Schmitz, Teska earn gold; Sac State women repeat as indoor champions

Kaylee Schmitz proclaimed all week how she hoped she would be nervous before the biggest indoor race of her life. Her nerves on Saturday might have caused the adrenaline to flow as Schmitz shot off the starting line and sprinted to the lead by the second lap of her four-lap 800-meter sprint.

By the final lap, Schmitz looked like she might be upset on her home track. The Montana State senior had the top qualifying time entering this weekend’s Big Sky Indoor Track & Field Championships. The O’Fallon, Illinois product ran the top qualifying time on Friday, sprinting to the finish to barely beat Weber State’s Jamie Stokes during the fastest qualifying heat.

MSU distance runner Kaylee Schmitz (177) won the women’s 800m championship

During Saturday’s 800 final, Schmitz sprinted to a 10-meter lead in the races first 300 meters. But Stokes and fellow Wildcat Michaella Hillstrom caught then passed Schmitz. As the trio came down the home stretch, Schmitz tried to go wide to get past Hillstrom. Stokes elected to go even wider. As Stokes moved to the outside of the track, she pulled her hamstring, an injury that dropped her to the turf as she limped her way to third place. Stokes’ stumble derailed Hillstrom momentarily and Schmitz took advantage, cruising through the tape for her first indoor individual title in a time of two minutes, 11.21 seconds.

“That’s basically how I raced all season, so for the first three laps, it seemed like any other lead,” Schmitz said, still catching her breath. “I’ve always been a finisher. When the two Weber girls go out, I thought, ‘Oh no.’ But coming out of that corner, I knew if I could get wide, I could get there.

“I let it be a little bit close. I’m feeling too good right now. It was a great race and we all raced strategically. Conference a lot, someone goes out, they don’t want to lead so it was a little slow.”

Schmitz ran the 800 leg of Montana State’s distance medley relay team on Friday night just hours after qualifying in the race individually. She said it didn’t play any role in Saturday’s photo finish but she did say having a bull’s eye on her back was stressful.

“It was nerve wracking,” said Schmitz, who finished second in the 800 at last year’s indoor championships. “I thought for a second it might happen again. But like I always say, it’s good to go in nervous for a race. It feels good now. I don’t think it’s quite sunk in yet. This was my last indoor conference ever. Nice to end on top, finally get that gold.”

Schmitz’s individual gold medal was one of two for the host Bobcats as MSU otherwise struggled. Montana State earned second place as a team in the indoor and outdoor conference championships last year but finished eighth this week with 50.5 points.

MSU pole vaulter Casey Teska won a conference championship

Montana State’s Casey Teska finally broke through. After two second-place finishes in the indoor pole vault, the Bobcat senior earned her first Big Sky title. She and Sac State’s Danielle Brandon went vault for vault for nearly three hours. Each cleared 13 feet, 1.5 inches on their third and final try. Each missed at 13-06 all three times. Teska earned gold thanks to a tie breaker determined by total misses.

“It feels really good because I’ve gotten second place the last three conferences I’ve been in, so I’m really glad to finally win,” the Stow, Massachusetts product said. “Going first, you want to set the bar. I tried to do that the best I could.”

The Sacramento State women continued their indoor dominance, taking the team title for the third time in four seasons, Sac also claimed the 2015 outdoor championship, outlasting Montana State by a single point in each conference meet last season.

Montana’s Erika McLeod earned Most Outstanding Athlete and Most Valuable Athlete. The Butte native was the champion in the pentathlon and the long jump, as well as scoring 1-point in the 400 with an eighth place finish for a total of 21 points.

Weber State saw Stokes (mile), Tawnie Moore (60-meter hurdles) and Ellie Child (3,000 meters) assume the top of the podium on Saturday but Sac State’s depth shined. Candice Dominguez claimed Friday’s high jump title, the lone individual championship for the Hornets. But Sac scored 15 points in the 60 hurdles, eight points in the 800, 12 points in the relays (DMR, 4×400), eight points in the mile and eight points in the long jump.

“Depth has been a strength for our program, trying to be a whole team,” said Sac head coach Jeff Magley. “We want to cover all the events and I think the ladies did a great job with that. We had our share of highlights but the ladies did a great job of filling up the middle, those four, five, six, seven places which are critical to success. We pride ourselves on being a well-balanced team.”

