4 more school records fall for Montana track at Bengal Invitational

POCATELLO, Idaho — Montana track and field coach Doug Fraley knew that this weekend could be a big one for his team. The Bengal Invitational promised good weather, good competition, and a good facility for a meet with just two weeks to go until the Big Sky Championship. 
 
The ingredients were all there for a potential big weekend for a team that he hoped would be peaking as they prepared for the postseason. His Grizzlies didn’t let him down. Montana broke four school records on Saturday to bring the total up to six for the weekend in a dominant performance in Pocatello.
 
“I’m super proud of the squad in every single area,” Fraley said. “We made progress and created momentum and we’re two weeks out from the big show which is exactly when you want to hit stride. I felt like we did that team-wide in so many areas this weekend.”
 
The record breaking started early and went all day for the Grizzlies. Alex Shields broke his own men’s shot put record in the first event of the day and the women’s 4x100-meter relay team started the racing off with a record. 
 
Lily Meskers went sub-53 in the 400 meters to break a 14-year old record and then ran the closing leg on the women’s 4x400-meter relay as they also made history for the Griz. 
 
They weren’t the only Grizzlies that had great days as four more athletes entered the top 10 in respective events and plenty more made moves in the league and regional standings with great times and marks. 
 
“It felt like we created momentum early in the meet with the shot put and women’s 4x100 records and it just kind of snowballed from there,” Fraley said. “That’s the thing with young athletes, they see their teammates doing well and they start to get a greater purpose and more energy. Sports are momentum-driven and track and field is no different than any other sport in that regard.”
 
Shields entered the week in the top 30 in the West and the leader in the Big Sky in the men’s shot put. He reached the finals, but did so in seventh place. The Missoula native waited until his final throw of the day to leave his mark. 
 
He was in sixth place entering his final throw, but unloaded a bomb that carried over 60 feet to win the event and break his own record. Shields extends his league lead in the event and moves into 16th in the West, nearly guaranteeing himself a spot at the NCAA First Round meet. 
 
“We’re talking about a guy that three years ago threw 54 feet with a 12-pound high school shot. Now he’s throwing 60-feet with a college 16-pound shot. That is tremendous progress,” Fraley said. “He’s the captain of the throws squad and it means so much to our program to have him doing as well as he’s doing. That was a massive record today.”
 
The women’s team has the four fastest runners in program history all on the same team and already set the program record earlier this season. Fraley tweaked his lineup a bit on Saturday and it paid off with another remarkable time. 
 
The team of Brooke Zetooney, Rileigh McGree, Lily Meskers and Callie Wilson ran a time of 44.66 with Wilson burning down the final straightaway. The time is inside the top 40 in the region overall and close to the top 20 if you remove duplicate times from the same school.
 
They weren’t the only relay team to set a record, and a couple of the same women made history at the end of the meet with the 4x400-meter relay. The Grizzlies were running virtually unopposed after Montana State sat out their top team. 
 
It didn’t matter for Montana. The Grizzlies finished 17 seconds ahead of Idaho State and broke a program record from last season with a time of 3:36.25. Zetooney and Meskers returned from the short relay team with the addition of Sophia Clark and Mikenna Ells this time around. 
 
The time is also a top 40 regional mark entering the week. 
 
“I was so proud of the women’s 4x400 because they had to run it solo because some teams scratched late in the meet,” Fraley said. “Our goal has been to run around 3:36 to move up in the regional rankings and we did that basically in a time trial today. It just tells you how much heart and fight that those ladies have because there is nothing harder at the end of a two-day meet than running a 4x400 by yourself. They went out, laid it on the line, and got it done.”
 
Meskers made it a triple school record day in the women’s 400 meters. She went sub-54 earlier this season in California and was primed for another breakthrough. On Saturday, Meskers ran a 52.80 time to break Kourtney Danreuther’s 2012 program record. 
 
The time is tied for the 31st fastest in the West entering the weekend and will put Meskers in contention for an NCAA First Round bid. 
 
“Lily is an unbelievable student-athlete at the University of Montana. She means so much to our program and has just gotten better by the year,” Fraley said. “We knew after the California trip that she was ready to pop one and we knew that she would need about 53-low to get to regionals. She knew exactly what she had to do and her and the rest of the women’s 400-crew just went out and had a tremendous day.”
 
Danreuther’s time was beaten twice on Saturday as Mikenna Ells nearly broke the 53-second mark as well. Ells and Meskers pushed each other down the final stretch as Ells ran the second-best time in program history at 53.08 seconds.