The Montana track and field team closed the Big Sky Championships in style on Saturday, winning four different events and picking up some other standout performances. The Grizzlies improved on the preseason expectations set upon them in the process by finishing sixth on both the men’s and the women’s side of the competition.
The meet brings to an end the first season for Montana under head coach Doug Fraley, and the results that he saw across the board on Saturday have him excited for the future of the program. It has been a year of growth for the Grizzlies, and the final day proved no different.
“I’m really proud of the way both teams went out and competed this week,” Fraley said. “For us to be able to have finished eighth indoors and been picked eighth outdoors and move to sixth in both, I feel like that’s solid progress. Obviously, we’re not anywhere near where we would like to be, but that really is significant progress.”
Montana had a pair of men and a pair of women take home individual conference championships. There were a couple that were expected coming in, as Evan Todd in the javelin and Holly Sudol in the 400-meter hurdles were the top seeds entering the meet.
But there were also two champions that rose above all expectations. Jaydon Green ran a PR in the 110-meter hurdles and Erin Wilde jumped a lifetime best in the high jump. Both performances moved them from the really good category of the seeding list to the top.
The wins came early in the day and started a surge of momentum for Montana. The rest of the team fed off the energy. The culture that Fraley, his staff, and the athletes at Montana are building has been special throughout the past year. The support of one another is not something that comes by accident.
“One of the pillars that we are looking for is that team unity,” Fraley said. “When you have that, and you get into a meet like today where we had a lot of things going on, and one person hits a great performance the ball starts rolling. That’s the way today went. I was really proud of the way that the group rallied toward what was going on in every area.”
The women finished with 72 points and the men 66.5. The scores are both improvements from last season’s outdoor finishes, and it’s also the most points by the women since the 2019 held in Missoula.
The Champions
Erin Wilde began the championship run in the women’s high jump early on in the day. The freshman from Whitefish entered the meet as the third seed with a season-best of 5-8. She had a flawless run up to that bar with three straight clearances, but missed on her first attempt at the height.
It didn’t shake the freshman. She bounced right back with a clearance, moving her along with five other jumpers to the 5-9.25 height. There were misses down the board, as three other jumpers were eliminated at the height and Wilde and Montana State’s Lucy Corbett missed the first two. The pair both cleared the height on the final attempt, setting a new personal best for Wilde.
They would each miss three times at 5-10.5, but since Corbett had also missed earlier in the competition the tie, and the title, went to Wilde.
“I’m trying not to cry of happiness. It feels really good,” Wilde said after stepping of the podium. “I had a lot of butterflies at the beginning of the competition. I was going up to Morgan and Erica (Fraley) for advice, and it just feels so good to win it and have that support. I’m also super proud of Morgan and everyone that jumped today.”
The freshman has been getting better and better as the season moves along. She’s no stranger to success, having an outstanding prep career at Whitefish, but to reach this level as a freshman was a particularly good accomplishment.
She becomes Montana’s first outdoor high jump champion since Brenda Naber did it in 1996.
“For her to be able to come in as a freshman jumping against so many good upperclassmen, it was a deep high jump field, and for her to keep making bars and then tie her PR,” Fraley said. “Then boom she’s over another bar, and that’s just tremendous for a freshman. The best thing about that is she is a young lady from Whitefish, Montana, and she represented the Griz well today.
“Erica has done a good job guiding her this year as a freshman,” Fraley continued. “The progression that she’s had this year has been outstanding.”
About the same time that Wilde claimed the high jump crown, another Grizzly put on a show. Evan Todd entered as a heavy favorite as both the defending champion and the leader on this season’s performance list. The Kalispell native didn’t disappoint.
Todd’s consistency this season has been impressive, and it was on display again Saturday. He had the top six throws of the competition, meaning any one of his throws on the day would have been enough for the championship. His top mark was 222-4. The result was not a surprise to the junior.
“It feels great. It’s expected,” Todd said. “I came in with the mindset today that I was going to compete. It didn’t really matter what I was going to throw today, it just mattered that I came out on top.”
He becomes Montana’s third two-time winner in the event and just the second to successfully defend his title. The event has been a strength for the Grizzlies for many years, as this is the seventh Big Sky title since 2010.
The goal for Todd has been to reach the national meet all season long. This was another step in the way, but one that shows he has a real shot at advancing past regionals in two weeks.
“Evan simply did what Evan does every track meet this outdoor season. His consistency has been top notch and he went out there and controlled that competition,” Fraley said. “We’ve said it before, but he’s going to give himself a real opportunity at the regional meet because of that consistency.”
The confidence will be there for the two-time Big Sky champion. He’s close to the Montana school record, but he said the mentality going into regionals will be to just do whatever it takes to come out of the meet and continue his season.
“Same thing, just come out with that competitor’s mindset,” Todd said of his approach. “It doesn’t matter what flight I’m in, I’m just going to go and tear it up.”
