GRESHAM, Ore. — The Montana track and field program had to compete against more than just the other nine schools in the Big Sky on Saturday as wind and rain caused problems and lightning forced three delays.
They emerged from it all with six Big Sky Championship wins on the track during the final day of competition and two third-place team finishes. The women scored 111 points and the men scored 107.5 points, beating Montana State for the first time since 2019.
“I have never been prouder of a group of athletes than I am of this championship group simply because of the way that we had to battle,” head coach Doug Fraley said. “We would lose ground and then somebody would come do something fantastic and we’d gain it right back. It went that way the entire meet and in the end it got us a very hard earned third on both sides and we needed every point from every athlete. It was a tremendous job of battling from these young men and women.”
The Grizzlies got a fast start on the track with the 4x100-meter relays. Montana’s women were the first to take the track and the team of Brooke Zetooney, Rileigh McGree, Lily Meskers and Callie Wilson brought home the gold with a time of 45.07.
When it got to the final leg, Montana trailed Idaho by several meters. Wilson, Montana’s star freshman sprinter, reeled the Vandals back in and brought the Grizzlies home first for the win in the start of an impressive overall day for her.
The men followed suit right after the women’s title. The group of Romin Saleki, Braden Ankeny, Ben Bliven and Karsen Beitz ran a time of 40.10 to come out on top in the men’s race in a new program record time.
The team consisted of two true freshmen and Ankeny, who ran the 200m and 400m prelims the day before and would run in the 200m final later, filling in for an injured runner. Beitz burned down the final straightaway to give the Grizzlies the win.
The anchor runners for both relay teams had tremendous individual days on the track, as well. Wilson has dominated the conference this season in the short sprints and that continued on Saturday.
The freshman flew to the win in the 100m in a time of 11.60, winning by nearly a tenth of a second.
Wilson followed it up with a 200m win later in the day in a hard rain. She had stiff competition from Montana State’s Caroline Hawkes, but it was the Montana freshman that held on down the stretch to complete the sprint double.
“It honestly feels amazing,” Wilson said. “This is exactly what I wanted, so I’m just so happy that I was able to come out and do it. I was definitely nervous being here, but I knew I needed to represent and show up and I ended up doing exactly that so I’m just really proud of myself.”
It’s the second straight year that a Montana athlete has swept the women’s sprint competition after Tara Ohlwiler won the 100 and 200 last year. Wilson joins Ohlwiler and Paula Good as the only Grizzlies to accomplish the feat.
Wilson also won the 60m and 200m indoors to complete a quartet of titles in her freshman season. She leaves Oregon with three gold medals around her neck with the sprint double and the 4x100-meter title. It wasn’t easy in the weather, but Wilson stuck with what got her here and it led to three wins.
“Trusting the process, for sure,” Wilson said of the key to her overall day. “Trusting in my training and then in an event like this with not great weather just trust what I can do and show up and show out.”
Beitz started his solo day on the track with a bronze medal in the men’s 100m with a time of 10.49. The bronze left a bitter taste in the junior from Missoula’s mouth and he came out ready to run in the 200.
It was an incredibly difficult day for Beitz and the men’s sprint group because of the weather. The runners were nearly in the blocks and ready to run the final when lighting struck in the area, forcing them off the track for nearly an hour.
Beitz was already frustrated with his 100m performance, but he talked with Fraley who told the sprinter that he loved the way he fought back in that race. Fraley also gave him some advice to calm him after starting and stopping so many times during the day.
“He just said to me, ‘Everyone is in the same boat, everyone is having to warm up, go inside, warm up, go inside.’ I can’t just sit there and mope about it. It’s not fun, but it’s just mind over matter at that point," Beitz said.
He has been battling a slight injury for the past few weeks and the constant starting and stopping was rough on the body, but Beitz knew he had to leave it all on the line. He did just that, running a time of 20.88 seconds to claim the title.
“I just made sure to get out fast," he said. "I got to the top of the corner in a good spot and just knew that I could win that race. I just wanted to leave it all out there and came back in the last 50 to barely out lean the guy. It felt amazing.”
Beitz very narrowly missed out on the meet MVP award as he earned 18.5 points for the team on the day. The junior from Missoula started as a walk-on with the program and is now the 100 and 200-meter record holder and a Big Sky Champion both indoors and outdoors.
“It was an awesome day. It just shows me how far I’ve come since I first got here,” Beitz said. “It speaks on just how good of a coach Doug is and how much he’s helped me grow as a sprinter and a young man. Season’s not done, we’ve got Arkansas in two weeks which will be sweet, but it was a hell of a conference meet.”
Cadence Waller also added a Big Sky title for Montana in the men’s 400m. He came to the championship with the fifth-best time in the league this year and ran the third-best time in Friday’s prelims.
He won it out of lane two, leaning past Sacramento State’s Curtis Reagor at the line in a winning time of 46.87 that also broke the facility record.
“I’m just happy to go out there and run a good race,” Waller said. “I’ve been training all year for that and I’m just happy that I was able to come through finally at the end of the year.”
Waller is in his first year with the program after attending UM as a student for three years. He competed at an outdoor meet unattached last season and caught the attention of the UM coaching staff, and the rest is history.
“It’s amazing just to be given the opportunity,” Waller said. “I’m super grateful for that and I’m super grateful to Doug for giving me the opportunity, pushing me and my teammates. I’m super grateful for them too, I’ve just loved running for them. This isn’t just for me, it’s for my teammates, as well.”
