Four Claim All-Conference Honors, Bobcat Men Lead at Big Sky Meet Thursday

Thursday, May 10

Moscow, ID

11 a.m.

Montana State University

Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships - Day Three

Photo by: Big Sky Conference

Four Claim All-Conference Honors, Bobcat Men Lead at Big Sky Meet Thursday

5/10/2018 9:48:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

Results

The Montana State men hold a lead in the team standings and a combined four Bobcats earned all-conference accolades Thursday, May 10, at the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships

By: Andrew Pedersen

MOSCOW, Idaho – The Montana State men hold a lead in the team standings and a combined four Bobcats earned all-conference accolades Thursday, May 10, at the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Idaho's Dan O'Brien Track and Field Complex.

The Bobcats' men's squad sits atop the team leaderboard with 44 points and seven of 21 events scored. Southern Utah (41) and Weber State (36) are narrowly behind Montana State while Sacramento State (26.50), Montana (25) and Northern Arizona (23.50) remain in striking distance.

MSU's men's team was led on Thursday by senior Kyle Douglass and junior Ty Mogan.

Douglass recorded his second straight outdoor season on the shot put podium by taking runner-up in the event. He reached a mark of 58 feet, 8 inches (17.88m) on his fourth throw to earn his fourth all-Big Sky showing of his collegiate career.

Mogan made the first podium appearance of his Bobcat tenure by taking second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. He produced eight points towards the MSU total by finishing his race in a time of 9 minutes, 8.6 seconds.

Registering points in field event and track event finals were Noah Martin, Alex Lewis, Kade Van Elswyk, Anthony Schmalz and Collin Buck.

Martin cleared 15-05.50 (4.71m) in the pole vault for a lifetime best and fourth-place finish. Lewis also placed fourth in the long jump with a leap of 24-00.75 (7.33m) on his fourth attempt. Van Elswyk, competing in his first Big Sky Championship, picked up a point for the Bobcat men by placing eighth in the javelin with a throw of 185-02 (56.45m). Schmalz placed eighth in the 3,000 steeplechase in a time of 9:39.40 and Collin Buck took seventh in the 10,000 by crossing the line in 31:16.41.

The Bobcats had several runners advance to Friday's finals races.

MSU had three Bobcats in the men's 800 preliminaries move into tomorrow's final.

Cameron Carroll (1:53.50) and Chris Bianchini (1:53.75) each finished second in their respective heat to qualify into the top eight in the 800. Samuel Bloom placed third in the first heat of the 800 with a time of 1:54.18, which eventually was the last mark to advance.

MSU senior Christopher Lange (53.80) and freshman Drake Schneider (54.55) captured the fastest times in their respective 400 hurdles heats to move into Friday's final. Also earning finals appearances in a respective event for the 'Cats Thursday were Diego Leon (1,500), Jadin Casey (400) and Mitch Horning (100).

"We slept in places and we out-did ourselves in places so it's kind of interesting how it came out," Montana State head coach Dale Kennedy said. "A couple teams had some things go wrong and we had some good moments.

"We really needed to get three guys through in the 800 and we did. Drake and Christopher looked really good in the 400 hurdles. We also got points in the javelin and 10,000 we weren't supposed to get, so things began to even out a bit. We're probably right about where we thought we'd be at the end of day one to have a shot at the title."

The Montana State women's team is currently in fifth with 24 points. The Bobcats trail North Dakota (52), Weber State (37.50), Northern Arizona (33) and Idaho State (27).

Junior Kelsi Lasota and Trisha Carlson picked up all-conference honors to lead the MSU women's squad.

Lasota crossed the line in the 10,000 in 35:05.11 for second place. She also racked up a runner-up finish during the indoor Big Sky meet. She was followed by freshman Samantha Kelderman who scored three points for MSU by taking sixth with a time of 35:25.34.

Carlson earned her first individual podium appearance at the Big Sky Championships of her Bobcat career by pacing MSU in the 3,000 steeplechase. The freshman tallied a time of 10:32.65 in the event. Junior Layne Oliver completed a season-best mark of 10:41.44 to finish fifth in the steeplechase and sophomore Anna French took eighth by coming in at 10:50.17

Amanda Jaynes and McKenna Ramsay advanced to the finals on Friday.

Jaynes picked up the top time in both the 100 hurdles (13.84) and 400 hurdles (59.54) to qualify for each event. Ramsay ran a season-best time of 55.42 to finish first in the opening heat of the 400 to move on to a finals race.

"On the women's side, Amanda ran fairly comfortably in both of her hurdles races and she should be ready to go for tomorrow," Kenned said. "Kelsi looked great tonight and made a move for the win in the 10,000, but the Southern Utah runner just closed down and Kelsi couldn't fight her off. Samantha had a great run for a freshman to get sixth in the race. That was a surprise for us."

Multiple Bobcats had marks that nearly put them into the top eight to score points or advance to a finals race.

Luke Middelstadt (pole vault), Schneider (110 hurdles), Parker Walton (400) and Horning (200) each took ninth in an event on the men's side. Mogan and Bill Yeager finished 10th in the 10,000 and 400, respectively. Calvin Root (49-11) also notched a season-best mark while taking 13th in the shot put.

Hailey Phillips placed 10th in the 400 hurdles while Megan Ralstin had the women's team's best field event finish Thursday with her 17th-place showing in the long jump. Brookelyn Palin and Adeline Richardson each recorded lifetime bests in the hammer throw, reaching 142-10 and 121-03, respectively.

The Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships close with the final day of action on Friday, May 11. The men's hammer throw opens the day's events at 10 a.m. MDT while track events are set to start at 3 p.m. Live results can be tracked on FinishedResults.com or on the FinishedResults mobile app. A live stream of the meet is available on channel 231 on the Pluto TV app as well as on WatchBigSky.com.