Yellowjackets finish Day 1 of GNAC Championships

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Birgitta Gray O: (406) 896-5917 E: birgitta.gray@msubillings.edu February 17, 2017 Yellowjackets finish Day 1 of GNAC Championships MSUB Track and Field on Facebook | MSUB Track and Field on ISSUU | Day 1 Results GNAC Indoor Championships Schedule | GNAC Indoor Championships Start List

The Yellowjacket track and field teams are at the GNAC indoor championships in Idaho.

Sam Zook qualifies for the finals of the 60 meters in the fastest time coming out of the preliminaries and the Yellowjackets finish Day 1 of the GNAC indoor championships.

NAMPA, Idaho. – Sam Zook qualified for the men’s 60 meter final in the fastest time out of the preliminary round as the MSUB track and field teams finished Day 1 of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Ford Idaho Center Friday.

Zook powered through the first round of the conference championships with a time of 6.91, .05 seconds ahead of Kyler Ooley from Central Washington.

“Overall, I think we had a good start to the conference championships,” MSUB head coach Dave Coppock said. “Sam looked real smooth in his opening round, winning his heat easily. He has the fastest time going into the finals so all of us are looking forward to that event tomorrow.”

The men’s 60 meter final is scheduled for 12:55 p.m. on Saturday.

The Yellowjacket men’s team picked up 12 points on the opening day of competition at the conference meet.

In their GNAC championships debut, two MSUB freshmen in the men’s high jump collected points for MSU Billings.

Isaiah Girard tied for fifth place completing a height of 6-04.75 and Chuck Carr tied for seventh place finishing at 6-02.75.

Girard, a freshman from Dillon, Mont., and Carr, a first-year Yellowjacket from Bozeman, Mont., have been strong contenders in the high jump during their inaugural season at MSU Billings.

Adding points on the track, the men’s Distance Medley Relay team of Josh Panasuk, Landon Polkow, Mark Hovland, and Jorey Egeland placed fifth in 10:32.15.

In the men’s weight throw, Nels Flanagan posted a sixth place result with a heave of 54-05.25. That mark drops Flanagan’s MSUB school record in that event for the third time this season.

Joining Zook and advancing out of the preliminary rounds in their events today were Michaela Johnson and Austin Lindquist. In the women’s 60 meter hurdles, Johnson qualified seventh in 9.21. On the men’s side, Lindquist qualified eighth in the men’s 60 meter hurdles in 8.65.

The women’s 60 meter hurdles final is scheduled for a 12:05 p.m. start followed by the men’s 60 meter hurdles final at 12:15 p.m.

Several of the team members finished with personal bests. The women’s DMR team of Rio Frame, Katelyn Eastburn, Josey Smiedala, and Nikki Aiken finished the race in 13:16. All three individuals in the men’s 200 meters ran their season best times as Braden Rykal (22.95), Landon Polkow (23.24), and Kaelen Shay (23.33) all finished close to each other.

Eastburn ran her personal best in the women’s 200 in 26.90. Smiedala finished 10th in the women’s 800 meters in a season best time of 2:20.94.

“We had several personal bests today which was great to see,” Coppock said. “Tomorrow we return for a 10 a.m. start and we look to add a few more points to the board.”

Alaska Anchorage leads the men’s team scores with 48 points while Seattle Pacific also has 48 points for the lead on the women’s side.

Live stats for the events tomorrow can be found at GNAC.live here. In addition, the GNAC is broadcasting select events at the championships live on their Facebook page at Great Northwest Athletic Conference here.

The women’s shot put begins the field events at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 18. The running events get started at 11:25 a.m. with the women’s mile. For the complete championship schedule as well as start lists, visit the GNAC championships home page here.

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