Student-Athlete of the Month - Loni Perkins
Student-Athlete of the Month Loni Perkins Loni Perkins - complete bio

Ht: 5'9" | Year: Sophomore
Previous School: Conrad HS
Hometown: Conrad, Mont.

May results
Big Sky Conference Championships:
200m-2nd, 400m-1st, 400m relay-1st

NCAA Midwest Regional:
400m-9th (prelims)

Loni Perkins has been named the MontanaGrizzlies.com May Student-Athlete of the Month for her impressive month-long performance for the Grizzly outdoor track and field program. Perkins ran the sprints for Montana and anchored the conference-winning 1,600-meter relay team.

Perkins competed at just two events during the month, but they were done on big stages.

At the 2005 Big Sky Conference Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Flagstaff, Ariz., Perkins had a hand in scoring over half of Montana's 53 total team points.

Perkins started the meet in a dominating fashion, winning the 200-meter preliminaries in a season-best time of 24.43. Later in the day, Perkins won the 400-meter preliminaries in 54.33, breaking an 18-year-old school record in the process.

In the finals in those two events the next day, Perkins ran a 24.56 200 meters to finish second and pick up eight points, then ran 54.64 in the 400 meters to win her first Big Sky title and earn the Grizzlies another 10 points. In her third event of the day, Perkins anchored UM's 1,600-meter relay team to a season-best time of 3:45.55 and a conference title. The victory gave Montana 10 more points.

By winning two conference titles, Perkins competed in both events at the NCAA Midwest Region Championships at Norman, Okla., in late May.

Though the Conrad, Mont., native entered the 400 meters at the region meet ranked 27th out of 28 qualifying athletes, Perkins finished the preliminaries in 53.99, lowering her school record and finishing ninth, one spot and .04 seconds from moving on to the finals.

UM's 1,600-meter relay team ranked 27 out of 27 entering the region meet, but finished 15th. The team of Perkins, juniors Tara Schwager and Mara Bronson and freshman Nicole Walker finished with a time of 3:43.86, just .73 seconds off the school record of 3:43.13 set in 1987.