BROOKINGS, S.D. -- Montana Tech's men's and women's indoor track & field teams both headed home Sunday with third-place finishes in the inaugural Frontier Conference Indoor Championships at South Dakota State University's Sanford-Jackrabbit Athletic Complex.
Graduate student
Abby Clark won women's most valuable athlete honors to highlight the meet for the Orediggers, and Montana Tech's men captured two more NAIA qualifying standards.
The Oredigger women tallied 128 points, just 16 short of meet champion Dickinson State and 14 out of second-place Dakota State.
Montana Tech's men were also not far out of the title, collecting 115 points. Dickinson State took that trophy as well, scoring 134.5, and Tech was just a point off runner-up Dakota State.
Clark's trek to her fifth-career Frontier athlete of the meet honor actually began February 5 at the Riverfront Invitational & Multis, when she posted the second-highest pentathlon score in the NAIA at 3,576. That total won her the conference title by more than 200 points. Over the weekend, the Fort Benton native added runner-up results in the high jump (1.66 meters) and long jump (5.67m), third place in the 200m dash, and seventh in the 60m hurdles. She also teamed up with
Peyton Walker,
Terryn Chirrick, and
Kamryn Comba to take third in the 4x400m relay in a school-record 4:01.50.
She accounted for 34 individual points at the meet.
Clark wasn't the only Oredigger woman to shine over the weekend. Senior
Jadyn Vermillion won the long jump with a 5.79m leap and was runner-up in the 60m dash (7.85 seconds) and 200m (25.91).
The 4x800m relay added the other event win for the Tech women at the meet. The quartet of Chirrick,
Mya Green,
Amy Broek, and Comba finished the relay in 9:29.03, a program record and the first-ever national-qualifying standard in the event in program history. The time ranks 19th in the NAIA this season.
The Oredigger men also left Brookings with a handful of gold medals. Senior
Cade VanVleet had a huge day in the shot put, putting up the NAIA's top mark of the season and a new program record on his way to the win. The All-American threw the shot 17.78m, a new personal best in either indoor or outdoor competition. VanVleet was also seventh in the weight throw.
Tech's 4x400m relay, consisting of
Carter Henke,
Morgan McClernan,
Adam Schrader, and
Matthew Moreni, bested the NAIA 'B' standard for the second-straight season, rolling to second place in a school-record 3:17.52 in the process. That time ranks 25th in the country.
McClernan and Moreni both won individual events as well. McClernan, a senior from Butte, crossed the line first in the 60m hurdles at 8.18 seconds, while Moreni, a sophomore from Helena, was first in the 200m (22.08). He was also fifth in the 400m.
Junior Nicoló Lancini added the Orediggers' other victory at the meet, winning the triple jump at 14.51m. He was also second in the long jump at a personal-best 6.85m.
Freshman
Ricky Williams also had a big meet, posting his first-career NAIA 'B' standard in the high jump when he cleared 2.04m. That mark ranks eighth in the NAIA and second on Tech's all-time leaderboard in the event.
Several other Montana Tech athletes accounted for points at the meet. For the women's team, Broek (sixth, 3,000m), Chirrick (sixth, 600m), Comba (third, 1-mile), Green (seventh, 3,000m),
Alayna Hurd (seventh, 60m dash),
Alyssa Jany (third, 5,000m; fifth, 3,000m),
Ayla Janzen (fourth, 60m dash; fourth, 60m hurdles; fifth, long jump; fifth, triple jump),
Emma Konen (eighth, pentathlon), and
Montannah Piar (fifth, 60m dash) all added to the total.
Jaxon Allery (second, 60m dash; third, 200m),
Jacob Dolezal (sixth, heptathlon),
Bryon Fanning (fourth, 5,000m),
Konnor Gregerson (third, 600m; eighth, 400m);
Colby Martinez (seventh, long jump),
Justin Morgan (eighth, 5,000m), Schrader (fourth, 60m hurdles),
Cameron Tobiness (fifth, triple jump; seventh, heptathlon), and
Gavin Ulland (seventh, 60m dash) all scored points for the men's team.
After the meet, Clark and McClernan were honored as the program's NAIA Champions of Character award winners.
Clark was the co-field athlete of the meet in addition to her honors as the top women's point-getter. She shared the field honors with Dickinson State's Faith Brennan, while Bellevue's Grace Steinmetz won the track athlete of the meet award. For the men, Bismarck State's Cayden Kraft won the most valuable athlete and track athlete of the meet awards, while Dickinson State's Ty Leischner and Tyson Grinde of Dakota State shared the field athlete of the meet award. Dickinson State head coach Shayne Wittkopp swept the coach of the year honors.
Montana Tech will await the announcement of the NAIA Indoor Track & Field Championships field of qualifiers, which will be announced Thursday. The championship meet will be contested March 5-7 at the Alachua County Sports & Events Center in Gainesville, Fla.
Visit Montana Tech athletics' home online, GoDiggers.com, anytime for up-to-the-minute news and coverage of the Orediggers. Give Montana Tech athletics a like on Facebook, and follow the Orediggers on X and Instagram at @DiggerAthletics.
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