Women’s 1-mile starting line

Weber scored 87 points. Behind a win in the DMR on Friday and a win in the 60 by Rebecca Tarbert Saturday, Eastern Washington scored 79.5 points for third.

Stokes, Moore and Childs helped Weber State push Sac State until the end of Saturday’s action. More ran a season-best 8.45 seconds in the 60-hurdles to beat Portland State’s Akayla Anderson by 0.07 seconds. Stokes started off the scoring by turning it on late to burst to her second straight indoor title in the mile.

Stokes ran 4:51.95 in the mile to outlast Idaho’s Kinsey Gomez, the champion in the 5,000 on Friday night. Stokes set the pace of a relatively slow heat before turning on the jets the final of eight laps.

“This was a really good field of girls, a really competitive field so I knew if I would’ve waited too long, everyone could outkick me because everyone is so fast,” Stokes said. “I wanted to go to have more confidence towards the end.

“This is really exciting. I think there was a little more pressure coming in. I wanted to give it my best shot. It has been a fun meet since our team brought so many more girls this year.”

On Friday night, Childs set the pace for the majority of the 25-lap test of fortitude. The last five laps, Gomez showed her impressive speed and endurance, sprinting to gold. Childs was determined to not let history repeat itself. She set the pace for the duration of the 15-lap 3,000 meters before “dropping the hammer” late to earn gold.

“The first 800, I did not want to lead so I slowed down a little but after that, I realized I was going to end up leading so I just excepted it,” Childs said. “I picked up the pace and then the strategy in the middle laps was to drop the hammer and try to create a gap. It worked this time.

Women’s 400m

“I’ve been second three times before this in cross country and last year indoor in the 3K and this year in the 5K so I really, really wanted to pull out a win. It feels really good.”

Other gold medal winners included: Portland State’s Chaquinn Cook in the triple jump, North Dakota’s Stephanie Clark in the 400, Northern Colorado’s Moriah Zachary in the 200 and Montana’s Samantha Hodgson in the shot put.

Sac State’s third-place distance medley relay team included Amanda Garcia, Hannah Edwards, Ashley Kittle and Chloe Berlioux. Sac’s 4×400 relay team included Carly Schulz, Kassandra Corrigan, Stephanie Blumm and Joy Weems. Elizabeth Venzon placed second in the high jump to help Sac to 18 points in the event. Emilia Del Hoyo placed second in the long jump Friday and fifth in the 60 hurdles on Saturday. Weems placed third in the 400 on Saturday. Corrigan piled up 3,794 points to earn third in the pentathlon on Thursday. Edwards finished fourth in the 800 and Garcia finished sixth in the same race. Blumm finished fourth in the 60 hurdles, two spots ahead of Olivia Leavitt. Berlioux placed fourth in the mile, two spots ahead of Garcia. Nirie Boglino earned seventh in the triple jump and Amari Jones placed seventh in the 200 as Sac piled up 103.5 points.

“The lifeblood of our sport is recruiting and we are trying to establish that championship culture,” Magley said. “We want our women’s team to have that mindset that we want that culture to surround our program.”

Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.

WOMEN’S TEAM SCORES

1. Sacramento State, 103.5; 2. Weber State, 87; 3. Eastern Washingotn, 79.5; 4. North Dakota, 78; 5. Portland State, 62; 6. Northern Arizona, 61; 7. Montana, 52; 8. Montana State, 50.5; 9. Northern Colorado, 45; 10. Idaho, 27; 11. Idaho State, 12.5; 12. Southern Utah, 4.

 Saturday women’s finals

 Triple jump

1. Chaquinn Cook, Portland State, 40-01.5; 2. Dominique Butler, Eastern Washington, 39-00.50; 3. Ta’Mara Richey, Portland State, 38-04.75; 4. Kaitlin Sorensen, Idaho State, 38-02.25; 5. Faith Eruwa, Idaho, 37-11.50; 6. Nirie Boglino, Sac State, 37-10.75; 7. Monica Kuehl, UND, 37-05.25; 8. Leah Cook, Montana State, 36-10.50.

Mile

1. Jamie Stokes, Weber State, 4;51.95; 2. Kinsey Gomez, Idaho, 4:55.38; 3. Katie Mahoney, EWU, 4:58.85; 4. Chloe Berlioux, Sacramento State, 5:01.90; 5. Ashley Hawks, Southern Utah, 5:01.92; 6. Amanda Garcia, Sac State, 5:04.73; 7. Layne Oliver, Montana State, 5:05.10; 8. Alice Neville, Weber State, 5:07.90.

