SPOKANE, Wash. – The Montana Tech track & field teams competed at the Inland Northwest Invitational hosted by Whitworth University this weekend. The meet featured NAIA and NCAA Division I and III student-athletes is the first of two indoor competitions held at the podium this season.

"Our first trip to Spokane was pretty successful. It was great to compete in a truly world class facility against a bunch of schools we are not used to seeing," said head coach Zach Kughn.

"Our athletes learned a lot and I was impressed with our improvement in just one week. Fourteen athletes set new personal bests across all four event groups. We had numerous athletes making the finals in their events. They didn't team score this meet, but we definitely made an impact in a meet with predominantly D1 and D2 athletes."

Edwin Kipainoi won the 5000 meter run with a time of 15:02.79 and just missed the NAIA B standard.

Freshman Cade VanVleet just missed the B standard by centimeters in the weight throw. VanVleet finished fourth overall with a 15.99 meter mark. He took 10th in the shot put with a throw of 13.91 meters.

Natylia Jacobson was the top finisher in both the 60 and 200 meter dashes among the NAIA competitors. Jacobson finished fifth in the 60 meter with a time of 7.88 seconds in the finals after running a 7.84 in the preliminaries. In the 200 meter, she finished in ninth place with a time of 26.37 seconds. Freshman Mollee Conlan also made the finals and finished in 8^th place with a time of 8.17 seconds.

Freshman Morgan McClernan made the finals in the 60 meter hurdles. He finished in 7^th place with a time of 8.74 seconds.

The Orediggers had three participants make the finals in long jump. Abby Clark and Jadyn Vermillion placed first and second and Hadassah Wilson jumped 5.00 meters finishing in 9^th. Clark best jump was 5.35 meters and Vermillion had a mark of 5.24
meters.

Olleca Severson reached the finals in the 60 meter hurdles finishing in 8^th place with a time of 10.00 seconds.

Drake Schlachter finished fourth in the long jump with a mark of 6.68 meters.

Naiya Beaudin took fifth in the triple jump with a mark of 10.55 meters.

"We are taking this next weekend off to focus on training and recovery before heading back to Spokane for a two day meet on the 10^th and 11^th."