BOZEMAN, Mont. – Several Montana State University Billings athletes turned in strong performances on Friday in the Montana State Open indoor track and field meet, including first place finishes by Drake Henson in the men's 800 meter dash and Ty Stanton in triple jump. The Yellowjacket men and women competed in their second indoor meet of the season and faced off against athletes from Carroll College, Montana State, Montana, Providence, and Rocky Mountain College at Worthington Arena.
 
Henson's winning 800 meter dash time was 2:00.00 among eight competitors in the final. Stanton managed to jump 13.66m to post a comparable mark to the Bobcat Preview back on December 1.
 
"It was good to see Drake win in a competitive field," said head coach Jon Woehl. "Even though the times for everyone weren't super fast, he did a pretty good job for us. Ty had a good day as well to win the triple jump. He overcame having a short week of practice leading up to the meet but really did well to get first place."
 
Another strong event for the Yellowjackets was the men's 3,000 meters. There, distance runners Tyus Mendoza and Ivan Colmenero finished second and third respectively and posted times of 9:07.
 
"Tyus and Ivan both had good times in the 3K," said Woehl. "Ivan had a personal best for the distance and Tyus had his second best performance."
 
In the shorter distance of 60 meters, Kaelen Shay came in second of 10 with a time of 6.94 seconds. He shattered his personal best time of 7.10 in Bozeman. Shay also ran sixth among 16 athletes in the men's 200 meters with a time of 23.12 seconds.
 
 
Another notable performance was junior Nikki Aiken. Aiken posted a third place time of 11:09.89 in the women's 3000 meters.
 
"Nikki was just a little bit off her best 3K time," commented Woehl. "We were looking for 11:11.00 or 11:10.00 and she beat both of those so it was a good race for her."
 
MSU Billings fared moderately well in field events in Bozeman. Isaiah Girard got second place in men's high jump out of seven, clearing 1.95 meters for the 'Jackets. Lucas Harper was seventh in long jump at 6.50 meters, helping him set a new collegiate personal best.
 
Hannah Nessan and Hailey Steinbeisser finished sixth and seventh in women's weight throw. Nessan edged out her teammate with a distance of 14.01, compared to 13.54 for Steinbeisser. Men's weight throw saw the 'Jackets finish second through fourth. Forrest Cross led the way with a final throw of 15.28 meters. Beau Peaslee (14.92 meters) and Brady Ostermiller (14.62 meters) were right behind.
 
Mark Hovland shaved more time off his mile run to finish eighth of 10 in 4:41.51 while Sierra Durbin came in eighth in the 800 meters. It was her first time competing in the event in her career.
 
"Overall it was a pretty good day," reflected Woehl. "We wanted to maintain our December start or improve on it and I felt we did that. With a lot of independent training over break, we expected to be a little less fresh so to come here and perform like we did was a good sign. Now we have nine days off until the Chadron State meet to get better."
 
Next on the schedule, the Yellowjackets travel to Chadron, Nebraska for the CSC Open on January 20. Five days later, they will compete in the two-day Air Force Invitational, followed by the Jacksons Nike Boise Indoor Invite in Nampa, Idaho to get ready for the GNAC Indoor Championships.
 
Ty Stanton was named St. Vincent healthcare player of the meet for his performance.