BIG SKY INDOOR CHAMPIONSHIPS MEN’S PREVIEW
As his love of the circle continued to grow, Kyle Douglass still did not know what sport he would pursue in the future. Now that he is in the meat of his second year training with Montana State throws guru Mike Carrigan, Douglass can feel the bull’s eye on his back. And he’s relishing it.
The Missoula Sentinel two-sport standout received several offers to play football in Frontier Conference. He was also a standout discus thrower – he threw more than 180 feet to win the Class AA title as a senior – but he was a modest shot put thrower, peaking with a fourth-place finish at the event. Now he is in his second indoor season and his shot put abilities are at an all-time high level.
The burly redhead enters this weekend’s Big Sky Conference Indoor Championships in Bozeman with a season-best throw of 57 feet, 9.25 inches, the top mark this season in the BSC. As the No. 1 seed in the event, Douglass feels the chasing field coming for him.
MSU thrower Kyle Douglass
“I definitely do this year,” Douglass said. “I haven’t before. In high school, I wasn’t even in the top three shot putters in the state. I’m leading the conference right now. It’s definitely a different position.”
Douglass’s development as a force during the indoor season can be attributed to several factors, not the least of which is the tutoring of Carrigan, a throwing virtuoso who has produced All-Big Sky competitors since first coming to MSU in 1977.
“It’s hard to describe,” Douglass said. “It’s a lot of credit to Coach Carrigan and the weight training staff. I wouldn’t be here without them. Having a facility to train in year round, when you are from Montana, you don’t get to throw for six months out of the year. Strength has been a huge part. College weight lifting is obviously a lot different than high school football training. My form is completely different than it used to be. But Carrigan is the main part of it.”
“I’m still working on half of it. My body is trying to break old habits. I accepted it right away. I knew if I wanted to throw far, I’ve seen a lot of guys come out of here that made it to a national level and I want to be the next one for (Carrigan). Changing everything is ok with me. I want to throw it as far as I can. Main goal. I’d feel pretty good if I PR’d (personal record). I think that would put me in a good spot to win.”
If Douglass can emerge as the top shot put thrower in the league, it will be affirm his rapid ascension among his peers and put him in a position to become MSU’s next dominant thrower.
“He has the right work ethic,” MSU head coach Dale Kennedy said earlier this season. “He’s a really athletic kid, a big, strong kid who has motor skills and coordination. He has all the potential to be a really great thrower. He’s really ahead of the other great throwers we’ve had. They didn’t do this well as a sophomore.”
Douglass is one of a few Bobcats who could make runs at individual championships in a meet expected to be dominated by Northern Arizona yet again. The NAU men have won five straight triple crowns – Big Sky team titles in cross country, indoor and outdoor track and field.
In nine years under the direction of Eric Heins, NAU has captured 26 total team Big Sky titles and produced eight top-10 national finishers. Heins has been named the Big Sky Coach of the Year 24 times overall, including winning four during the last calendar year alone.
NAU distance runner Futsum Zienasellassie/by NAU Athletics
NAU junior Futsum Zienasellassie, twice a top-four national finisher in cross country, will pace the Lumberjack men. The former Gatorade National Boys’ Cross Country Runner of the Year is the reigning Most Valuable Athlete at the indoor championships. He has the top marks entering the Big Sky meet in the mile (3:56.98), the 3,000 meters (7:53.76) and the 5,000 (13:44.89). His mile time is 0.52 seconds off of Blake Henry’s (Oregon) top time. His 3,000 time is 15th nationally and his 5,000 time ranks 8th.
Nathan Weitz and Cory Glines will also bolster the Lumberjacks. Weitz has flirted with a four-minute all season and enters the meet with a season-best time of 4:00.71. Glines has been right behind, clocking in with a time of 4:03.54. Andy Trouard of NAU also has a top five Big Sky time, running a 4:05.99 earlier this season.
Weitz also has the second-fastest qualifying time in the 3,000 (7:56.09), one of just two Big Sky athletes to go under eight minutes in the race. Glines’ season-best of 13:58.94 is third-best in the Big Sky. The DMR team ran 9:39.19 at Notre Dame last week, a time 36 seconds faster than any team in the conference.