60-meter hurdles

1. Tawnie Moore, Weber State, 8.45; 2. Akayla Anderson, Portland State, 8.52; 3. Nicole Stroot, Montana, 8.69; 4. Stephanie Blumm, Sacramento State, 8.75; 5. Emilia Del Hoyo, Sac State, 8.76; 6. Olivia Leavitt, Sac State, 8.79; 7. Amber Solomon, Northern Colorado, 8.83; Claire Harris, Northern Colorado, 8.86.

400

1. Stephanie Clarke, UND, 56.03; 2. Whitney Diggs, Portland State, 56.36; 3. Joy Weems, Sac State, 56.60; 4. Tianna McKinney, UND, 56.61; 5. Ashley Rone, UND, 56.82; 6. Rachel Vinjamuri, Portland State, 57.56; 7. Nicole Fotinos, NAU, 56.98; 8. Erika McLeod, Montana, 56.98.

 60

1. Rebecca Tarbert, EWU, 7.51; 2. Genna Settle, Portland State, 7:54; 3. Moriah Zachary, Northern Colorado, 7.58; 4. Alivia Ayres-Perry, Northern Colorado, 7.59; 5. Natasha Brown, UND,7.61; 6. Brianna Pardner, Northern Colorado, 7.74; 7. Amari Jones, Sacramento State, 7.74; 8. Ashlynn Allred, Weber State, 7.75.

 800

1. Kaylee Schmitz, Montana State, 2:11.21; 2. Michaella Hillstrom, Weber State, 2:11.75; 3. Jamie Stokes, Weber State, 2:13.45; 4. Hannah Edwards, Sac State, 2:14.18; 5. Maggie Carruth, Northern Arizona, 2:16.13; 6. Amanda Garcia, Sac State, 2:16.90; 7. Katie Nicholls, Idaho State, 2:16.91; 8. Heather Harrower, UND, 2:18.06.

 200

1. Moriah Zachary, Northern Colorado, 24.37; 2. Natasha Brown, UND, 24.59; 3. Genna Settle, Portland State, 24.76; 4. Stephanie Clarke, North Dakota, 24.76; 5. Alivia Ayres-Perry, Northern Colorado; 6. Rebecca Tarbert, Eastern Washington, 25.03; 7. Tianna McKinney, North Dakota, 25.03.

Shot put

1. Samantha Hodgson, Montana, 49-01.75; 2. Jessica Weise, Northern Arizona, 49-0.75; 3. Alyssa Lueck, North Dakota, 48-00; 4. Kaytlyn Coleman, Eastern Washington, 47-06.25; 5. Tiana Stefick-Hatler, Norhtern Arizona, 46-02; 6. Natasha Powell, Weber State, 45-11.75; 7. Molly Griep, North Dakota, 45-09.75; 8. Kelsie Forcier, Eastern Washington, 45-04.25.

Pole Vault

1. Casey Teska, Montana State, 13-01.5; 2. Danielle Brandon, Sacramento State, 13-01.5; 3. Kyley Foster, UND, 12-06.5; 4. Hayley Carbullido, Sacramento State, 12-06.5; 5. Samantha Simmons, Idaho State, 12-02.5; 5. Anandae Clark, Eastern Washington, 12-02.5; 7. Miranda Dumas, Sacramento State, 12-02.5; 8. Carter Theade, Montana State, 12-02.5.

 3,000

1. Ellie Child, Weber State, 9:52.24; 2. Sarah Reiter, Eastern Washington, 9:55.99; 3. Paige Gilchrist, Northern Arizona, 9:56.46; 4. Alyssa Snyder, Montana State, 10:04.01; 5. Melanie Townsend, Northern Arizona, 10:06.20; 6. Katie Mahoney, Eastern Washington, 10:08.27; 7. Hailey Whetten, Weber State, 10:14.50; 8. Kayla Freeman, Northern Arizona, 10:14.88.

 4×400 relay

1. Northern Arizona, 3:47.41; 2. North Dakota, 3:47.42; 3. Sacramento State, 3:50.11; 4. Montana State, 3:50.28; 5. Portland State, 3:52.36; 6. Northern Colorado, 3:54.11; 7. Weber State, 3:56.30; 8. EasterN Washington, 3:56.78.