‘Jacket track posts strong marks at Bauer Invite Saturday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Evan O’Kelly Director of Communications O: (406) 657-2130 E: evan.okelly@msubillings.edu Saturday, April 8, 2017 ‘Jacket track posts strong marks at Bauer Invite Saturday

More personal bests are reached on Saturday at the Bauer Invite, as MSUB’s track and field team has a strong showing in South Dakota.

RAPID CITY, S.D. – A total of 11 victories were accumulated by the Montana State University Billings men’s and women’s track and field teams on Saturday at the Bauer Invitational hosted by South Dakota School of Mines at O’Harra Stadium.

Josey Smiedala took the title in the women’s 400-meters, Sam Zook won both the 100-meters and 200-meters, and Beau Ackerman posted a provisional national qualifying mark of 197 feet in the javelin to highlight Saturday’s action.

“We had a great meet over here, and the weather really cooperated,” said MSUB head coach Dave Coppock. “We accomplished quite a bit today, and made some great progress towards establishing some competitive marks in the conference. Our goal right now is to keep improving each week, and we are heading towards our peak in late April into mid-May.”

Zook broke his own school record in the 200 with another new PR of 21.42 to win his heat. The junior also had a solid mark of 10.64 to win the 100 by 0.5 seconds. Freshman Braden Rykal was close behind, taking second in the 100 at 11.14. Rykal also had a solid 200 in fifth place at 23.17.

The sprinting success translated well into MSUB’s 4x100-meter relay squad, which finished second with a time of 42.68.

For the second week in-a-row, junior Jorey Egeland lowered his mark in the 3,000-meter steeple chase, with a season-best 9:29.49 to win the event. Senior Garrett Love made it a good overall day for MSUB’s distance crew, cruising to a first-place finish in the 10k at 34:02.33.

Like Egeland, Beau Ackerman parlayed last week’s success into an even better showing in the javelin, as he launched a personal-best throw of 197 feet. Brady Ostermiller also had a nice showing in the other throwing events, taking third in the shot put at 14.75 meters and second in the discus at 40.52 meters.

Senior Austin Lindquist hurdled his way to second place with a time of 15.51 in the 110-meter distance, and his brother Marcus Lindquist won Junior Sam Zook rolled to victories in the 100-meters and both the long jump (6.42 meters) and the triple jump (12.81 meters).

Chuck Carr was MSUB’s top finisher in the high jump, clearing 1.95 200-meters Saturday. meters to take second.

On the women’s side, Smiedala blazed past a pack of Black Hills State runners, claiming first by nearly a full second with a time of 1:00.97. The sophomore came close to grabbing a pair of titles Saturday, as she settled for third in the 200meters at 26.88, just 34 hundredths off the winning time.

Fellow sophomore Shaniah Schwend took second in the 100-meter dash, with a time of 13.21. She also notched a season-best in the long jump, covering a distance of 4.98 meters to win that event. Freshman Brenna Beckett was MSUB’s top performer in the triple jump, posting a second-place score of 10.51 meters.

Both women’s relay teams had strong showings, with the 4x100 squad winning in a time of 49.51 and the 4x400 taking second in 4:15.28.

Freshman Nikki Aiken led the team’s distance runners by taking third in the steeple chase at 12:20.20, and senior Rio Frame finished fifth in the 1,500-meters with a time of 5:14.91.

Posting a win for MSUB’s throws team, Kassadee Kuoha fired the discus 35.78 meters, and fellow freshman Abbie Lohof took third with a toss of 33.70 meters.

“It was a great experience competing against two other Division II teams here, and that really helped us in our preparation for conference,” Coppock said referring to BHSU and host South Dakota Mines. “There are two very good teams over here, and we were very competitive with them.”

THE BUZZ: Schwend and Egeland were selected as the female and male St. Vincent Healthcare Players of the Day. COMING UP: MSUB hosts the Yellowjacket/Battlin’ Bear Open next Thursday at Laurel High School, in the squad’s lone home event of the spring.

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