MISSOULA, Mont. – The Montana Tech track & field teams competed at the Montana Open hosted by the University of Montana at Dornblaser Field Saturday. A few of the races counted towards the Frontier Conference Championship which is up next on the schedule.
"The main events today were the men's and women's steeplechase as today served as our conference championship," said head coach
Zach Kughn.
Carlin Manning won the 3000 meter steeple chase in a time of 11:41.59.
Alyssa Jany finished in third place, but was the second Frontier Conference finisher in a time of 12:30.79 seconds.
"Carlin and Alyssa both crushed it going 1-2 and scoring 18 points for the team. The men also had a strong showing taking the second thru sixth spots scoring 21 points for the team. Justin was one of the highlights of the day qualifying for his first track national meet hitting the B standard."
Justin Morgan took second among the Frontier runners with a time of 9:37.44 seconds and hitting the NAIA B standard. Derek Shultz finished third with a 10:16.01; Benjamin Zerr took fourth with a 10:16.05; Lee Karpstein finished fifth with a 10:26.79; and
River Sheppard landed in sixth with a time 10:36.26 seconds.
"Outside of steeple the main focus of the meet was just getting ready for the conference meet in five days. We were pretty light on entries, trying to stay healthy and just making some fine tunings. Both 4x1's set school records last week, but they just broke them again by quite a bit. They're in a great spot heading into conference."
The Oredigger men were the top NAIA team finishing in third place with a time of 42.82 second. The team is
Tyler Walter,
Dom Maricelli,
Caden Caywood, and
Drake Schlachter.
The Tech women also finished in third but were the top NAIA school with a time of 48.52 seconds. The team is
Mollee Conlan,
Jadyn Vermillion,
Emily Ratz, and
Natylia Jacobson.
Cade VanVleet took second in the discus with a throw of 46.21 meters. He finished sixth in the shot put with a toss of 14.95 meters.
Jesse Mecham took third in the shot put throwing 15.08 meters.
Olleca Severson finished second in the 400 meters running 1:05.14 seconds.
"
Olleca Severson had an outstanding day in the 400 hurdles. She sits at 26th in the NAIA and will look for the national standard over the next couple weeks."
After the multi events last weekend at the Trudnowski Open, the Orediggers continue to add to their point totals.
Abby Clark,
Olleca Severson,
Jadyn Vermillion, and Naya Beaudin finished first thru fourth in the heptathlon scoring the first 28 points for the women.
Eli Byrd and Bauer Seewald finished in third and fourth place earning 10 points for the men.
"Overall, the meet was good for us. Being inside a week of the conference championship that's where all our focus is. Between the heptathlon/decathlon and the steeplechase, the two conference events contested before the championship meet, both of our teams are in the lead right now. We look forward to proving our number one conference ranking for both genders and bringing home two titles on Friday."
