SPOKANE, Wash. — The Montana State Billings men’s and women’s track and field teams completed their 2026 indoor campaign on Monday and Tuesday, competing at the Great Northwest Athletic Conference indoor championships.
The Yellowjackets had a pair of athletes earn podium finishes 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 1 of the meet.
Cooper’s mark of 16.60 meters (54 feet, 5.5 inches) placed 68th in Division II this season. The bronze medal was the third GNAC indoor championships medal earned by Cooper in her career, and the 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 all-conference finish at any GNAC championships meet. Sandefur threw 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 70th in Division II overall.
The Day 2 highlight belonged to the MSUB women’s 4x400 relay team, which set a new school record in the event. The quartet of Bella Klein, Delainey Engen, Katie Sheridan and Micah Strong set the first sub-4:00 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 concluded a successful first GNAC indoor championships for the freshman Strong, who qualified for the finals in the 800 meters. After finishing in fourth place in the prelims with a time of 2:15.87, Strong took 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 80th overall in D-II this season, while just missing the school record in the event, previously set in 2022 by Kailee Stoppel.
Western Washington swept the team titles to earn both GNAC championships, earning 191 points on the women’s side and 163 points on the men’s side.
