Analysis

New-look Bobcats primed for indoor track & field season

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The Bobcats hope the departure of a collection of legends inspires them through a season that culminates in Bozeman.

The Montana State women’s track & field team lost a collection of All-America caliber athletes from a team that finished second in the Big Sky Conference in both the indoor and outdoor championships last fall. The Bobcat women will need to replace a core led by All-America distance runner Heather Demorest and Big Sky champion pentathlete Carley McCutchen along with standout sprinter Chantel Jaeger and record-setting hurdler Paige Squire.

The men have to find a way to replace an All-America icon in Cristian Soratos and record-setting thrower Sean Ferriter.

“The coaching staff is trying to push the kids to march on and I think the kids are following suit with us,” Montana State head coach Dale Kennedy said. “They still believe they can have a really great season in spite of losing so many all-conference, All-America kids. We lost 102 points on the women’s side and 63 on the men’s side.

MSU track great Christian Soratos

MSU track great Christian Soratos

“I think the women will be motivated and inspired by the way the conference meets ended last year.”

During the indoor championships in Flagstaff, Arizona, Sacramento State out-legged MSU’s long relay team in the final event to emerge with the women’s championship by less than two points. During the outdoor championships in Cheney, Washington, the Hornets emerged with a victory by a margin of 3.7 points. Demorest swept the Most Valuable Athlete honors at each championship meet. McCutchen earned Most Outstanding performer during the indoor championship.

Soratos scored 18 of Montana State’s 90 points to earn Most Outstanding Male at the men’s indoor championships last season. Ferriter qualified for the national meet during outdoor after a 2nd-place finish in the weight throw indoors.

“Every time you have kids that are at that level, they stretch everyone else up a little bit taller,” Kennedy said. “It teaches kids to think, ‘Why not me?’ They begin to become possibility thinkers. They start discovering their un-limitations. We are all about discovering our un-limtations.”

Kennedy began his tenure at Montana State in 1980. Throws coach Mike Carignan has coached at MSU on and off since 1977, including full time every season beginning in 1995. Jumps and multi events coach Tom Eitel has been with MSU for 18 years. Head cross country/distance Lyle Weese ran for MSU from 1998 until 2003. He coached at Hartnell Community College in Salinas, California for three years before joining Kennedy’s staff in 2009.

“These guys are so committed to the kids and to the program, we are so fortunate to have such a great coaching staff,” Kennedy said.

MSU pole vaulter Kasey Teska

MSU pole vaulter Kasey Teska

The veteran coaching staff will try to mentor a group of 82 athletes — 43 women and 39 men — from a varsity roster that lost 27 total participants from last year’s indoor squad. The Bobcats will counteract the losses with an influx of 25 freshman — 10 on the women’s side and 15 on the men’s. Kennedy praises the incoming class on the women’s side as the best he can remember.

Despite losing so many points, the MSU women have a strong core to build around led by senior pentathlete Danielle Rider and senior pole vaulter Casey Teska. Junior sprinter Josephine Petruska, junior distance runner Jeanette Northey and the junior middle distance duo of Kaylee Schmitz and Christie Schiel all return as Big Sky Conference indoor meet scorers from a year ago.

Schmitz and Schiel have experienced great success in the 800 meters indoors in the past. Schmitz holds the indoor school record with a time of 2:08.63 during the 2014 season. Schiel’s time of 2:10.90 that same year is the fourth-fastest indoor time in school history. Schiel ran 2:10.76 to win the 800 BSC outdoor title in May.

Rider, formerly Danielle Muri and a former North Dakota State basketball player, took up the multi events upon her return to MSU in 2013. She finished second to McCutchen in the heptathlon at the outdoor championships last spring. Her heptathlon score of 3,666 was the fifth-best in school history last indoor season. She will also challenge to score points in the long jump, triple jump, 60-meter hurdles and shot put.

“I think she has a great shot at a multi championship,” Kennedy said. “She was right up there last year and you have to think she has a great crack at it.”

Teska finished second in the pole vault at the outdoor championships in May. She’s qualified for indoor and outdoor before and can consistently clear 13 feet. Coupled with senior Alicia Gilchrist (high jump), senior Leah Cook (LJ, TJ) and sophomore Carlie Haeffner, Kennedy said the women’s jumps corps “is the deepest side of the four acres of the farm.”

MSU distance runner Kaylee Schmitz

MSU distance runner Kaylee Schmitz

Cook should make a run at a triple jump title after soaring 37 feet, 10.75 inches last winter, the fourth-best mark in school history.

Northey is a former 3,000-meter steeplechase West Regional meet qualifier. She will be bolstered in the distance corps by Bozeman product Caroline Hardin, a former Class AA state champion at Bozeman High who continues to improve as her she regains her health. Chiara Warner, the Montana all-class state record holder in the 1,500 meters at 4:48.24 during her time at Townsend High, is also working her way back to full strength. The sophomore earned All-Pac 12 honors in the steeplechase during her one and only season at Arizona State in 2014.

Petruska trained with Eitel as a multi but coaches have decided to use her exclusively as a sprinter this winter. She placed fifth in the 400 at the Big Sky meet with a time of 55.07. She will also be a threat in the 60, Kennedy said. Sophomore Amanda Jaynes (short sprints) and sophomore Taylor Buschy (400, 800) add depth to the group while junior Daryan Box is providing veteran leadership, Kennedy said.

