POCATELLO, Idaho – Freshman sprinter Benjamin Ralston broke the school record in the 400 meters, Kendall Lynn placed second in the long jump and Bradley Graves' season-best time in the 60-meter hurdles highlighted another productive day for the Montana State University Billings track team at the Mountain State Games this Friday and Saturday.
 
"We had a good two days at the meet with a lot of good marks," MSUB head track and field coach Jonathan Woehl said. "Benjamin Ralston broke the school record in the 400 meters in the finals, Kendall Lynn had a lifetime-best in the long jump and Bradley Graves took a little more time off his 60-meter hurdle time in the prelims."
 
Prior to running his school-record time of 50.60, Ralston ran a 51.29 in the prelims Friday night in order to set up his big performance. He broke Rahkei Eyer's previous record of 50.82, which was set at South Dakota State on Jan. 19, 2018. After conversions, Ralston's time is the ninth-fastest in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference; as of publication time; he is the conference's third-fastest freshman in the 400 meters.
 
"I'm proud of how hard he's worked," Woehl said of Ralston. "He improved a ton with his block start and chopped off a ton of time from our previous meet."
 
Ralston's run was the first MSUB school record to go down this season, yet the 'Jackets nearly had two school records set during the meet.. Kendall Lynn placed second, set a new lifetime best and was two centimeters off the school record in the long jump with a 5.30m (17-4.75). Bradley Graves ran a 8.58 60-meter hurdle time in Friday's prelims, which is eight-hundredths of a second shy of the MSUB school record. Both athletes are primed to get one last crack at the school records at the GNAC Indoor Championships on Feb. 21-22.
 
Dakota Lobmeyer threw a team-best 12.08m (39-7.75) in the shot put; this mark ranks fourth in the GNAC and sixth all-time at MSUB. Lobmeyer is one of six women to throw further than 12 meters in MSUB history.
 
Then in the weight throw, Coen Guisti and Brynn Jolma set new personal bests and had top-10 finishes. Guisti became the sixth athlete in MSUB history to throw further than 15 meters in the weight throw with his 15.10m (49-6.5) mark. He led the 'Jackts and placed ninth out of 22 throwers. As for Jolma, she placed eighth with a throw of 14.17m (46-6), which ranks fifth all-time at MSUB and eighth in the GNAC.
 
"They all had pretty good marks," Woehl said of the throwers. "They set a lot of new PRs, but they wanted to improved by more. Although they were a little disappointed, I love to see their improvements and competitiveness."
 
Leading the way for a bevy of MSUB sprinters, Chantel Chase and William Ullery set season-bests in the 60 and the 200 meters. Chase ran a 8.22 in the 60 meters and a 26.98 in the 200 meters, the latter of which ranks seventh all-time in MSUB indoor track history and 22^nd in the GNAC. Ullery ran a 7.24 in the 60 meters to place 11^th, then ran a 23.20 in the 200 meters and placed eighth.
 
For the distance runners, Ase Ackerman placed third in the mile with a lifetime best of 4:16.67. After conversions, Ackerman's time was 79-hundredths of a second away from the NCAA DII provisional qualifying mark of 4:10.99. During the race, Ackerman bested fellow GNAC competitor Tyler Shea of Northwest Nazarene and beat six Division I runners.
 
Then in the 3,000 meters, Logan Straus, Ackerman, Edgerton and Jordi Peiro all ran new personal bests. Leading the way for the 'Jackets, Straus smashed his previous-best time and placed third with a 8:39.52. Ackerman finished in fourth with a new PR of 8:49.01. Straus and Ackerman ran the third and fifth-fastest times, respectively, in program history.
 
On the women's side, Ally Whitmer ran a season-best 2:28.48 in the 800 meters. Making a return to her hometown of Pocatello, Idaho, Whitmer shaved nearly three seconds off her previous-best time of the season and she now ranks 9^th all-time in MSUB program history in the 800 meters.
 
Closing out the meet, MSUB's women's 4x400 relay team of Madeline Severson, Katelyn Hamill, Annelise Clark and Chantel Chase placed fifth out of 12 teams with a 4:11.75. The quartet – all of whom are newcomers to MSUB this year – ran the sixth-fastest time in school history and was one-one hundredth of a second away from breaking into the top five times.
 
As for the men, Graves, Ullery, Garrett McMillen and Ralston placed seventh with a season-best 3:32.31.
 
"We had great effort from the 4x400 relays," Woehl said. "Both teams are moving in the right direction and are primed to improve again next week at GNACs."
 
THE RUNDOWN

• Benjamin Ralston was named the St. Vincent Healthcare Men's Athlete of the Meet for breaking the school record with a 50.60 400 meters.
• Kendall Lynn was named the St. Vincent Healthcare Women's Athlete of the Meet for placing second in the long jump with a new personal best of 5.30m (17-4.75). She also placed fifth in the triple jump with a 10.64m (34-11) mark. Lynn now ranks fifth in the GNAC in the long jump.
• Freshman Braden Anderson's 13.25m mark in the shot put was not only a new personal best, but also the furthest any MSUB athlete has thrown in the shot this season.

 
UP NEXT: The Great Northwest Athletic Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships await the 'Jackets. The two-day meet will be held at The Podium, located in Spokane, Wash. from Feb. 21-22. A schedule and start times have yet to be announced.