Half-Milers Highlight Bobcats' First Day at the WSU Open

Photo by: Sawyer Haupt

Half-Milers Highlight Bobcats' First Day at the WSU Open

2/3/2023 8:07:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

All eight MSU women in the 800-meter dash ran lifetime-best times during the first full day of action at The Podium.

SPOKANE, Wash. – The Bobcat track and field team wrapped up day one of its biggest meet of the year with a slew of lifetime bests on the track at the WSU Open in Spokane, Wash. on Friday.

Montana State picked up three wins, as Duncan Hamilton (men's 800 meters), Lucy Corbett (women's high jump), and Matt Furdyk (men's weight throw) took first in their respective events. Two more all-time top-10 marks were achieved at the meet with Hamilton's 1:50.51 in the 800 meters (8th all-time) and freshman sprinter Caroline Hawkes' 24.67 in the 200 meters (9th all-time).

Yet the Bobcat women stole the show in the 800-meter dash. All eight runners who competed in the 800 set lifetime bests at The Podium — and several of MSU's women's distance runners hadn't run an 800 since their high school days. Grace Gilbreth and Mya Dube won their respective heats, plus MSU had four of the top 10 times in the 800 meters, which was more than any other school at the meet.

Showing assertiveness despite starting the race in the outside box, Gilbreth took a commanding lead at the break line of the first lap in her heat of the 800 meters. She held off Gonzaga's Brittney Hansen and fellow MSU sophomore Kendra Lusk over the next 600 meters to finish with a lifetime-best time of 2:15.99 in her collegiate debut in the event.

In the next heat, Dube took an early lead, fended off Lindsey Paulson (lifetime-best 2:16.19 in her collegiate debut) and Academy of Art's Michaela Andrews by throwing down a big surge on the penultimate turn to win with a lifetime-best 2:14.02 — good for fourth overall on the day. In the final heat, Madison Smith essentially soloed a 2:13.13 by running in no-woman's-land place third in her heat and third overall.

As for the men, Hamilton ran the fastest time of the day with a lifetime-best time of 1:50.51, which ranks eighth all-time at Montana State. In the last heat of the 800 meters, Chris Bianchini took the race out at an honest pace for the first two laps before Hamilton took the lead on the backstretch of the second lap. Both Bobcats would finish within a second of each other, as Bianchini stopped the clock at 1:51.42 for the second-fastest time of the day.

In a particularly adventurous third heat, Ben Perrin started on the outside lane in fifth place, made moves on the inside rail midway through the race, and hung in third place for a lap before overtaking teammate Riley Collins on the home stretch to win the third heat in 1:54.94. Owen Smith rounded out the men's team's lifetime bests in the 800 meters, as he finished the first heat in third place with a 1:57.37.

Over in the short distances, freshman Caroline Hawkes etched her name in the Montana State record books by clocking a 24.67 in the 200-meter dash to win the ninth heat. Macy White would be the fastest Bobcat in the event with a time of 24.57 to take 13th overall. Freshman Peyton Garrison nearly missed MSU's top 10 with a 24.80-second 200-meter time that was good for 15th out of 89 runners.

Earlier in the high jump, Lucy Corbett cleared the 6-feet mark for the second time this season on her first attempt at the 1.84m (6-00.50) bar. That would be enough to win the event, as she faulted at the 1.86m height (6-01.25) three times to close the competition.

THE RUNDOWN

Elena Carter was the runner-up in the women's long jump with a mark of 5.80m (19-00.50).
Leah Klein had a top-10 mark in the women's weight throw with a mark of 17.56m (57-07.50) — good for seventh place.
Freshman sprinter Stryder Todd-Fields won his 200-meter dash heat in 21.99 seconds, which was not only the 16th-fastest time out of 72 competitors, but also one-hundredth of a second away from tying the 10th-fastest time in MSU history.
Matt Furdyk's third throw of 18.77m (61-07) was enough to notch his fourth weight throw victory of the season. His mark was nearly a meter further than second place's Axel Tirado-Sanchez of Idaho State, who threw 17.93m (58-10) on his third attempt.

MOVING ON UP
All the new top-10 marks in program history set at the meet

Men's 800 meters: Duncan Hamilton, 1:50.51 — 8th all-time at MSU
Women's 200 meters: Caroline Hawkes, 24.67 — 9th all-time at MSU

Saturday's track action commences with the 60-meter hurdle prelims at 11:30 a.m. MT, then the women's pole vault and shot put start the field events at noon MT. The meet will be live-streamed on RunnerSpace+, albeit behind a paywall. All relevant links can be found on the men's and women's track teams' schedule pages on msubobcats.com.