Whitefish alums win Al Manuel events for UM, MSU
MISSOULA — Whitefish products won a pair of events at the 2024 Al Manuel Invitational track and field meet Saturday, one each for the Grizzlies and the Bobcats
For the host Montana Grizzlies, Mikenna Ells won the women’s 100-meter dash in a personal record time of 12.19 seconds.
For the MSU Bobcats, Talon Holmquist won the men’s shot put with a mark of 53 feet, 2.75 inches. He also finished third in the discus.
Montana swept the team titles at a meet that drew four programs to Dornblaser Stadium. The Griz won the men’s team title with 207 points, and Montana Tech was second at 132 followed by Carroll College (84) and MSU (71).
The UM women piled up 292 points to 107 for MSU and 85 for Carroll.
Flathead Valley athletes scored big for Montana. Evan Todd out of Glacier High was third in the javelin (215-11) and Flathead product Dylan Zyink was third in the triple jump (40-9.75)
Bigfork product Scout Nadeau took fifth in the hammer throw (143-8).
In addition, Jay Beagle of Libby ran on a 400-relay team that finished second… to another from UM. And that crew of Teagun Holycross, Jason Upton, Xavier Melice, and Cooper Hewett ran a 40.35-second 400 relay, breaking a school record that had stood since 1969.
In UM’s first meet at Sacramento, poor exchanges led to a frustrating time. Saturday there was no issue.
“We came into this week very determined to fix those problems, and fix them we did,” Griz coach Doug Fraley said. :It resulted in us breaking the school record that’s been there for over 50 years.
“There’s a lot of pride in that group to be able to take down a record that old, and it was definitely the highlight of the meet.”
Two Bobcats broke MSU school records at the meet as well. Freshman Sydney Brewster threw 52-2.5 in the women’s shot put, breaking the old mark (set in 2008) by over two feet.
Pat Vailav won the men’s javelin with a throw of 225-3, breaking the previous mark of 224-11 that was set in 1997.
Full results can be found at gogriz.com and msubobcats.com