SPEARFISH, S.D. – The Montana Tech track and field teams competed in South Dakota this weekend at the Stinger at the Donald Young center hosted by Black Hills State. The young squads continued to improve and compete against regional competition.

"Last week I said we had our best meet yet but our group topped it this week," said head coach Zach Kughn.  

"It was a really hard meet for us to pull off logistically. There are just so few indoor tracks in this part of the country but we wanted to give our athletes another chance to compete. They really rose to the occasion and we are in a great place heading into a short break before the outdoor season."

Senior Becca Richtman continues to post top times finishing 40 seconds ahead of the best time in the NAIA this year in the 5000m.

"Becca had another huge performance and this time she had to do it completely alone. Her and Hailey ended up being the only two people in the event and they both just had to go out there and grind out their own pace totally alone. For Becca to post the top time in the NAIA by 40 seconds by herself really shows where her fitness is at. She is now ranked first in three events, all by significant margins, heading into the national meet."

With altitude and flat track Richtman's time converted to 16:27.63 which makes her the third fastest NAIA runner of all time.

Natylia Jacobsen qualified for the A standard in the 60m dash winning the race with a time of 7.7 seconds. Jacobsen also finished second in the 200m with a time of 26.14.

"Tylia also proved she is in fine form heading into the national meet. She had run 7.80 at altitude three times now. She went 7.73 in the prelims and 7.70 in the final. That time altitude converts to 7.72 which now raises her from the B standard to the A standard. That's a ton of improvement, and she had the best start I've seen from her all season. She's ready."

Naiya Beaudin just missed qualifying for the national mark by just two centimeters in the triple jump. Beaudin finished in second with 11.13 meters or 36'6".

"She popped off 11.13 on her first jump of the day. Insane. She also proceeded to have her best series of jumps of her life. Before today she had only been over 35 feet once, she jumped over 35'5" five times today, including that 11.13 which is 36'6". She missed nationals but she is an absolute threat moving forward in this event. Hailee Stiles also popped a big 15 inch lifetime best in the triple so it was a great day for us on the runway."

Drake Schlachter finished seventh in the long jump with a mark of 21'4". Eli Byrd had a personal best breaking the 20' mark for the first time jumping 20"1.75". Byrd took seventh in the event.

Cody Burk had the best conference mark of the year in shot put. Burk threw a personal best 13.57m or 44'6.25" and finished 11^th in the field.

Olleca Severson set the top mark for the Frontier in the 60m hurdles with a time of 9.53 seconds finishing in third place.

Justin Morgan took second in the 5000m with a time of 16:01.99. Ian Barville finished in fourth in the 800m with a time of 1:59.90.

"Both 4x4's produced season's bests. Drake Schlachter, Ian Barville, Dom Maricelli, and Tucker Christiansen posted a converted time of 3:29.34. The women's team comprised of Olleca Severson, Abby Clark, Taylor Torgerson, and Emily Ratz posted a converted time of 4:12.99."

"It was another meet for us with success in all four event groups. We can't ask for much more from our young program. In a theoretical conference meet based on season's bests, our women's team would run away with the conference championship. We are excited for outdoors to say the least. We also have three athletes qualified for the National Championship so we aren't done with indoors quite yet."

The NAIA Indoor National Championships is up next. The final indoor meet is in Brookings, S.D. on March 3-5.