SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Erin Wilde pushed her winning streak in the high jump to five straight Big Sky titles, Tara Ohlwiler completed a historic sprint double, and Montana’s men and women both reached the century mark in the same meet for the first time since 2002 on Saturday.
The men scored 107 points and the women 100 exactly as both teams finished third in the Big Sky Conference. It’s the most points for the men since 2007 and the best finish since 2019. For the women, 2017 was the last team they reached 100 points and finished in the top three.
Montana also had an individual award winner in Braden Ankeny. He was named the Big Sky Freshman of the Year following his three All-Conference performances and another fourth place finish as part of the 4x100-meter relay team. He’s the second Grizzly to ever win the award joining Xavier Melice in 2019.
“I could not be more proud of both of these teams,” head coach Doug Fraley said. “We knew coming in that we had a chance, if we really hit it, to take third on both sides. We were able to do that, so kudos to the kids and kudos to my assistants for getting these kids prepared to do the job because they really did a hell of a job this weekend.”
Montana were picked to finish fifth and ninth in the league on the men’s and women’s side, respectively, during the indoor season. They greatly exceeded those expectations. The bar was set higher during outdoors as a result, and Montana still found a way to overcome the predictions.
The men hit their preseason placement of third. The women were picked fourth in the preseason poll behind the host school Sacramento State. The Hornets had a great meet on their home track, but Montana was able to sneak past them 100-97 to finish in third.
“On the women’s side, one thing you can count on is the home team being really strong,” Fraley said. “Sacramento State had a loaded women’s roster this year and for us to come in and take third from them on their home track was really a phenomenal performance from our women.”
One big reason to that placement was sophomore sprinter Tara Ohlwiler. She entered the meet ranked third in the 100m and fourth in the 200m, but has been running better than anyone else in the conference during the last few weeks.
Ohlwiler qualified for both finals, running the fourth-fastest 100 and the best 200 during prelims. Her first appearance on the track came in the 4x100m relay, where an exchange went wrong involving her.
It could have been a bad omen for the two finals later in the day. Instead, Ohlwiler channeled it into two blistering performances on the track.
She broke out of the blocks great in the 100m and led the whole way, holding off Montana State’s Jaeden Wolff at the finish line with a time of 11.72 seconds to become the first Grizzly to win the women’s 100m since 1987.
“The mindset was to be mentally strong. It’s really what conference championships come down to,” Ohlwiler said. “I learned last year that anything can happen, it was proven in our 4x1 unfortunately, but I said I just need to scratch it and accept that everyone is in the same boat as you and everyone’s here to try hard. You just need to try a little bit harder than everybody else and that’s what’s going to make a win.”
Ohlwiler didn’t have long to rest on her laurels. One hour later, she was back on the track for the 200m final. This time, she started a bit slower and trailed several runners entering the home stretch. She used the final bit of the curve as a slingshot and burst past a pair of Bobcats.
She ran a lifetime best time of 23.67, coming within a tenth of the Montana school record, and competing the sprint double in the process. She joins Paula Good Pease as the only two women in program history to win both the 100m and 200m at the same championship.
“It is really, really difficult to win both of those in the same day. We knew Tara was ready coming in and I thought that she had a chance to do it, but you still have to go out there and do it, and boy did she do it in style,” Fraley said. “To match the feat of a Montana legend like Paula is really something special.”
It’s been a long journey for Ohlwiler. She missed the championship meet last year with an injury that required surgery during the offseason. It took her some time to get back to full strength, but she proved in Sacramento that when she’s healthy, she’s the fastest woman in the Big Sky.
“It feels really good, I’ve been putting in the work this whole season and in the summer time,” Ohlwiler said. “Especially coming off of knee surgery, I was really discouraged and wasn’t sure where my season would go. I just trusted my coach and trusted God and thought, ‘I need to go to work,’ and I went to work.”
Ohlwiler won two titles on Saturday, but she still has some work to do to catch up to junior Erin Wilde. The Whitefish native entered the meet having won four straight Big Sky High Jump Championships.
The pressure was on Wilde, who has also dealt with injuries this year and came into the meet ranked second in the league. You wouldn’t have been able to tell watching the event as Wilde cleared her first three bars on the very first attempt.
That alone would have won her the fifth straight Big Sky title, but she went one more up to 5-8.75 just to be sure.
Wilde becomes the first Grizzly to win three outdoor titles in the same event since Loni Perkins-Judisch did it in the 400-meters from 2005-08.
“It feels really good, I’m super happy about it. I’m really grateful for the opportunity,” Wilde said. “I was nervous to begin with and had a big target on my back, but I think just having the mindset of being grateful that I can experience something this big again and just know that I have the privilege of pressure.”
To win her first title in Greeley, Colo. back in 2023, she had to knock off a then-five time champion in the event in Lucy Corbett of Montana State. She has gone from the underdog to the queen of high jump over the past three years.
“I want to keep being a role model, I want people to look up to me being able to do what I do and be confident,” Wilde said. “But I also know that there are definitely girls out there that want to beat me and so I just keep pushing myself.”
