COLLEGE STATION, Texas -- Three Montanans competed in the javelin as the NCAA West preliminary track and field competition continued with women's events on Thursday.
Hailey Poole, who started her high school career at Colstrip before graduating from Huntley Project in 2017, is a redshirt junior at the University of Minnesota. She had the strongest performance of the Treasure Staters at the prelims on Thursday, placing 21st with a throw of 157 feet, 2 inches.
Montana State's Carley VonHeeder, who set the Bobcats' program record in the javelin at the Big Sky Conference championships earlier this month, marked a throw of 143-0 on Thursday. That gave the Plains product a 39th-place finish to close out her college track and field career.
Another Plains graduate, Kimberly Earhart, placed 46th for the University of Montana. Earhart marked a throw of 131-5 on Thursday.
Akealy Moton of North Dakota State won the women's javelin with a throw of 179-1. Moton is a teammate of Glasgow native Benji Phillips, who secured his place at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships with a fifth-place finish in the men's javelin on Wednesday.
Katrina Terry, a Billings West alum now at Eastern Washington, placed 26th in the pole vault on Thursday. She cleared 12-10.25. Tuesdi Tidwell of Baylor won the event with a height of 14-0.
UM's Tanessa Morris marked a throw of 183-6 in the hammer on Thursday, which had her in 28th place after the first two flights of the event. One flight of the top-16 competitors is still to throw due to a laser issue while measuring on Thursday.
In late events on the track, Christina Aragon of Stanford and Bryn Morley of Northern Arizona ran in the prelims of the 1,500-meter run. Aragon, a former Billings Senior standout, placed 19th with a time of 4:22.16 to advance to the quarterfinals, which are Saturday. Morley, a Bigfork alum, placed 27th with a time of 4:27.59, failing to qualify for the quarterfinals. The 24 fastest runners advanced to the quarterfinals.
The NCAA West prelim continues on Friday with men's events.
