Big Sky Conference championships schedule
Big Sky Conference performance list
Montana performance list
Montana’s championships entries

The University of Montana track and field teams will continue competing at the 2010 Big Sky Conference/Weber State Credit Union Outdoor Track and Field Championships Friday and Saturday in Ogden, Utah, when the meet moves into the track and field events. The men’s decathlon and women’s heptathlon were held Wednesday and Thursday.

The field events will be spread out evenly between the two days, with eight finals Friday and eight more Saturday.

A majority of Friday’s track events, from the 800 meters on down, will be preliminary rounds to advance into Saturday’s finals.

In the distance races, which do not have preliminary rounds, the finals of the steeplechase and 10,000 meters will be held Friday. The finals of the 1,500 and 5,000 meters will be held Saturday.

Live results of the meet will be posted through a link at WeberStateSports.com.

Through automatic qualifiers, at-large bids and wild-card entries, Montana is maxed out on its number of entrants, with 25 women and 25 men competing. Both teams have at least one representative in each of the 21 championship events.

“This year has gone really well,” UM track and field program director Brian Schweyen said earlier this week. “The team has really come together and has as good a team unity as I’ve seen since I’ve been here.

“Talent-wise, we’re getting better. And the talent we currently have, we’re getting a lot out of. The kids deserve all the credit for what they’ve done and where they’re at.

“We’re not putting any pressure on anybody this week. If we start worrying about who’s in this race or who’s in that race and how this or that event is going, then our athletes are not concentrating on going out and having career-best performances.

“Just go out and do your thing, and do it better than you’ve ever done it before. That’s as simple as I want it to be. Do that and the individual placings and team standings will take care of themselves.

“Just go out there with confidence and have some fun.”

Championships Storylines

Event leaders: Montana has three athletes who lead the Big Sky Conference in their events. On the women’s team, sophomore Katrina Drennen has the league’s best 1,500-meter time of (altitude-adjusted) 4:21.10. Three other Big Sky athletes have times better than 4:30, though none has come within five seconds of Drennen’s time. Montana State sophomore Heather Haug ranks second at 4:26.48.

On the men’s team, both junior Jason Flemmer and freshman Austin Emry have Big Sky-leading marks. Flemmer’s javelin throw of 219-4 at April’s Montana Open leads the conference by over six feet. His closest pursuers are a pair of teammates: junior Richard Brumbaugh and freshman Justin Graff have both thrown 212-11.

Emry is the only high jumper in the Big Sky to go over 6-10 this year when he went 6-10.25 at the Montana Open. Three athletes who have gone 6-9 or better are close behind Emry’s mark. Eastern Washington junior Adam Stewart has the second-ranked jump this season of 6-9.5.

Big-point events: Montana has one event with four athletes ranking in the top eight, which is how deep the points go in the Big Sky’s 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 scoring system, one event (the aforementioned men’s javelin) with three and five events with two.

The Grizzlies’ deepest event is the women’s 800 meters, an event in which Montana has four of the Big Sky’s top seven times on the season. Sophomore Kesslee Payne ranks third, freshman Chantelle Grey fourth, redshirt freshman Emily Eickholt sixth and senior Brooke Andrus seventh. Andrus and Eickholt finished second and third in the 800 meters at the Big Sky indoor championships in February.

In the two-athlete events, Drennen and Payne rank first and sixth in the 1,500 meters and third and fifth in the 5,000 meters, freshmen Lindsey Hall and Gwenn Abbott rank second and sixth in the high jump, Emry and fellow freshman Seth Wright rank first and tied for fifth in the high jump and senior Chris Hellekson and sophomore Caleb McSurdy rank third and tied for seventh in the shot put.

Getting their money’s worth: Hall, in addition to competing in Wednesday and Thursday’s heptathlon, will compete in five individual events Friday and Saturday. After four events Wednesday and three more Thursday, Hall will have a relatively light day on Friday, competing in only the long jump and 100-meter hurdles prelims. Saturday she’ll compete in the hurdles finals, high jump, triple jump and javelin.

Junior Jennifer Walter is also competing in five events Friday and Saturday. Walter will compete in the prelims of the 100, 200 and 400-meter hurdles Friday, then potentially the finals in those events Saturday, along with running in both relays.

Senior Michael Blanchard (pole vault), junior Evan Stokken (110-meter hurdles) and Wright (high jump) will all add one more event this weekend to the 10 events they did Wednesday and Thursday as part of the decathlon.

Sophomore Christian Segota will have the heaviest load on the men’s squad over the weekend. He’ll compete in the 200, the 4 x 100-meter relay and the long and triple jumps.

One eye on Austin: In addition to competing for Big Sky Conference recognition this weekend, athletes also have this weekend as their final opportunity to put up improved marks on the NCAA West Region performance list, which will be used to determine who advances to the West Region preliminary round, which will be held May 27-29 in Austin, Texas.

At the moment, Montana has six athletes among the top 48 in their event, which is the cutoff for advancing.

Drennen ranks 15th in the 1,500 meters, Flemmer ranks 23rd in the javelin, Brumbaugh and Graff are tied for 31st in the javelin, Emry is tied for 32nd in the high jump and Hall is tied for 42nd in the high jump.

Currently on the outside looking in are Hellekson and sophomore Lynn Reynolds. Hellekson ranks 50th in the shot put, 52nd in the discus and 59th in the hammer, while Reynolds ranks 49th in the steeplechase.

Calling Chris Hellekson: Hellekson is the most Big Sky championships-experienced athlete competing for the Grizzlies this weekend. He competed in just the shot put his first indoor season, then competed in multiple throws at the next six championships.

Hellekson competed in the shot put, discus and hammer as a sophomore and junior and will be competing in those same three events this weekend.

Hellekson ranks third in the Big Sky in both the shot put and discus and fourth in the hammer, which on paper would give him 17 points. Schweyen says his goal for Hellekson is to score 24 points in his three events.

Tripling their Payne: Payne not only ranks in the top six in the 800, 1,500 and 5,000 meters, she is also going to race all three events this weekend.

Payne will open with the preliminaries of the 800 meters Friday evening, then attempt a triple-distance throwdown Saturday afternoon within a three-hour span: the 1,500 meters at 1 p.m., the finals of the 800 meters at 2:20 p.m. and the 5,000 meters at 3:45 p.m.