HELENA — Through the first four events of the Frontier Conference Track and Field Championship, the Carroll College Fighting Saints rocketed to the top of the leader board with winners in three of the four events that toed the starting line at Vigilante Stadium on Saturday.
In the 4x800-meter relay, it was only the Rocky Mountain College Battlin' Bears and the Fighting Saints competing, with the Carroll College women's team of Emily Machado, Natalie Yocum, Reghan Worley and Kate Picanco topping the competition with a time of 9:30.42.
It was a clean sweep in the 4x800-meter relays for Carroll, as the Fighting Saints' combo of Van Gottwals, James Normandeau, Jonah Fisher and Kaiden Romney snagged first with a time of 7:52.59, just a little less than two seconds faster than the Rocky combo of Jackson Wilson, Joseph Vanden Bos, George Beddow and Nico Piliero.
Rocky Mountain College's Mei-Li Stevens had a day in the 10,000-meter race for the women, dusting the competition by more than four minutes with a time of 40:17.63.
In the men's distance race, Montana Tech’s River Shepard was out in front by a solid margin out of the gate, but Spencer Swaim for the Fighting Saints pulled out in front and snagged the top spot with a time of 33:35.09.
After Day One, the Fighting Saints are well out front in the team scores with 64 points. Rocky Mountain College is in second with 36, Montana Tech has 8, the University of Providence has 6, and Montana Western rounds out the standings with 4 points.
Day Two of the Frontier Conference Track and Field Championship toes the starting line on Friday at 10 a.m.
