastest qualifying time in the 200. Toni Qunell also made tomorrow’s final. Domitrovich also qualified for Saturday’s 100 final.
After eight of 21 events have been scored for the women, Montana State has the lead with 65 points. MSU’s men are in fourth after six events.
Women’s Team Scores
School
Score
1 Montana State 65
2 Sacramento State 57
3 Montana 42
3 Idaho State 42
5 Northern Arizona 37
6 Eastern Washington 20
7 Weber State 23
8 Portland State 14
9 Northern Colorado 12
Men’s Team Scores
1 Northern Arizona 57
2 Weber State 45
3 Idaho State 38
4 Montana State 32
5 Sacramento State 24
6 Montana 14
7 Portland State 13
8 Eastern Washington 8
9 Northern Colorado 3
Full events results are available at www.montanagrizzlies.com.
Pictures are available in the photo gallery at www.msubobcats.com
Wednesday, June 10
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Friday, March 13
