BOZEMAN — Erika McLeod remembers the day she learned just how much sweat it would take to become an elite track athlete.
As a Butte High School freshman, she competed in a 100-meter sprint filled with older standouts, including Billings West three-sport star Danielle Muri.
“I got blown out of the water,” McLeod said six years later. “That is one of my most vivid memories of high school track because that’s when I really knew how much hard work it would take. Especially in Montana, all the athletes who do really well, it’s because they have such great work ethic.”
Montana sophomore Erika McLeod/ by Brooks Nuanez
On the first day of the Big Sky Indoor Track and Field Championships Thursday afternoon in Bozeman, McLeod’s talent and hard work were put on full display. The University of Montana sophomore rallied for a come-from-behind victory capped by a gutsy victory in the 800 meters to claim the women’s pentathlon. Her five-event total of 3,882 points edged Muri (now Danielle Rider), a senior for Montana State, by just 38 points.
“It’s really cool and for me, this is one of the most exciting moments of my life,” McLeod said, still catching her breath while standing on the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse track. “My freshman year, I really struggled to put everything together. It’s cool to know that hard work pays off and to truly understand that things do take time. When they fall into place, it’s worth it.”
McLeod earned Montana Gatorade Girls’ Track Athlete of the Year as a Butte High senior in 2014. She chose Montana over Montana State but struggled as a freshman. She failed to even match the marks that helped her win Class AA individual state titles in the 200 meters, the 300-meter hurdles, the long jump and the triple jump.
She also struggled with the roller coaster nature of competing as a multi-athlete. She finished 14th in the pentathlon at the Big Sky Indoor Championships and 15th in the heptathlon at the BSC Outdoor Championships.
“Erika has worked her butt off to be where she is now and this is the pay off,” UM head coach and longtime track and field director Brian Schweyen said. “She was great in high school. She had an off year last year. She was at the precipice of what do I do? Did I lose it? Or do I use this as motivation. She used her failure of last year and it has turned her back into the incredible athlete she is and always has been.”
Montana State senior Danielle Rider recovers after the final event of Thursday’s Pentathlon/ by Brooks Nuanez
McLeod entered the meet as the favorite with a BSC-best qualifying score of 3,705 points, a mark she set in Bozeman in a double-dual meet with MSU and Weber State earlier this month. Rider, the runner-up in the heptathlon at last season’s outdoor conference meet, posted a qualifying score of 3,574. McLeod’s total of 3,882 is sixth-best in Big Sky history. Rider scored 3,844 points, nine more than Idaho State’s Sydney Wendt scored in 2009, formerly the sixth-best total in league annals. MSU’s Carley McCutchen set a conference record with 4,056 points last season, besting the 2014 record of 3,969 set by Montana’s Lindsey Hall in 2014.
“Danielle is a fantastic competitor,” Schweyen said. “I don’t even remember her not having a great conference meet. In my mind, I thought she was the one to be afraid of. Danielle proved that all the way until the last 200 of that 800.”
The problem for Rider was McLeod ran a finishing 800 that will be remembered for some time. Rider shot out to the lead through four events thanks to personal-best marks in the 60-meter hurdles, the high jump and the shot put. Rider jumped 18 feet, 2.5 inches in the long jump to earn 712 points but McLeod sliced into the lead with a personal-best jump of 18 feet, nine inches.
Still, Rider held a 130-point lead entering the final four-lap finale. McLeod needed to beat Rider by 10 seconds to overcome the deficit.
“I knew going out it would have to be at a really uncomfortable pace,” McLeod said. “My splits needed to be at 34 seconds and my first 200, I ran a 31 so I knew I was where I was supposed to be. From then on, it was really about holding that.”
Hold it is exactly what McLeod did. On the 200-meter flat track, McLeod left the competition in the dust, sprinting her way to a personal-best 2:14.58 with her teammates hanging over the railing cheering her on. She defeated teammate Nicole Stroot, the event runner up, by nine seconds. She bested Rider, who ran 2:27.03, by nearly 13 seconds. McLeod’s final event victory earned her 899 points compared to Rider’s 731. The 168-point advantage turned the 130-point advantage on its head.
“We told her what she needed to do and the biggest key is staying focused, staying relaxed,” Schweyen said. “Today, she was more focused than she has ever been. When you stay focused and relaxed, confidence walks in the door.”
Montana State senior Danielle Rider collapses after the 800 meters/ Brooks Nuanez
Rider knew she did not need to win the final event to take home her first individual Big Sky title. But a helpless look painted her face as she came down the home stretch, the unofficial time ticking on the arena wall. As she crossed the finish line, Rider immediately collapsed to the turf in a ball of exhaustion and emotion.
“She tried so hard and she literally gave everything she could give,” MSU longtime head coach Dale Kennedy said. “What a heartbreaker.”
Rider ran a personal-best 8.87 seconds in the 60 hurdles, 0.23 seconds better than McLeod. Rider matched McLeod in the high jump with a jump of 5-foot-3.25, then saw her lead swell to more than 200 points with a stout throw of 41 feet, 1.5 inches in the shot put, almost seven feet farther than McLeod. Rider scored 132 more points in the shot put alone.
McLeod gained back 50 of the points with her best-ever long jump before sealing the win with the 800 of her life.
“I told myself for weeks, don’t freak out when my name is not at the top,” McLeod said. “You can make up for that for sure. After shot put, that was consistent with where I have been so I was happy with it. I knew in long jump, I had to get a big one and I did. Then the 800, I finished it.”
The back and forth battle between in-state rivals also pitted two Treasure State products against one another on a big stage, a Butte High Bulldog battling a Billings West Golden Bear for supremacy of the Big Sky Conference.
“I love Montana,” Schweyen said. “Montana girls, for some reason, seem to be the stud athletes in this conference. You go back to (MSU Hall of Famer) Erin Jones and Lindsey Hall. Go back father and so many Montana girls have been so good in the Big Sky. It sure says a lot about our state.”
