SPOKANE, Wash. — It was a record-breaking night for the Montana track and field team at the Riverfront Invite on Friday.
Freshman Braden Ankeny broke a 25-year old school record, Erin Wilde tied a 31-year old record, and Lily Meskers came within inches of a record as the performances stacked up inside the Podium.
Ankeny, a true freshman, had already tied David Blair’s 200-meter school record set in 2000 earlier this season at the very same venue. It gave the freshman high hopes that in a return trip to The Podium, the record would be his.
He made good on his goal, running a time of 21.49 to break the record and finish seventh in a highly competitive field. Ankeny’s time is the fourth-best in the Big Sky this season.
“It was great. His goal coming in was to try to get under that school record and he slid right under there and had a really solid race,” head coach Doug Fraley said. “Any time you break a record it’s a special thing, especially when they are a quarter of a century old. It’s something to be real proud of and we are real excited for him.”
For Wilde, it was more of a question of when, not if, the junior would finally eclipse Brenda Naber’s 1994 record in the high jump. Wilde has won three straight Big Sky Championships between indoor and outdoor, and is already the school’s outdoor record holder.
On Friday night, Wilde cleared 5-10, the best mark of her indoor career. It brought her into a tie with Naber’s record, and ties her for 36th nationally in the event. She is the Big Sky’s leader.
“Erin has been so consistent. She’s having an unbelievably good year, and she was really close at the next bar which would have given her the outright school record. She did what she’s been doing the entire indoor season, which is just really consistent, solid performances meet after meet.”
Ankeny wasn’t the only Grizzly to put forth a fantastic effort in the 200 meters. On the women’s side, Lily Meskers competed in the Invite portion of the 200 and had the best run of her career.
Meskers came within .01 seconds of Loni Perkins-Judisch’s 17-year old school record in the women’s 200m. Meskers, running in the Invite portion of the meet, cut her personal best time down by over a tenth of a second, finishing in 11th with a time of 24.40.
She has improved in every meet this year for Montana, and currently sits in fifth in the Big Sky performance lists in the event.
“It was a great run from Lily. Her goal coming in was to break the school record, and unfortunately she missed it by one one-hundredth of a second, which really is about an inch,” Fraley said. “It’s a big PR for her and a good finish, and all-in-all a very solid performance.”
On Thursday, Montana’s multi-athletes competed in a pentathlon for the first time this season. It was a great start to the year in the event for both Whitney Morrison and Kensey Gault.
Morrison, a senior, had the best multi of her career, and did so behind several impressive performances. The Missoula product had a PR in four of the five events, leading to a nearly 500 point improvement on her previous PR. She scored 3,905 points. It’s the 29th best score in the country this year.
“Whitney had a tremendous outing for her first multi of the year,” Fraley said.S”he’s been trending so well in her individual events that we expected her to do something really good, and she delivered on that. It’s so rare to go into a multi and get PR’s in four out of five events, and the event she didn’t PR in was still very solid. It’s a big improvement from her PR last indoor season and really sets her up in the Big Sky standings for a potential podium finish.”
The freshman Gault had quite an impressive first collegiate multi. In a very competitive field, Gault had two top five finishes in the five events. She finished with 3,547 points, the fifh-best total in the Big Sky this year.
“We’re also really proud of Kensey Gault in her first collegiate multi to go over 3,500 points,” Fraley said. “She solidified her position in the top eight of the league, so very good to see those multis come in and have a combined effort like they did.”
There were several other impressive performances in Spokane on Friday. The weight throw was a strength for Montana. Donaven Humphries set a PR by clearing the 60-foot mark for the first time, finishing third with a mark of 60-4.5.
On the women’s side, Savana Ramirez had a new PR of 55-7.75 to finish sixth.
The Grizzlies also had PRs in middle distance, jumps, and sprints to round out a solid first day.
“It was great to see Donaven and Savana hit big throws in the weight and place well in competitive fields. They are continuing to climb the ladder in the league standings,” Fraley said.
“I felt like for the first day, riding over this morning on the bus, jumping right into competition we had a really good day in all the area. Sprints, jumps, throws, and middle-distance. Very encouraging start, and we’re looking forward to getting back in there tomorrow morning and hopefully producing some good performances.”
