BILLINGS, Mont. – With just two meets left to prepare for the conference championships, Montana State University Billings track and field will be in Fort Collins, Colorado Saturday, April 27 for the Jack Christiansen Invitational. The meet begins at 10 a.m. with field events, followed by the kickoff of running events at 11 a.m. The Yellowjackets will be joined by competitors from Colorado State, Air Force, Colorado, and Wyoming. The Rams play host to the meet with seven returning athletes who have been recognized as All-American in past seasons.
 
For MSU Billings, it will be an opportunity to earn marks that will get them into contention in the GNAC Championships May 10-11 with several athletes also vying for qualification in the NCAA Division II National Championships. One of those athletes is senior Sam Zook, who inched closer to an NCAA provisional mark in the both the 100 meter and 200 meter dash events last weekend in Bozeman.

GNAC Top 5 100 METERS (Men)

	Athlete	Year	Team	Time (seconds)
1	Karlington Anunagba	FR	Western Washington	10.33
2	Sam Zook	SR	MSU Billings	10.63
3	Nathan Mah	JR	Simon Fraser	10.75
	Mason Schram	JR	MSU Billings	10.75
5	Oshane Hylton	JR	Alaska Anchorage	10.80

GNAC Top 5 200 METERS (Men)

	Athlete	Year	Team	Time (seconds)
1	Sam Zook	SR	MSU Billings	21.44
2	Michael Russell	FR	Saint Martin's	21.69
3	Nathan Mah	JR	Simon Fraser	21.82
4	Oshane Hylton	JR	Alaska Anchorage	21.93
5	Rahkei Eyer	SO	MSU Billings	21.95

Junior Isaiah Girard jumped 2.11 meters last Saturday and is inching close to automatically qualifying for nationals in high jump. His jump also topped the MSUB school record for the third time this season.

GNAC Top 5 HIGH JUMP (Men)

	Athlete	Year	Team	Mark
1	Tyler Cronk	FR	Saint Martin's	7' 0.5"
2	Isaiah Girard	JR	MSU Billings	6' 9.75"
3	Nick Makrakis	JR	Western Washington	6' 7"
	Tupre Wickliff	SR	Western Washington	6' 7"
	Chris Brake	JR	Alaska Anchorage	6' 7"

"It will be fun to go to another bigger meet this weekend, especially after we got pretty good marks from everyone last week," commented head coach Jon Woehl. "I think Sam is right on the track we thought he would be at this point in the season. He's very close to provisional marks in both sprint events. It was exciting to see five of our six guys in the 100 meters run under 11 seconds as well. The 4x100 ran well in both the men and the women last week as well. They dropped about a second off the meet previous which is a lot."
 
Several other MSUB athletes posted career best marks at the MSU Open last weekend including Nikki Aiken (distance), Janessa Williams (jumps), and Rahkei Eyer (sprints). Aiken and Kailee Stoppel will return to running steeplechase in Fort Collins and the MSUB relay teams will get the chance to race after last weekend's final events were cancelled due to weather.
 
Janessa Williams set a new career in high triple jump in Bozeman and earned first place with a mark of 36' 10.25". Williams went 4'9" in high jump, which was also good for eighth.
 
"Janessa will do the triple jump and high jump in Fort Collins," Woehl said. "Last week her triple jump was great. We knew that was going to happen for a while and that was probably the best she'd jumped since her sophomore year."
 
Kailee Stoppel and Nikki Aiken ran career best 1500 meter races last week, but both will return to steeplechase and try to inch closer to the top five in the GNAC in the event.
 
"Nikki and Kailee are both going to run the steeplechase again after taking the week off and working on shorter distances," said Woehl. "It will be important for everyone to stay hydrated down in Fort Collins where it's expected to be 75 degrees and sunny. We want to avoid having our energy zapped from being out in the sun too much."
 
Brady Ostermiller continues to put up strong numbers in shotput, hammer, and discus for MSUB. Last week, Ostermiller threw 49' 6.25" in shot put and took second place in Bozeman. This year, he has set new personal bests in shot put and hammer and made his way into the top five in the conference for shot.

GNAC Top 5 SHOTPUT (Men)

	Athlete	Year	Team	Mark
1	Jake Knight	SR	Northwest Nazarene	60' 0.25"
2	Josh Koch	SR	Concordia	55' 11.25"
3	Brady Ostermiller	SR	MSU Billings	53' 1.75"
4	Ethan Tonder	SO	Central Washington	52' 6.75"
5	Aiden Cain	JR	Central Washington	52' 2"

The Yellowjackets have the GNAC top 4x100 meter men's relay team after Kaelen Shay, Mason Schram, Kyle Patelis, and Sam Zook combined for a time of 41.57 seconds at the MSU Open last week. The MSUB women's 4x100 meter consists of Anne Lory Chevalier, Madison Thompson, Kaitlin Mason, and Brenna Beckett. They are currently ninth in the conference.
 
Both Chevalier and Mason have also made headway in short sprints. Chevalier set career top times in the 100 and 200 meters last week. She ranks 16^th in the 100 meters at 12.76 seconds and 26^th in the 200 meters at 26.22 seconds. Mason also posted her best 100 and 200 meter results in Bozeman. She ran 12.81 seconds in the 100 meters (20^th) and 26.71 seconds in the 200 meters (40^th).
 
"We are really going to focus in on individual events this week, particularly with the women," commented coach Woehl. "Anne and Kaitlyn really moved up in the conference rankings and I think if they can continue to shave fractions of seconds as we go, they are really going to solidify themselves in the 100 and 200 meters within the conference."
 
MSUB men's distance runners include Ivan Colmenero, Ronald Venema, Ase Ackerman, and Logan Straus. Colmenero ranks 19^th in the GNAC in the 5000 meters and Vemena checks in 26^th.
 
"I know that Ivan, Ron, Ase, and Logan are all hoping to have their best marks in the 5K and they'll probably work together quite a bit in the race to achieve that goal," Woehl said.
 
The Yellowjacket women's throwers continue to hover around the top ten for shotput. Hannah Nessan leads the group with and is eighth with a top throw of 38' 4.25". Hailey Steinbeisser is right behind her in ninth at 38' 2.75" and Taylor Stringari ranks 11^th with a throw of 35' 9.25". In discus, Nessan has the narrow edge over Abbie Lohof but both rank inside the top 10 at seventh and eighth respectively.
 
 
Stringari ranks eighth in the GNAC in hammer throw with Steinbeisser in 10^th. All four are expected to compete in Fort Collins Saturday. MSU Billings will travel to Dickinson, South Dakota for the Dickinson State Last Chance Invitational next Saturday before heading to Monmouth, Oregon for the GNAC Outdoor Championships May 10-11. Should any player meet qualifying marks for the NCAA Division II Championships, they would travel to Indianapolis on May 23.