MSU Makes Podium Six Times Saturday to Close out Big Sky Championships

Saturday, May 11

Missoula, MT

9 a.m.

Montana State University

Big Sky Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Day Four

Photo by: Todd Goodrich

MSU Makes Podium Six Times Saturday to Close out Big Sky Championships

5/11/2019 9:21:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

Final Results

Montana State completed action at the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday, May 11, with several standout efforts. The Bobcats had six all-conference performances on the final day of the meet at Montana’s Dornblaser Field

By: Andrew Pedersen

MISSOULA, Mont. – Montana State completed action at the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday, May 11, with several standout efforts. The Bobcats had six all-conference performances on the final day of the meet at Montana's Dornblaser Field.

The Bobcat women's squad took fifth place with 70 points, narrowly finishing ahead of Northern Arizona which earned 65. MSU's men finished in seventh place with 64.5 points just behind Eastern Washington as the Eags captured 66. Sacramento State won the women's team title with 144 points, while Southern Utah won the men's championship in the final event of the meet and edged Northern Arizona 135.33-134.

"We had some really exciting stuff and some things that are really great for the future," said Lyle Weese, Montana State's director of track and field. "It's always a really good sign when you outperform what it looks like you'll do coming into a championship.

"It was great to see the people we had on the podium. There were quite a few outstanding performances."

The men's squad saw another member earn a gold medal at the meet as Drake Schneider repeated as the Big Sky 400-meter hurdles champion. Schneider and Southern Utah's Devon Montgomery raced down to the line and Schneider tumbled following the finish, but crossed the line one one-hundredth of a second ahead of Montgomery for first place. The Bobcat sophomore's time of 51.27 seconds set a new school record in the event and topped his lifetime best he set in the preliminaries by a quarter of a second.

"Coming off the second to last hurdle, I saw (Montgomery) fly by me," Schneider said. "I knew it was going to come down to who had the better last hurdle. If I didn't hit that one right, I knew I'd lose a lot of ground. At the end, I honestly didn't know that I'd won, it was that close. It was a great race and we both put down some awesome times."

Junior Wyatt Thompson-Siporen earned his second silver medal of the outdoor championships as he took second in the men's pole vault. Thompson-Siporen, who finished runner-up in the decathlon, cleared 16 feet, 5.50 inches (5.02m) along with Eastern Washington's Larry Still. Thompson-Siporen had more misses in the effort which led to Still claiming gold in the event. The MSU vaulter's mark was the 10th best in program history.

"I definitely am trying to come out here and win the thing," Thompson-Siporen said. "I had a good shot today. I put myself in position to do it. Just didn't quite have that last bar. It was super fun competing with those guys, they're great."

The Bobcats had four more all-conference showings on Saturday.

Freshman Derrick Olsen set a lifetime best in the men's 110 hurdles to take third in the finals with a time of 14.32. Olsen picked up a bronze medal, his first of his Bobcat career, and his performance placed him fourth on MSU's all-time top 10 in the event.

"It's incredible," Olsen said of his third-place finish. "I've been running on a hurt hamstring all week. I had to wrap it up and it's been a little uncomfortable. I didn't do anything all week, didn't run. We got here the first day and I only went over one hurdle. I'm just really excited to be here right now."

Montana State's women's team was bolstered by its sprints group.

Sophomore Morgan Evans earned an all-conference finish for the first time in her collegiate career. Evans placed third in the 100 hurdles with a personal-best time of 13.83, placing her alone in fourth on the program's all-time top 10 list.

"My goal was to get at least top two because I was ranked second coming in," Evans said. "But, I'm perfectly fine with getting third. Last year was a really rough year for me, I didn't even make finals. I really improved a lot so I'm happy."

Junior McKenna Ramsay earned two bronze medals on Saturday. Ramsay served as the anchor leg of MSU's 4x400 relay squad that finished third to end the meet. The relay of Courtney Stromme, Haile Norred, Krieger and Ramsay completed a season-best time of 3:45.01. Ramsay also finished third in the 400 by crossing the line in 54.38. Her time was a lifetime best by a half second and improved her fourth fastest mark in school history.

"I've been struggling to put together a really good 400 this year," Ramsay said. "Going into this, I knew exactly what I needed to focus on to get there. I'm really happy with it."

Montana State's women's team had nine other performances that contributed to the squad's point total.

The Bobcats' 4x100 relay squad of Truanne Roginske, Stromme, Evans and Ramsay finished fourth in a time of 46.63, which was the ninth fastest all-time by a Bobcat relay. Hailey Phillips completed a personal-best time in the 400 hurdles of 1:01.68 to take fifth in the event. Krieger finished sixth in the 400 by crossing the line in 56.41 and Roginske took seventh in the 100 with a mark of 12.38.

Kelsi Lasota and Camila Noe combined to score five points for the Bobcats in the 5,000. Lasota (17:18.13) and Noe (17:22.68) finished sixth and seventh, respectively. Lucy Corbett placed sixth in the high jump as she cleared 5-07.25 (1.71m). Madi Arneson made her first impact on a team score at a conference meet, as she finished sixth in the discus behind a throw of 147-00 (44.80m). Elena Carter, despite dropping off the pack due to hitting a hurdle, took seventh in the 100 hurdles to score two points for the Bobcats.

Senior Luke Middelstadt scored five points for the MSU men in the pole vault. He cleared a season-best 15-05.75 (4.72m) to take fourth in the event. Henry Adams, who took 13th in the pole vault, also placed sixth in the 110 hurdles by crossing the line in 14.75. Alex Lewis tied for sixth in the triple jump by recording a mark of 47-07.25 (14.51m). Both of the Bobcats' men's relays set season-best times and each took seventh. Lewis, Bill Yeager, Parker Walton and Zach Smith ran the 4x100 relay and Walton, Schneider, Jadin Casey and Jared Schwend represented MSU in the 4x400 relay.

A variety of Bobcat athletes were nearly in position to contribute to the team totals and several others had breakout individual performances.

Brock Winegar earned a ninth-place finish in the javelin for the men's side, while Roginske took ninth in the women's triple jump. Trisha Carlson also took 11th in the women's 1,500.

Cooper West led the Bobcat men in a stacked 5,000 field by taking 12th in a time of 15:21.17. Duncan Hamilton finished behind him in 13th with his best time at MSU of 15:22.40. On the women's side, Madison Liechty had a lifetime best in the 5,000 with her mark of 18:15.76. Brock McCue and Josh Mertz each set personal-best marks in the men's shot put. McCue completed a toss of 51-07.25 (15.73) and Mertz followed with a 50-07.50 (15.43) as the two placed 12th and 13th, respectively. Twila Reovan also earned a personal best in the women's triple jump as her mark of 37-10.00 (11.53m) put her in 12th overall.

The end of the Big Sky Conference Outdoor Championships signifies the conclusion of the 2018-19 slate for a majority of the track and field program. A group of Bobcats will continue to train and prepare for the NCAA West Preliminary Round that takes place in Sacramento, California.

To go along with MSU's outdoor results, the Bobcats previously took runner-up in both the men's and women's competition at the Big Sky Conference Indoor Championships this past February.

"It was really great to look back at the indoor championships hosting them in Bozeman and having a really good team performance," Weese said. "We've really used this outdoor season to build towards future years. We feel like we're going to be really strong for years to come for both the men and women."

The NCAA will release its selections for the NCAA West Region meet this upcoming week. The top 48 performers in each region can qualify for the meet and have an opportunity to advance to the NCAA Championships.