She missed a home meet this season and hasn’t been at 100 percent during training sessions because of a lower leg injury. None of that mattered when the athletes faced off with the bar on Saturday in Sacramento.
“She hasn’t had the smoothest outdoor season. She’s had a bit of a lower leg ding which has kept her out of some training, but when the lights are bright at the conference meet Erin Wilde gets locked in,” Fraley said. “Five straight Big Sky Championships in any event is just unbelievable.”
The best performer on the men’s side was a true freshman. Braden Ankeny brought home the Freshman of the Year award following runner-up finishes in both the 200 and the 400. He snuck through to the finals in the 200 by one-thousandth of a second, claiming the eighth and final spot. He had the fourth fastest time in the 400.
He started his day not in either final, but as part of Montana’s 4x100m relay team. The Grizzlies took 4th in that event, picking up five points. He then went to the 400m final where he started fast and held on for a second place finish and All-Conference honors.
About an hour later, he lined up for the men’s 200m final in lane eight. As the PA announcer informed the crowd of the field, he mentioned Ankeny’s performance in the 400m, which gave the freshman some extra juice in the starting blocks.
“Yesterday I was kind of in my head a little bit and thinking too much. Today I was a lot more relaxed,” Ankeny said. “Then I heard the announcer say something about how I was a surprise podium in the 400 and it kind of ticked me off a little bit and gave me extra motivation.”
He channeled that and turned it into a 21.22 time in the 200m final. If it was a 220m race, he may have won, but he ran out of track at the very end. Ankeny still ended as the runner-up for a second time as a true freshman.
“Unbelievable. To come in and make the podium against the level of athletes he was facing in the 200 and the 400, and then to be a big part of our success in the relays, it was just an outstanding job for Braden,” Fraley said.
The big weekend nearly didn’t happen. Head coach Doug Fraley said that he informed Ankeny a few weeks ago that he would only be running the 200m at the conference championship. The freshman stewed on that info, and went back to his head coach a few days later.
“It feels great. Doug pulled me aside a few weeks ago and said I wasn’t going to run the 400 at conference. I thought about it that whole week and was like, nah dude I want to run it at conference so I told him that,” Ankeny said. “He said, ‘OK, then go get that Freshman of the Year,’ and I did it, so it feels good to see that happen. It makes me really excited for next year because I think I can turn these three silvers into three golds next year.”
Montana had a school record fall in the men’s pole vault in a tremendous effort from Carson Weeden. The men’s pole vault competition was one of the foregone conclusions of the meet with Montana State’s Colby Wilson the league’s record holder and multiple champion in the event.
Weeden gave him everything that he could handle and then some, clearing his first six attempts of the day up to 17-0.75. The two were the only competitors remaining at 17-2.75, which Weeden cleared for his second PR of the day.
When they reached 17-4.5, Weeded went over on his first attempt to break the Montana school record. Wilson missed his first attempt and then elected to pass to the next bar.
He missed his first attempt at 17-6.5, leaving him just one more attempt. If he missed, Weeden would pull off the upset. Instead, Wilson went over the bar, shifting the pressure back to Weeden.
His attempt was close, but he clipped the bar coming down and settled for a school record and second place.
“Unbelievable, Carson has just been so consistent the entire year indoor and out. We knew big jumps were coming and eventually he would have a really good chance to get that school record,” Fraley said. “Today he was a whisker from winning the thing against the best Big Sky pole vaulter ever. For him to break the school record on the biggest stage and solidify his spot in the NCAA West First Rounds. A great performance from a great kid.”
The Lewistown product has given his all to the program, and received quite a bit from it, too. He’s married to fellow pole vaulter Emma Zimmerman-Weeden and now ends his career with a silver medal and his name in the record book.
“It’s been a long journey to get here. Five years of grinding and injuries,” Weeden said. “I’m really happy with myself to know that it’s a lot of work and a complex event, but I performed when it mattered. I’m just really proud of myself and thankful for Erica for being one of the best coaches in the country to be honest.”
Montana had two more individuals earn All-Conference honors on Saturday. Jayel Dovichak continued her fine form on the track in the 100-meter hurdles, running a lifetime best of 13.61 to finish third in the event and pick up six points for Montana.
The other was a surprise for Montana. Heptathlon champion Whitney Morrison entered in the long jump on Friday and just missed out on scoring by inches, and then started her Saturday with a 10th-place finish in the high jump.
The senior went to the triple jump pits just hoping to get a point or two for the Grizzlies. Instead, Morrison hit a PR jump of 39-8.5 to reach the podium in third place.
Montana’s 4x400-meter relays both earned places on the podium as well. The women finished third with a time of 3:38.81 and the men were the runner-ups in a season-best time of 3:09.47.
“The number of point scorers and podium finishes that we had were way up at this meet and that’s a testament to the kids and their believing that they could get in and be a podium finisher, Big Sky Champion, or a point scorer,” Fraley said. “Hats off to both of our teams, we did it in all different event areas which I’m a huge proponent of, and I really feel like both teams made Griz Nation very proud this weekend.”
