BOZEMAN — Freshman Callie Wilson shattered a pair of Montana school records in an impressive individual performance at the Bobcat Challenge this weekend. The freshman won the women's 60 meters and 200 meters in record-breaking time to highlight a great overall meet for the Grizzlies.
Karsen Beitz improved on his own program-best in the men's 200 on Friday night to join Wilson in the record breaking.
The meet featured Montana State and Idaho State, two teams in the top half of the Big Sky, along with Wyoming out of the Mountain West. In some impressive fields, the Grizzlies still won five individual events on the women's side and five on the men's side.
"Great team-wide effort," coach Doug Fraley said. "We had standout performances in all event areas on the field and on the track. That's what we want to be developing as we go through the season is not just the top people getting better, but team-wide improving marks to solid Big Sky levels. I feel like we hit that in every event area this weekend."
Wilson set a record in her first collegiate 200. She blew her own record away and ran one of the best races in the history of the Big Sky Conference on Friday night.
Wilson ran a 23.49 second race to win the meet by nearly a full second and put her name in Griz and Big Sky Conference history. She's now nearly a second faster than the next closest Grizzly in program history with her new time.
The freshman is also third in Big Sky Conference history with her new time, and now ranks 13th in the entire NCAA in the women's 200.
It's the second straight week that Wilson has set a program record, but she didn't stop there.
On Saturday, Wilson took another school record off the board, this time in the women's 60 meters. Running the event for just the second time this season, Wilson blew away the field in the prelims with a time of 7.36 to break her teammate Tara Ohlwiler's record.
Wilson would go on to win the final with a time of 7.37 as she now owns the two fastest times in program history.
"She had a tremendous weekend," Fraley said. "We knew coming in that she was really talented out of high school and its fun watching her get into a college program and really working on things the way she has. She's done a really good job going through the process as a freshman and let it all show this weekend how talented that young lady is."
Wilson wasn't alone in the double-win, record-breaking weekend department. Men's sprinter and Missoula product Beitz also broke a Grizzly program record for the second straight week.
Beitz won the men's 200 with a time of 21.35. He had the record entering the year, beat it last week, and now goes even lower with his time in Bozeman. He already had the fastest time in the Big Sky Conference this season but improved upon it with an impressive run in Bozeman.
Beitz may not have broken a record in the 60 meters on Saturday, but he ran the second fastest time in school history on his way to a win in the event. He qualified for the finals with the fastest prelim time at 6.80.
He improved upon that in the finals, running a time of 6.74 that trails only Cooper Hewett in Montana school history. Beitz won the event and has now improved on his time in the 60 meters in five straight races.
"He had a really good weekend with the 200 last night and then going through the prelims and the finals in a very good field in the final," Fraley said.
