Bobcat PReview Meet Rescheduled for December 7

Camila Noe

Photo by: Bobcat Creative Services

12/2/2022 1:00:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

Montana State's season opener was postponed due to a bleacher retraction malfunction, yet the Bobcats will be back in action next Wednesday.

BOZEMAN, Mont. – The Montana State track and field team's season opener originally scheduled for Thursday, December 1 has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Dec. 7.

The meet was initially postponed due to a bleacher retraction malfunction in Worthington Arena earlier this week. Now, the Bobcat PReview is scheduled to start at 3:30 p.m. with the men's weight throw, then the women's mile will kick off the track action at 5 p.m. Links to live results will be uploaded to the men's and women's track and field team's schedule pages on msubobcats.com in the coming days. Wednesday's meet will also feature several in-state competitors, giving the Bobcats ample competition after training against each other for several months this fall.

Led by fifth year Dale Kennedy Director of Track & Field/Cross Country Lyle Weese, Montana State's track and field team brings back several Big Sky Conference medalists, school record holders and NCAA qualifiers from last year's historic campaign. The Bobcats sent high jumper Lucy Corbett and distance runner Duncan Hamilton to the indoor national championships, yet the team outdid themselves during the outdoor season with five individuals qualifying for NCAAs. Despite having only four men compete, the Bobcats had three All-Americans and placed 25th in the team standings at the outdoor championships.

Four indoor school record holders return for the women's team, who look to improve on their fourth-place standing at the 2022 Big Sky Indoor Track and Field Championships. The aforementioned Corbett will try qualifying for the NCAA Indoor Championships again in the high jump after going undefeated in the regular season and earning All-American status by placing eighth at nationals.

Montana State's 60-meter dash school-record holder Macy White, plus Big Sky 60-meter hurdles champ Elena Carter highlight a women's sprint squad that accounted for 20 of the team's 67 points at the conference meet a year ago. Carter, who also ranks fourth all-time in the long jump, also contributes for MSU's jumps squad that scored 24 of the team's 67 points at the conference championships last year, which led all disciplines.

On the distance side, Bozeman High alumna Camila Noe comes back for her final year and hopes to improve on her standing as the Big Sky runner-up in both the 3,000 meters and the 5,000 meters last year. Noe smashed the indoor school record in the 5K with a 16:05.68 last year and she ranks second in the 3,000 meters (9:17.69) and fifth in the indoor mile (4:49.85).

She'll be joined by sophomore Mya Dube, who had a breakout cross-country season this fall, plus true freshman Lindsey Paulson, graduate transfer Ava Weems and her high school teammate Alex Moore as the Bobcat women's distance team looks like a group that will be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years.

On the men's side, the Bobcats bring back all but four athletes from their third-place team at the Big Sky Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Accomplished distance runner Duncan Hamilton is the only Bobcat with experience competing at both NCAA indoor and outdoor track and field championships, yet he will be joined by one of the strongest men's distance running squads in program history. Ben Perrin, a Kalispell, Mont. native with the school record in the 5,000 meters, plus cross country All-American Matthew Richtman will help the Bobcats score points at the Big Sky Championships as the team squares off against national powerhouse Northern Arizona.

Hamilton and Matthew Richtman will make their indoor debuts this weekend at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener this Saturday, yet the rest of the indoor track team will make their debuts on Wednesday.

Aside from the distance group, the team returns two school-record holders, Big Sky pole vault champion Colby Wilson and three of the four legs of MSU's conference title-winning 4x400-meter relay team. Sprinters Julian Hazen, Will Anderson and mid-distance runner Chris Bianchini will be some of the fastest short-distance runners in the conference, while Ian Fosdick and Carter Slade will look to lead the Bobcats in the jumps and throws, respectively.

Montana State has 31 newcomers across the men's and women's teams this year, including 29 true freshmen and a pair of transfers in pole vaulter Kyle Yonker (Western Colorado) and thrower Tristen Sedgwick (Montana Tech).

The Bobcats will have four home meets and two trips to The Podium in Spokane, Wash. before the Big Sky Championships in Moscow, Idaho from Feb. 23-25. All home meet information and schedule updates can be found on both track and field teams' schedule pages on msubobcats.com.