SPOKANE, Wash. – The Montana State University Billings men's and women's track & field teams completed their 2026 indoor campaign on Monday and Tuesday, competing in the GNAC Indoor Championships alongside the rest of the teams in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.
 
The Yellowjacket's would see a pair of athletes earn podium finishes at the meet to highlight their finishes as a team, with Hannah Cooper and Cort Sandefur each earning a third-place finish in the weight throw on day one of the meet. Cooper's mark of 16.60m (54' 5.5") would place 68^th in Division II this season. The bronze medal would be the third GNAC Indoor Championships medal earned by Cooper in her career, and fifth overall medal the junior has earned at a conference championship meet. Both totals tie her with Anica Knispel for the most in program history. Meanwhile for the senior Sandefur, the medal would give him his first ever All-Conference finish at any GNAC Championships meet. Sandefur would throw a mark of 17.74m (58' 2.5"), setting a PR and improving his second-best mark in program history. The throw would also rank Sandefur 70^th in Division II overall.
 
Meanwhile, the day two highlight would come at the end of the day, where the MSUB women's 4x400 relay team would set a new school record in the event. The quartet of Bella Klein, Delainey Engen, Katie Sheridan, and Micah Strong would set the first sub-four-minute mark in the program's history, finishing with a time of 3:59.54, besting the previous school record of 4:02.28 set in 2017.
 
The relay finish would conclude a successful first GNAC Indoor Championships for the freshman Strong, who qualified for the finals in the 800m. After finishing in fourth place in the prelims with a time of 2:15.87, Strong would finish in sixth place in the finals on Tuesday, finishing with a time of 2:16.22. Her PR mark in the event would see Strong place 80^th overall in DII this season, while finishing just .01 seconds off matching the school record in the event, previously set in 2022 by Kailee Stoppel.
 
Strong would lead a number of Yellowjacket women who collected PR marks in competition over the past two days. Izzy Ping would set her new best in the 60m prelims, running her first sub-8-second time to place 14^th with a time of 7.98 seconds. Engen would also PR in the event with a time of 8.04 seconds, placing 14^th and 15^th respectively. Both athletes climbed in the top ten marks in school history for the event, with Ping now ranking fifth and Engen sixth all-time for the 'Jackets. Meanwhile in the 400m, senior Bella Klein would run a time of 1:00.01 to collect a season best mark and take 16^th place. Chloe Shennum would also PR in the 800m with a time of 2:26.61. In the longer distance events, Gracyn Rock set a new PR in the mile with a mark of 5:27.83 to place 15^th, while Ally Coey PR'd in the 5000m with a time of 19:50.56. And continuing their success in the relays, Shennum, Sheridan, Strong, and Rock would set a new top ten mark in program history for the distance medley relay, with their time of 13:06.19 placing eighth in school history and 74^th in DII this season.
 
In the field events, Mattea McColly would finish behind Cooper in the weight throw with a mark of 13.66m (44' 9.75"), taking tenth place overall. Cooper would also lead MSUB in the shot put, with her mark of 11.82m (38' 9.5") finishing as the 11^th highest mark at the meet.
 
The Yellowjacket women's team would place eighth overall in the team scores at the meet, collecting 13 points. Cooper would finish as the Yellowjacket's top points scorer with six points from the weight throw, while Strong earned three points in the 800m, and MSUB's relay squads each earning a pair of points for their races.
 
For the men's team, Kody Biggs would finish with a points-earning finish behind Sandefur in the weight throw, placing seventh with a mark of 16.08m (52' 9.25"). Kane Olsen would take tenth in the weight throw with a mark of 14.78m (48' 6"). Sandefur would also finish as MSUB's top thrower in the shot put with a mark of 13.60m (44' 7.50"). In the jumping events, Carson Nissen would finish with a leap of 6.66m (21' 10.25") in the long jump to place eighth, while Johnnie Young would lead MSUB in both the triple jump with a mark of 13.13m (43' 8"), and high jump after clearing 1.87m (6' 1.5"), both marks placing ninth overall at the meet.
 
In the sprints, Nissen would join John Roberts, Landon Freeman, Tyler Grenier, and Ryen Sanders in setting PR marks in the 60m prelims. Roberts would lead the way with a time of 6.99, finishing 13^th and ranking seventh overall in school history. Nissen's mark of 7.12 would tie for ninth. JayCee Herbert would run a time of 23.18 to place 19^th in the 200m prelims, while Brock Grossman would run a time of 52.29 to place 15^th in the 400m prelims. Herbert and Grossman would run two legs of the men's 4x400m relay, with Kalub Padilla and Lennon Davis joining them to run a season-best time of 3:28.49.
 
Competing in the heptathlon for the Yellowjacket men, senior Ryan Fenley would total a score of 3,746, taking eighth overall in the meet. Fenley would earn his best overall finish in the heptathlon shot put, where he placed fifth with a mark of 9.90m (32' 5.75"). Fenley would also excel high jump, where he leaped a season-best of 1.74m (5' 8.5") to take seventh place, while earning eighth in the heptathlon pole vault, long jump, 1000m, and ninth in the 60m and 60m hurdles.
 
The 'Jacket men placed ninth overall with a score of 12 points. Sandefur would score a team high of six points, while Biggs would also earn two points, both in the weight throw. The 4x400m relay squad would earn two points, while Nissen and Fenley would each score one point.
 
Western Washington would sweep the team titles to earn both GNAC Championships, earning 191 points on the women's side and 163 points on the men's side.
 
THE BUZZ: Cooper and Sandefur were named Intermountain Health Athletes of the Meet from day one, while Strong and Young received honors for the second day of action.
 
UP NEXT: The Yellowjackets are set to begin the 2026 outdoor track & field season in just under a month, kicking things off at home when they cohost the Yellowjacket/Battlin' Bears Icebreaker Open with Rocky Mountain College. A full look at the upcoming outdoor schedule is available on both the men's and women's team schedules.