The men added another conference title on the track. Jaydon Green has already claimed a pair of school records in the short hurdles in his career, but the one thing missing from his resume was a conference title. He came into Saturday as the third seed both in the season-long standings and the qualifying list from Friday.
He had less wind at his back today to make things more difficult, but it only produced a cleaner race. Green got out of the blocks well and ran a near-perfect race, holding on down the stretch to win by .01 seconds. When the results hit the board, flashing 13.82 seconds for Green, he erupted, as did the large contingent of his teammates near the finish line.
“I tried to keep my composure at the end, I really did, but it’s been such a long five years and I’ve battled so hard,” Green said. “I’ve had some really low lows, but man this makes the whole journey worth it. I had to prove it wasn’t just the wind. Less wind today, and I had to go prove it to everybody and myself that I’m capable of running those times. I couldn’t be more happy.”
Fraley said that the end of his race has caused some slight problems this season. In the last few weeks he has worked hard with assistant coach Lindsey Hall to perfect his timing down to the last hurdle. He created perfection on Saturday to move up the standings and win the title. It’s Montana’s first in the event since Matt Larson in 2007.
“He had the third or fourth fastest time in the league, but he talked a lot about executing and being the league champion. He delivered on that,” Fraley said. “It was a fantastic moment for Montana track and field when he won that race. He’s meant a lot to our team over the years and his progression this year has been fantastic. I’m super proud of that young man.”
The last conference championship of the day was another race that may have been expected, but still required great effort and every last ounce of will power to pull off. Holly Sudol has been the fastest 400-meter hurdler in the league this season, running several sub-60 second times. She entered as the top seed out of Friday’s qualifying as well.
She had a good start, but after about 300 meters was still locked in a close race at the front. The determination that she’s shown all season kicked in there. Sudol didn’t lose a step down the stretch, closing as strong as she opened to gain nearly a second of separation between herself and second place.
“It’s really hard to put into words,” Sudol said of the win. “My first conference meet when I was a freshman I got dead last in the pentathlon (indoors), so it’s great to end my career like this. It’s definitely been difficult. I’ve had three different coaches in four years, but I think it’s grown stronger and I know I’m part of a program I can be proud of at the end of my career.”
She has come into her own this season, earning All-Conference honors at the indoor meet in the 400. They don’t run the 400 hurdles indoors, which meant she had to wait to contest her strongest event until the outdoor season.
The great outdoors threw a challenge at her Saturday with high winds that could easily throw off the routine and rhythm of a hurdler. She handled it with grace to win Montana’s first title in the event since Kourtney Danreuther in 2011 with a time of 1:00.14.
“On finals day, especially running races where it’s still windy on the back stretch, you don’t care about what the time is,” Fraley said. “It’s all about competing. She was favored to win and she took care of business. She did that in grand fashion today, and she made it look easy.”
All-Conference Holycross
Teagun Holycross delivered a sensational performance for Montana in the men’s 100-meter dash. He came into this week as the sixth seed in the event, but put together consecutive lifetime bests on Friday and Saturday to leave with a silver medal around his neck.
His time on Saturday was 10.42, enough to outpace Idaho’s Jemini Archer by .06 seconds. He was the first out of the blocks and held the lead for much of the race, doing enough at the end to claim Montana’s highest finish in the event since 2002.
“I’ve got to love the fact that my start was better than I could have ever imagined. It’s better than I’ve ever practiced, and I was really proud of it,” Holycross said. “My finish is something I can still work on which makes me happy that I can improve in areas and get even faster next season.”
He started in lane one in the final, a visual representation of his underdog status. The lane next to him would have been occupied by his teammate Cooper Hewett, but an injury in the 200 yesterday pulled him from the race today.
It set Holycross up in an area of his own, running with nobody beside him. The open space freed him up to run his best race.
“It’s kind of a good thing that you’re kind of in your own world,” Holycross said. “It makes it kind of easier to not tense up and makes it easy to relax because you’re just running your own race.”
School record for McGee
Shealyne McGee rewrote the Grizzly record book on Saturday in the women’s pole vault. She has seen improvement all season and entered the competition as the fifth seed with a career best of 12-8.5. She upped that in a big way in Greeley.
McGee had just one miss in her first four heights, matching her PR on the first attempt at that bar. It advanced her up another foot to 13-2.5. It took just two attempts for McGee to clear the height and etch her name into Grizzly history. She finished in fourth place in the event.
“It feels really good. A lot of work has gone into it, getting on the bigger poles mentally and physically getting there too,” McGee said of the record. “I think a lot of it has to do with Erica’s coaching in helping me feel confident in myself and knowing I can get on these bigger poles. Just having her there at practice makes it a lot easier to go and want to do good and make her and Doug proud.”
Moving up in the standings
The rest of the Grizzlies had great performances in Greeley as well, leading Montana to a sixth-place finish. Matthew Hockett and Everett Fred both scored in javelin, Cutter Thatcher and Adam Maxwell ran great in the 400-meter hurdles to score, while Zane Johnson and Noah Ramirez each put points on the board for Montana’s men as well.
