MSU teams 2nd at Big Sky, Hamilton named top athlete
GREELEY, Colo. — Montana State’s men and women finished second at the Big Sky Conference outdoor track and field championships Saturday.
Senior Duncan Hamilton was second to none.
Hamilton capped his brilliant collegiate career in fitting fashion by earning Most Valuable Men’s Athlete honors at his final league meet.
“It was kind of a wild meet with so many things happening, so many things that didn’t go well then other things went really well,” said Montana State coach Lyle Weese. “The team really kept battling, we got some really important performances late, and I’m really proud that both teams finished second. It was a team effort all the way across the board.”
Hamilton led the way. His 24 points stood as the most of any individual in the men’s competition, and his broad smile while accepting the award was on full display.
“Duncan was incredible,” Weese said. “Adding a second and a third to his championship (in the steeplechase Friday) is impressive. This award is very important to him because it means he scored points for the team.”
Both of Hamilton’s Saturday races provided dramatic moments. He was nearly tripped by one Northern Arizona runner and traded bumps with another during the physical 1,500, taking a late lead that he was unable to hold. In the 5,000 he stayed with Young, the eventual champion, until about the 500-meter mark.
Saturday’s distance races provided memorable moments for other Bobcats. Junior Camila Noe, fresh off Friday’s 10,000 meter championship, finished second in Saturday’s 5,000 meters. Junior Ben Perrin, the Flathead grad who won the 10,000 Friday, used his strong kick to rally to third in the 5,000. Freshman Sam Ells (Glacier High, seventh) and sophomore Rob McManus (eighth) also contributed in the men’s 5,000.
Alex Moore also finished seventh in the women’s 5,000. After scoring just two points in the distance events at the 2022 Big Sky Outdoor Championships, Montana State’s women scored 36 points this weekend.
“That was a huge turnaround, and the women’s distance squad as a group is really on the rise,” Weese said. “It was a great performance by our distance crew all weekend. Ben and Camila ran the 10,000 Friday so I think there was some fatigue there, but they scored important points.
“We were in fourth place going into the 5,000, and they put up 17 points there. We knew we needed at least a couple of points in the men’s 4-by-400 relay and they finished sixth. The points we scored in the 5k and discus right toward the end of the day pushed the women into second place, too. It was an exciting finish.”
Tristen Sedgwick finished third in the women’s discus, a performance Weese lauded for both its importance to the team and to Sedgwick. “She ended up with a 13-foot (personal best), and that was when the race for second was really close. Leah Klein finished sixth, and those points really helped us.”
Senior Lucy Corbett, a returning All-America and Big Sky Champion, cleared 5 feet, 9.25 inches to tie for first in the high jump, but finished second to Montana’s Erin Wilde on number of misses. Anna Trudnowski (sixth) and Lina-Sophie Hommel (seventh) also scored in the high jump.
Saturday started with a bang when the women’s 400 relay team set a school record. Freshmen Caroline Hawkes, Peyton Garrison, Jaeden Wolff and junior Macy White combined for a 45.19 to finish second. In all, 17 different Bobcat women and 14 men scored points on the weekend. Hamilton, Noe, Macy White and Glacier High’s Taylor Brisendine (sixth in Saturday’s triple jump) each scored in multiple events.
Northern Arizona easily won the men’s and women’s titles, the third straight season the Lumberjacks swept. The Bobcat women ended up out-distancing Weber State 114-88 for second (NAU had 192); the men’s team clipped Idaho by 3.5 points, 106-103.5 (NAU had 220.5).
MSU’s women were runners-up for the second straight season and for the third time in the last eight; the men’s second-place finish was its third straight.