A group of newcomers including Joliet product Truanne Roginske, Plains product Hailey Phillips, Dillon product Holly Anderson and Loveland, Colorado product Kendra Larson will all threaten to letter in the short sprints and middle distance. Freshman Alyssa Snyder, ran as MSU’s No. 1 cross country runner all fall.

“This group of newcomers reminds me of the Jaeger, Squire, (Iris) Hardason group when they were freshmen,” Kennedy said.

Junior Jacqueline Verlanic should anchor the throws. She’s a former Big Sky qualifier in the shot put and the weight throw. Kennedy said sophomore Alexandra Rowland could push for a Big Sky bid in the shot put.

Soratos thrust Montana State into the national spotlight last year with his impressive exploits on the track. His 3:55.27 in the mile was the second-fastest ever run on Montana soil, trailing only Patrick Casey’s legendary 3:54.59 ran in 2011. Soratos finished his indoor career with the third-fastest 3K time and the second-fastest 800 time.

MSU long distance runner Jake Turner

MSU long distance runner Jake Turner

The points and the pursuit of prestige now fall on a largely unproven group of Bobcats. Senior distance runner Jacob Turner, sophomore sprinter Mitchell Hornig, junior multi-event athlete Mason Storm and sophomore thrower Kyle Douglass are the only returning conference championship points from last year’s indoor team.

Turner, a Missoula Sentinel product who ran for a year at Oklahoma before transferring to MSU, has been a standout when healthy. But an ailing Achilles cost him most of his final cross-country season last fall. Turner time of 4:02.13 in the indoor mile in 2014 remains the fourth fastest in school history. He placed fourth in the 5,000 and seventh in the 3,000 at last year’s indoor meet. Kennedy called Turner’s recovery a battle between patience and greed.

“The cross country season was really a disappointment but I think he will rebound really well from that,” Kennedy said. “He seems to be really positive and on a mission right now.”

Diego Leon, like Soratos a transfer from Hartnell CC, should provide a boost for Turner in the men’s distance group.

Ferriter provided consistent victories during the season and consistent points during conference championships. Now Douglass, sophomore Calvin Root and senior Zach Sharp will try to pick up the slack. Root qualified for the Big Sky meet in 2013 before spending the last two years on an LDS mission. Douglass earned all-conference honors in the shot put last season while Sharp qualified for the championship in the weight throw.

“They are big but they are not just big; they are big, fast and strong,” Kennedy said. “These guys are athletic.”

As a freshman, Hornig made a resounding indoor debut, running 6.90 in the 60 and 21.91 in the 200 to take third and seventh, respectively. He scored eight points. Kennedy said Hornig has benefited early on from the transfer of Columbus product Dustin Sobrero from Arizona State. Sobrero once defeated Class AA champion Nolan Saranceni, now the NAIA’s leading rusher as a tailback at Montana Tech, in the 100 meters at an invitation when both were high school seniors in 2013. Sobrero has provided similar training battles for Hornig.

“I thought Mitch really benefited from Michael Tobin,” Kennedy said. “We would get in and do starts and these guys were just competing each other. In that event, that can bring out the best. That’s what is happening now with Dustin and Mitch.”

MSU sprinter Mitch Hornig

MSU sprinter Mitch Hornig

Sophomore Jory Fisher and junior Eric Zechenelly each qualified for the Big Sky meet last season on the relays. Fisher will challenge in the 800 this winter. Zechenelly will make a push in the 400. Kennedy said Stevensville product Jadin Casey and Spokane product Sam Bloom will provide depth in the 400 and 800 as well.

Storm will be a key contributor in a jumps group that also includes all-conference triple jumper Kevin Close, a senior, and Alexander Lewis, a championship qualifier in the long jump as a freshman last winter. In his first year fully immersed in multi-event training, Storm blossomed, notching 5,133 points, the third-most in school history behind Asa Staven and Jeff Mohl. Storm placed fifth in the decathlon with 6,469 points last spring.

“You get up next to him and he is tall and put together,” Kennedy said. “He is a decathlon prototype guy. We haven’t seen his potential, not close.”

This winter, the Bobcats will host seven indoor meets at Brick Breeden Fieldhouse beginning with the MSU-UM Combined Events Dual Meet on January 4 and ending with the Big Sky Indoor Championships February 25 through the 27. The meet will give Montana State a chance to put its MondoX track surface on display for the rest of the conference to see. The Bobcats installed the surface during the Fieldhouse renovation before last indoor season. The track itself cost $1 million.

Kennedy said the track has revolutionized his team’s training and given his athletes a much higher chance of staying healthy. The track will host the Montana State Open on January 15; an invite with Idaho State, Montana and Utah State on January 22; a triangular featuring Sac State and Eastern Washington on February 5; a double dual with UM and Weber State on February 12; the Last Chance Qualifier meet on February 19 and the championships the final week of February.

“The kids are so excited we are hosting,” Kennedy said. “Our staff, our administration, our officials so looks forward to it. We have a history of running a really good meet here. We ran it so many years on that banked track. This will be the first championship on this track. It will be great to see what the marks look like for a championship meet. That’s usually where all the records are set.”

Photos courtesy of Montana State Athletics. All Rights Reserved.

About Colter Nuanez

Colter Nuanez is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year and University of Montana Journalism School graduate ('09) has cultivated a deep passion for sports journalism during his 13-year career covering the Big Sky Conference. In August of 2014, Colter and brother Brooks merged their passions of writing and art to found Skyline Sports.

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