Seniors shine in Yellowjacket Open Thursday

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT Evan O’Kelly Director of Communications O: (406) 657-2130 E: evan.okelly@msubillings.edu Thursday, April 13, 2017 Seniors shine in Yellowjacket Open Thursday

MSUB’s track and field seniors are honored during Thursday’s home meet at Laurel High School, where the Yellowjackets have a strong showing overall.

LAUREL, Mont. – The six graduating seniors from the Montana State University Billings men’s and women’s track and field teams were honored during a ceremony at Thursday’s Yellowjacket-Battlin’ Bear Open at Laurel High School, where the home team had a strong overall showing in its lone local meet of the year.

Standout performances from senior Austin Lindquist in the 110-meter hurdles, Josey Smiedala in the 400-meter hurdles, and Sam Zook in the 100-meters highlighted a 75-degree afternoon laden with cloudless skies. “It’s great for the team to be out and have a home meet, and it seemed to go by pretty fast,” said MSUB head coach Dave Coppock, who coached his final home meet as the lead man after announcing his retirement upon the conclusion of the 2016-17 season.

“Nothing has really sunken in yet, and honestly I haven’t thought much about this being my last meet here at home. I think it’ll start to sink in after conference.”

Zook screamed to a victory in the 100-meters in another personal best time of 10.42 seconds to top his own record mark of 10.46. Lindquist was another record breaker for MSUB Thursday, topping his own mark in the 110-hurdles with an unprecedented time of 11.48.

Entering the 400-meter hurdles for the first time in two years, Smiedala turned heads by winning her heat in a time of 1:05.65 to break the school record of 1:05.89 held by Valerie Perrine. “It had been awhile since I had run this race, and if it weren’t for my teammates building me up mentally I wouldn’t have run as well,” said Smiedala. “This was the best meet of the season, and the 4-by-4 is my favorite race actually. There is a lot of energy going on there, and I love my team.”

Smiedala and MSUB’s 4x400-meter relay squad finished the meet by taking second place in a time of 4:12.16. Janessa Williams led off the strong relay performance, after taking second place in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.15 seconds.

Nikki Aiken led the MSUB women in the middle distances, taking fourth in both the 800-meters at 2:33.07 and in the 1,500-meters at 5:12.50.

The Yellowjacket women’s jumpers had a strong showing Thursday, with Jamie Orme winning the high jump with a mark of 1.53 meters. Fellow freshman Brenna Beckett won the triple jump, posting a final leap of 10.51 meters.

Freshman Jamie Orme placed first in the high jump Thursday with a mark of 1.53 meters.

Taylor Stringari was MSUB’s top finisher in the shot put, with a heave of 10.82 meters, and she also finished fourth in the discus at 32.99 meters. Kassadee Kuoha won the discus at 34.61 meters, and Abbie Lohof took second at 33.89 meters.

The men’s trio of Jorey Egeland, Mark Hovland, and Josh Panasuk finished third-through-fifth in the 800-meters, all finishing within 1.5 seconds of one another. Egeland and Panasuk also ran well in the 1,500 meters, finishing in second and third, respectively. “I personally had a lot of fun, and it was great to see everybody throwing PRs down,” said Panasuk. “It was fun seeing the sprint crew do really well, and it was overall a really good day.”

Freshman Braden Rykal, who has been keeping stride with Zook all season long, broke out with a win in the 200-meters in a time of 22.00. He also took second in the 100-meters behind Zook at 10.98, while sophomore Kaelen Shay finished third in 11.06 to make it a 1-2-3 sweep for the ‘Jacket sprinters.

Senior Garrett Love led the ‘Jackets in the 5k, taking fourth place with a time of 16:44.61. “It was a very hot day today, but it looked like everyone went out and competed well,” said Love when interviewed alongside fellow seniors Jacob Marshall and Panasuk. “Overall it was a very good day of racing. These guys have been through everything I’ve gone through, and they’re my best friends and always will be.”

Before leading off MSUB’s 4x400-meter relay squad, freshman Chuck Carr leapt his way to titles in both the high jump and long jump. Carr posted a height of 2.00 meters in the high jump and a mark of 6.55 meters in the long jump.

Feeding off his brother’s success in the 110-meter hurdles, freshman Marcus Lindquist earned himself a win in the triple jump with a mark of 12.58 meters. Beau Ackerman stretched his string of first place in the javelin to three straight weeks, as he fired a toss of 56 meters, and Brady Ostermiller finished fourth in the shot put at 14.37 meters.

THE BUZZ: Austin Lindquist and Smiedala were tabbed as the St. Vincent Healthcare Players of the Day. COMING UP: MSUB returns to the road next week, but remains in its home state at the Trudnowski Open hosted by Carroll College on Friday, April 21.

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