Morgan Radtke followed up her All-Conference heptathlon performance with points in the high jump, and Brooke Stayner also became a double-event scorer with a seventh place finish in the 100-meter hurdles. Katilyn Gallo and Savana Ramirez both placed in the hammer, and Aly Tekippe and Emma Zimmerman scored in the pole vault.
The Grizzly relays also performed well with the women finishing in the top five in both and the men putting together groups that hadn’t run together all season and still finishing strong with fifth and sixth-place results.
The spread of Montana’s points across events is the thing that Fraley is most proud of from a good week in Greeley.
“The thing that strikes me is that we were able to create a lot of points in the throws. A lot of points in the jumps. Points on the track in sprints and hurdles, all four relays scored really well,” Fraley said. “It was a true team effort, and that’s what I’m really proud of. We want to create a well-balanced team like the top teams in our league are, and to come in and improve our team standing and do it in a variety of areas is very good and means we’re doing it the right way.”
Montana will advance several athletes to the NCAA Regionals in Sacramento in two weeks, but for many the year has now come to a close. As Fraley reflects on the first year in charge, he’s happy with the progress his team has shown and hopeful that it will lead to more success in the future.
“I’m very proud of my staff this year. They really coached hard, recruited hard, and I’m just happy with the way we finished year one,” Fraley said. “I feel like it’s a good building block as we move forward. I’m looking forward to continuing it in two weeks with the kids we have in Sacramento and then rolling that momentum over into next fall when we start training.”
Montana’s men point scorers
Teagun Holycross, 100m and 200m – 12
Evan Todd, javelin – 10
Jaydon Green, 110m hurdles – 10
Cutter Thatcher, 400m hurdles – 5
Jason Upton, long jump – 5
Zane Johnson, pole vault – 5
Matthew Hockett, javelin – 4
Adam Maxwell, 400m hurdles – 2
Alfred Peterson, high jump – 2
Noah Ramirez, shot put – 1
Everett Fred, javelin – 1
Jethro Thorne, long jump – 1
Patrick Kremer, high jump – .5
4x400m relay – 4
4x100m relay – 3
Montana women’s point scorers
Holly Sudol, 400m hurdles – 10
Erin Wilde, high jump – 10
Morgan Radtke, heptathlon and high jump – 10
Brooke Stayner, heptathlon and 100m hurdles – 6
Autumn Morse, javelin – 6
Shealyne McGee, pole vault – 5
Kaitlyn Gallo, hammer – 4
Savana Ramirez, hammer – 3
Aly Tekippe, pole vault – 2
Kara Mattson, long jump – 2
Whitney Morrison, heptathlon – 2
Emma Zimmerman, pole vault – 1
Kylie Frohlich, javelin – 1
Ainsley Shipman, heptathlon – 1
4x100m relay – 4
4x400m relay – 5
Montana marks & times
Men’s 100m – Teagun Holycross (10.42*, 2nd)
Men’s 200m – Teagun Holycross (21.26*, 5th)
Men’s 1,500m – Rogelio Mares (3:58.26, 10th)
Men’s 110m hurdles – Jaydon Green (13.82*, 1st)
Men’s 400m hurdles – Cutter Thatcher (53.05*, 4th), Adam Maxwell (54.34*, 7th)
Men’s 4x100m – Holycross, Green, Johnson, Upton (41.11, 6th)
Men’s 4x400m – Ferguson, Thatcher, Crouch, Johnson (3:14.41, 5th)
Men’s pole vault – Zane Johnson (16-6.5, 4th), Carson Weeden (NH)
Men’s shot put – Noah Ramirez (53-2.25, 8th)
Men’s javelin – Evan Todd (222-4, 1st), Matthew Hockett (201-9, 5th), Everett Fred (190-8, 8th)
Women’s 100m hurdles – Brooke Stayner (14.08*, 7th)
Women’s 400m hurdles – Holly Sudol (1:00.14, 1st)
Women’s 5,000m – Olivia Lackland Henry (18:34.97, 19th)
Women’s 4x100m – Meskers, Ells, Smith, Sudol (46.30, 5th)
Women’s 4x400m – Meskers, Ells, Whitehurst, Sudol (3:47.52, 4th)
Women’s high jump – Erin Wilde (5-9.25*, 1st), Morgan Radtke (5-8, 5th), Whitney Morrison (NH)
Women’s triple jump – Ainsley Shipman (38-0.75*, 10th), Ailsa Gilbert (37-8, 13th)
Women’s pole vault – Shealyne McGee (13-2.5*^, 4th), Aly Tekippe (12-6.75, 7th), Emma Zimmerman (12-0.75, 8th)
Women’s hammer – Kaitlyn Gallo (173-4, 5th), Savana Ramirez (170-0, 6th)
Women’s discus – Madi Arneson (136-9, 14th)
*denotes PR
^denotes school record
