(Editor's note: Montana State and Montana athletics press releases)
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.—Montana State's women's track and field team had four Bobcats participate in the NCAA Division I West Preliminary Rounds on Thursday, May 26, at Arkansas' John McConnell Field. All four athletes that represented MSU in the meet Thursday were making their first appearances.
Elena Carter competed in three events as part of a busy afternoon for the Helena native. Carter finished 35th in the 100-meter hurdles crossing the finish line in 13.69 seconds, 37th in the long jump behind a leap of 19 feet, 4.25 inches (5.90) and took 45th in the 100 (11.99).
Alex Hellenberg, who will be part of Saturday's triple jump competition, finished in a tie for 28th in the pole vault by clearing 12-11.75 (3.96m).
Morgan Evans and Angellica Street participated in the 100 hurdles and javelin, respectively. Evans took 39th by clocking a 13.75. Street took 32nd in the javelin with her throw of 145-02 (44.25m).
The men's portion of the preliminary rounds concludes on Friday. Five Bobcats will be competing in Fayetteville as Duncan Hamilton and Levi Taylor make MSU's first appearance of the day at 4:40 p.m. MT in the steeplechase. Ian Fosdick will take part in the triple jump at 5 p.m. MT, Drake Schneider returns to the track for the 400 hurdles at 6:25 p.m. and Ben Perrin runs in the 5,000 at 7:10 p.m.
Tanessa Morris' Griz throwing career came to a close on Thursday with a 28th-place finish in the hammer at the NCAA West Regional meet. Morris had a top throw of 193 feet, 11 inches.
She hit 192-1 on her first throw, 193-11 on her second and 186-0 on her final attempt.
Morris' 28th-place finish was an 11-spot improvement from a season ago, when she placed 39th at Regionals, but was below where she came in, when she came in seeded 17th out of 48 throwers. Unfortunately, Thursday's performance was her worst of the season, as she had cleared at least 194 feet in her previous eight meets and 200 or more feet in four of them.
Thursday's performance isn't the defining factor, though, of an historic throwing career.
Morris, who began her collegiate career at the University of Lethbridge in Canada and will use her final year of eligibility at the University of Nebraska while obtaining a graduate degree, made the most of her two-year Griz career.
The Canadian thrower is a two-time Big Sky champion in the hammer, qualifying for NCAA Regionals in both 2021 and 2022. Earlier this month, just one week before defending her conference title, she set a school record in the hammer with a throw of 210-4.
Her school-record mark of more than 210 feet would have earned a top-12 finish and a qualification for NCAA Championships, had she reached that on Thursday.
Montana will have two more athletes compete in Fayetteville, with Brent Yeakey making his third NCAA Regionals appearance and second in the discus (Friday at 12 p.m. MT) and Joel Mendez running the 3,000-meter steeplechase (4:40 p.m. MT).
