Montana State Returns to The Podium for the WSU Open

Thursday, February 2

Spokane, WA

TBA

Montana State University

WSU Open & Combined Events

Michael Swan

Photo by: WSU Athletics

2/1/2023 3:36:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

Meet Schedule Accepted Entries Livestream ($)Live Results

The Montana State track and field team has its biggest meet of the year so far this week.

BOZEMAN, Mont. – The full Montana State track and field team is back in action this week, as the Bobcats travel to The Podium in Spokane, Wash. for the Washington State University Open and Combined Events meet on Feb. 2-4.

Thursday's action begins with the men's heptathlon at 1 p.m. MT, followed by the women's pentathlon at 1:30 p.m. The meet will be live streamed on RunnerSpace, albeit behind a paywall. Links to the live results and the live stream can be found on the men's and women's track teams' schedule pages on msubobcats.com.

With 20 Division I schools, seven non-Division I teams and a handful of professionals registered, the WSU Open and Combined Events will be the biggest meet of the season so far. All Big Sky Conference schools save for Northern Colorado will be in attendance, making this meet an invaluable opportunity for the Bobcats to see where they stack up against conference competitors.

The first event on deck for the Bobcats on Friday is the women's weight throw, which is scheduled to start at 1:30 p.m. MT. Senior Leah Klein is seeded fifth out of 61 throwers in the event with a mark of 18.19m. Then at 3 p.m. MT, Lucy Corbett and 33 high jumpers are set to compete; Corbett has the top mark on the heat sheet with the 1.89m bar she cleared at the Bobcat PReview meet in December.

Friday's track action begins with the women's 800 meters. The 800 and mile double is the popular choice amongst the Bobcats for this meet: Madison Smith has the fastest seed time with a 2:13.03 out of eight MSU runners who are signed up for the event.

For the men, Chris Bianchini has the fourth-fastest time at a 1:49.84 — a post-converted time he ran at altitude in Worthington Arena during the Bobcat Challenge earlier this month. He is one of four sub-1:50 half-milers in the event and one of 11 MSU men's distance runners on the heat sheet.

Competing in a 200-meter-dash heat with more than 95 runners entered, Macy White leads the Bobcats with a seed time of 24.54. For the men, Stryder Todd-Fields' time of 22.14 is the fastest amongst six Bobcats who will toe the line in the men's 200 meters, which is set to start at around 5:40 p.m. MT.

Wrapping up Friday's action, Matt Furdyk and four of his teammates will compete in the men's weight throw at around 6 p.m. MT. With a mark of 19.69m, Furdyk leads a field of 32 throwers set to compete in the event.

A full day of track and field action is scheduled for Saturday. The 60-meter hurdle prelims are the first track event of the day for MSU on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. MT. School record holder Elena Carter has the fourth-fastest time out of 55 hurdlers in the event; should she advance to the finals, she will have two attempts at breaking her own school record, which she set at The Podium two weeks ago.

Then, the women's pole vault and shot put kick off the field action at noon MT on Saturday, with Maisee Brown and Jordan Fink entered with the top marks for MSU, respectively. Out on the runway, Twila Reovan comes in with the eighth-best mark in the triple jump, which is scheduled for 1 p.m. MT. Third-ranked Ian Fosdick and the men will follow at 3 p.m. MT.

Elsewhere in the field events, the men's pole vault will be highlighted by Colby Wilson, who is fresh off breaking the Big Sky Conference's pole vault record last week at the UNM Team Open.

Third-seeded Camila Noe and six of her teammates will toe the line for the women's mile at 2:20 p.m. Saturday's race will be all seven runners' season debuts in the indoor mile, and of that group, Noe (4:52.72), Mya Dube (4:55.39), Kendra Lusk (4:58.81) and Lindsey Paulson are all seeded with times under five minutes. Duncan Hamilton is the only runner with a sub-four mile slated to compete in the men's race, in which 10 of the 11 MSU runners entered will be making their season debuts.

In the short distances, Will Anderson comes in with the fourth-fastest seed time in the men's 400 meters with a time of 47.13. Speaking of the 400 meters, MSU's women's 4x400-meter relay of Morgan Hanson, Caroline Hawkes, Giulia Gandolfi and Peyton Garrison will close the meet by facing their toughest competition of the season.

Following this meet, Montana State will return to Worthington Arena to host the Bobcat Performance Meet, held on Feb. 10. All meet information can be found on the men's and women's track team's schedule pages on msubobcats.com.