Behind a strong effort from veterans and upstarts alike, the Montana State women’s indoor track and field team swept Big Sky Conference rivals Montana and Idaho State and Mountain West foe Utah State in a triple-dual meet on Friday night in Bozeman.
Junior Kaylee Schmitz ran a winning time in the 800 meters and a leg on MSU’s winning 4×400 meter relay team. Sophomore Taylor Buschy was just behind Schmitz in the 800 and ran the relay’s winning leg. Freshman Alyssa Snyder dominated the 3,000 meters, picking up a Big Sky championship qualifying time. Senior Casey Teska picked up a second straight pole vault victory. Juniors Daryan Box, Jessica Chrisp and Josephine Petruska picked up points in the sprints while sophomore Chiara Warner showed she might be returning to full health with a BSC qualifying time and a second-place finish in the mile.
MSU defeated Utah State 84-65. The Bobcats defeated the rival Grizzlies 76-74 as Montana picked up wins in the short sprints, the hurdles and the horizontal jumps. MSU beat Idaho State 100.5-48.5. The Griz topped the Aggies 75-74. USU beat ISU 83-64. UM beat ISU 93.5-54.5.
Women’s 400m final heat ft. MSU sprinter Josephine Petruska
“Tonight was a significant improvement from last week,” MSU head coach Dale Kennedy said. “We’ve made some progress, but we’re still a little rough around the edges. We need to make some improvements each week to be ready to the conference championships. We were competitive as a team and as individuals, which is going to put us in a good spot come championship time.”
Behind a dominant performance from the sprinters and middle distance runners , Utah State’s men swept. USU beat MSU 83-63, UM 84.5-50.5 and ISU 83-64. ISU defeated MSU 78-72 and UM 84-57. Montana State beat UM 79-61.
Dominique Bobo led the Montana men with a win in the 200 meters with a Big Sky qualifying time of 21.98 seconds. He also placed second in the long jump with a qualifying mark of 23 feet, 1.75 inches. Jakob Alme won the pole vault for UM with a height of 15-03, just short of the qualifying mark.
UM’s Dionee Marrero ran 6.97 to take second in the 60 and qualify for the championships. Taylor Trolloppe ran 8.32 in the 60-meter hurdles to take second and punch his ticket the championships at the end of February in Bozeman.
Senior Zach Sharp was the lone winner for the MSU men. He threw 57-09.75 in the weight throw to outlast sophomore teammate Calvin Root’s personal-best of 56-11.5. Kyle Douglass earned second in the shot put with a throw of 53-05.
Men’s 60m final heat(Mitch Hornig far left, Zach Stern far right)
MSU sophomore Mitchell Hornig placed third in the 60 with a time of 6.99. He qualified for the championships with a time of 22.39 in the 200. Zach Stern, a defensive back for the Montana State football team, joined the track team earlier this week. He stumbled in his first 60 meters but still ran 7.41 in his first Division I college race. Stern ran track at Santa Monica College before transferring to MSU in the summer.
Schmitz ran 2:15.04 in the 800 to win the race by more than three seconds over Buschy. Snyder ran 10:11.04 to win by more than 20 seconds in the 3K.
Warner, a former Montana high school standout at Townsend who set multiple all-class records as a prep, spent a year earning All-Pac 12 accolades at Arizona State before transferring back to MSU. She has battled injuries but has a break through on Friday, running 5:09.45 to earn second in the mile and qualify for the Big Sky championships.
Women’s 60 hurdles third heat
Chrisp ran 7.90 in the 60 and 9.04 in the 60-meter hurdles to earn top three in each race. Box ran 7.91 to finish third in the 60 and 26.13 to finish third in the 200. Petruska ran 58.74 in the 400 for second place.
Morgan Sulser of Montana won the 60 hurdles in a time of 8.94. Alanna Vann won the 60 for the Griz, running 7.81. Erika McLeod won the 200 (25.67) and took third in the long jump with a leap of 17-11. Nicole Stroot won the long jump with a mark of 18-01.75 Madison Paige took the triple jump for the Griz with a mark of 37.025.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
