(Editor’s note: courtesy of Montana State Athletics)
BOZEMAN — First-year Montana State head track and field coach Lyle Weese got an early look at his squad during the Bobcat Preview on Saturday afternoon in Worthington Arena. Competing against Northern Arizona, MSU Billings and Carroll College, the Bobcats produced eleven event winners in the season-opener.
The Bobcat men took home top honors in eight events- all coming from different individuals.
In the field events, Wyatt Thompson-Siporen led MSU in the pole vault. Thompson-Siporen cleared the bar at 15-11.25 to win a jump-off over Carroll’s Keaton Brady. The redshirt junior was the Big Sky Conference runner-up indoors last season.
In throws, MSU was paced by Alec Nehring and Josh Mertz. Nehring, a Manhattan product, won the shot put with a heave of 54-05.50. Last season, he placed third indoors in the event at the Big Sky championships. Mertz, who competed in his first meet as a Bobcat, won the weight throw with a mark of 50-00.50.
Alex Lewis and Noah Martin guided the Cats in the jumps. Lewis, who redshirted indoors last winter, took the long jump with a mark of 23-06.25, while Martin, an All-Big Sky performer, captured the high jump clearing the bar at 6-09.50.
Senior all-league standout Mitch Horning led the Bobcat men in the running events. The Eugene, Ore., native won the 200-meters in 22.18. He also finished third in the 60-meter dash. Junior Cameron Carroll picked up where he left off from last year’s indoor season. Carroll won the 800-meters in 1:54.86. Last winter, the Bremerton, Wash., product finished runner-up at the conference meet.
MSU’s men’s 4 x 400 relay team captured the final race of the meet. The foursome of Horning, Jadin Casey, Christopher Lange and Drake Schneider crossed the finish line in 3:19.18.
Senior Kelsi Lasota paced the Montana State women in the 5000-meters. The all-conference performer posted a time of 17:15.66, almost 36-seconds faster than the runner-up finisher.
Bozeman High graduate Lucy Corbett made her debut in the Blue and Gold taking the high jump with a leap of 5-4.25.
Brookelyn Palin led the MSU throwers capturing the weight throw with a toss of 47-07.75, almost three feet farther than the second place performer.
Weese also noted Courtney Stromme’s performance in the 200-meters. The Belgrade graduate posted a mark of 25.59.
“The student-athletes did a nice job bringing energy and enthusiasm to the meet,” Weese said. “Courtney Stromme had a break-out race in the 200, which was so exciting. There were a number of freshmen that performed very well in their initial collegiate competition. We will carry what we learned about our team into the next 5-6 week block of training until we have our next meet.”
The Bobcats will hit the track again Jan. 7-8 with the MSU Multis meet.