Northern Arizona’s domination is not limited to its perennially powerful distance core. NAU also has the top time in the 800 (Peter Lomong, 1:51.96), the 4×400 relay (3:15.17) and the weight throw (Adam Keenan, 62-06.75). Lomong will be flanked in the 800 by Geordie Deamish (1:52.92), and Michael Chin (1:52.99), each who also have top five qualifying times. Senior JaShawn Combs has a season-best time of 8.17 seconds, two one-hundredths behind Sacramento State senior Aric Walden for the top time in the league.
Montana State sophomore Diego Leon, a transfer from Hartnell College, will try to break up an NAU avalanche. Leon’s mile time of 4:07.34 is the sixth-best in the league and his time of 8:07.93 in the 3K is the only time among the Big Sky’s top five not registered by a Lumberjack. MSU junior Matthew Gotta will look for the podium in the 3,000 (8:20.68, 7th in the league) and the 5,000 (14:41.13, 10th in the Big Sky). Zach Kughn shook off a lingering blood disorder that hindered him all school year to run 4:09.89 in the mile last week, the 10th-best time in the conference.
MSU sprinter Mitchell Hornig
MSU sophomore Mitch Hornig will look to replicate his impressive indoor championship performance from his freshman season. Last winter, Hornig made a resounding debut, running 6.90 in the 60 meters and 21.91 in the 200 meters to take third and seventh, respectively. He scored eight points.
His season-best time of 6.96 in the 60 is the 10th-best in the Big Sky but just 0.06 seconds off of Eastern Washington sophomore Jeremy VanAssche’s league-leading mark. Hornig’s season-best of 21.71 in the 200 is third in the league.
“Last year, I was ranked 11th, wasn’t supposed to make finals,” Hornig said. “Neither me or (Michael) Tobin were supposed to make finals and then we were the only team with two kids in the finals.
“If I can get my start down, I know I can pass people along the way if it’s the first 20 meters or so.”
Hornig has raced against Montana junior Dominique Bobo, the top 200 runner in the league, in all but one indoor meet this season. Bobo enters the meet with a season-best time of 21.43.
“I think it’s helped him having to stretch up trying to get to Bobo,” Kennedy said. “The whole indoor season, they’ve gone head to head. Every time they have, Mitch has wound up out in lane five and he can’t see what Bobo is doing. He runs blindfolded for the first 150 meters and Bobo has the stagger and it’s too late. I’m hoping he doesn’t wind up in 5. He just have to put that out of his mind, forget it and run his own race.”
If Montana State wants to make a run at a top three finish, it will need to score big in the throws. Douglass leads the shot while senior Zach Sharp and sophomore Calvin Root will compete for points in the weight throw. Sharp’s throw of 60-01.75 is the third-best in the Big Sky while Root’s best throw of 59-09.75 is fourth.
MSU multi-athlete Mason Storm
“We have three guys who really can score legitimately,” Kennedy said. “There is some real point possibilities for us there.”
Idaho has a pair of league leaders with senior Ben Ayesu-Attah in the 400 (47.22) and Matt Sullivan in the pole vault (17-01.75). MSU freshman Jadin Casey has a season-best of 48.97, eighth in the league, but Kennedy expects him to PR in a veteran field. Montana State senior Austin Decker has a season-best of 15-09 in the vault, the seventh-best mark in the league.
Idaho State is expecting two runs at gold from senior Deante Gaines. He is the favorite in the long jump (23-10.75) and the triple jump (50-00.75). MSU senior Kevin Close is back to full health and hoping to make a run at Gaines in the triple. The Bozeman native’s season-best is 47-07, the fourth-best mark in the league.
“Kevin is my sentimental favorite,” Kennedy said. “I coached his mother and we share back yards together. I’ve watched him grow up. I get emotional about him. I’m proud of Kevin. He’s capable. He stayed out last week to make sure he is healthy enough to go out there and compete. He can go 48 something but we have some 49-foot guys so it will be a competitive triple jump.”
Close’s father, John, played football at MSU from 1975 until 1978, contributing on the 1976 national title team. His mother, Kathy, ran track for the Bobcats. His sister, Mandy, served as an assistant on Tricia Binford’s staff for the women’s basketball team at MSU before taking a job at Oregon State, her alma mater.
Montana should pick up points in the high jump. Kalispell native Matt Quist has the top mark in the conference at 6-10.75.
The finals for the men’s weight throw will begin at 11 a.m. on Friday. Finals for the men’s long jump, the men’s high jump, the men’s pole vault and the women’s weight throw will take place before the opening ceremonies at 4:15 p.m.
Photos courtesy of Montana State Athletics or noted. All Rights Reserved.