Montana won three individual Big Sky titles last season. They doubled that in 2026 with six individual titles, adding in Erin Wilde’s high jump win and Brynn Fuller’s javelin title on Friday, to go along with the relay crowns.
“Our group of champions this week was fantastic in the way they performed, the way they carried themselves, and the way they represented the University of Montana,” Fraley said. “I couldn’t be prouder of that group of athletes. We had a tremendous week with a lot of podium finishes, a lot of wins, and a lot of point scorers. It was a great effort this week from the Griz track and field teams.”
There were three more all-conference performances from Montana on Saturday with several athletes just missing out on titles of their own.
Alex Shields finished as the runner-up in the men’s shot put competition in a hard-fought battle. Shields led until the final throw and earned all-conference honors with his mark of 60-2.
Lillian White entered the Big Sky Championship meet ranked sixth in the league in the women’s discus competition. She made it through to the finals in that position but made a big move on her fifth throw of the day.
She jumped all the way up to third with a mark of 150-0 and held on to the spot the rest of the way to earn a bronze medal.
Sophia Clark was the top Grizzly in the women’s 400 in a race that was contested in a downpour. The Grizzlies had four point scorers in the event and Clark reached the podium with her time of 54.73.
Entering the 4x400-meter relays, the final events of the championship, Montana sat in fourth place in the men’s and women’s competitions. The women trailed Idaho by a point and the men trailed Montana State by a half-point, setting up a showdown in the relays.
The women got off to a great start behind the all-conference performer Clark. Claire Hutchison and Brooke Zetooney handled the middle legs, and Lily Meskers brought the Grizzlies home to a second place finish. They beat Idaho to jump to third place, finishing in that position for the third straight meet between indoor and outdoor meets.
Montana’s men led with Ben Antley, who had the Grizzlies in a good spot when he passed the baton to Taylor Johnson. Johnson kept the Grizzlies right near the lead to hand off to Ankeny, and they were in second when Waller got the baton for the anchor leg.
The open 400m champion nearly chased down Sacramento State for the title, but did more than enough to hold off Montana State to jump the Griz past their rivals. It’s the first time since hosting the Big Sky Championships in 2019 that Montana has finished ahead of Montana State in the men’s standings.
After a long day and a long meet, the Grizzly relay teams delivered when needed most.
“By that point in the conference championship you are absolutely out of juice, especially when you throw in a couple of rain delays,” Fraley said. “For us to come out and be competitive knowing we needed to beat certain teams to move up in the team standings was just outstanding from our athletes. They were hard-nosed and got it done in the end.”
Northern Arizona won the men’s competition with 171 points and Sacramento State came in second with 110. The Grizzlies were right behind with 107.5, finishing 2.5 points ahead of MSU.
Montana State’s women won with 181 points with Northern Arizona second at 128. Montana’s women scored 111 to hold off Idaho at 110.
Montana has continued to rise in the league’s standings and become more and more competitive at the conference stage. The senior class has helped lead Montana to new heights. The Grizzlies had never finished in the top three of both the men’s and women’s conference meets until last season. Now they’ve done it twice in a row.
“What a tremendous group of seniors that have completed their final conference championship,” Fraley said. “These young men and women have really forged the way to the success we’re having today in the last four years. I’m just really proud of how that group has moved our program along.”
MONTANA MEN’S RESULTS
100m- Karsen Beitz (10.49, 3rd)
200m- Karsen Beitz (20.88 $, 1st), Braden Ankeny (21.47, 7th)
400m- Cadence Waller (46.87 $, 1st)
800m- Truman Thompson (1:49.23, 4th)
4x100m- Saleki, Ankeny, Bliven, Beitz (40.10^, 1st)
High Jump- Zachary Travis (6-6.75, 6th), Sam Henderson (6-6.75, 8th), Patrick Kremer (6-2.75, 12th)
Triple Jump- Sam Henderson (47-11.25, 5th)
Shot Put- Alex Shields (60-2, 2nd), Titus Jeffrey (54-8.25, 6th), Astin Brown (51-11.75, 9th)
Discus- Titus Jeffrey (176-9, 4th), Cooper Henkle (165-2, 7th)
MONTANA WOMEN’S RESULTS
100m- Callie Wilson (11.60, 1st)
200m- Callie Wilson (23.76, 1st), Lily Meskers (24.63, 7th)
400m- Sophia Clark (54.73, 3rd), Lily Meskers (54.86, 4th), Claire Hutchison (55.89, 6th), Mikenna Ells (56.37, 8th)
100mH- Ainsley Shipman (14.03, 8th)
4x100m- Zetooney, McGree, Meskers, Wilson (45.07, 1st)
Pole Vault- Shealyne McGee (12-9, 4th), Hannah Moses (12-5.25, 6th), Reghan Skogen (11-7.25, 8th), Grace MacHarg (11-7.25, 9th)
Triple Jump- Ainsley Shipman (38-2.75, 10th)
Shot Put- Scout Nadeau (45-3.5, 9th)
Discus- Lillian White (150-0, 3rd), Morgan Thomas (132-9, 10th)
$ - Facility Record
^ - UM School Record
MEN’S TEAM SCORES
1. Northern Arizona (171)
2. Sacramento State (110)
3. Montana (107.5)
4. Montana State (105)
5. Weber State (93.5)
6. Idaho State (80)
7. Eastern Washington (58)
8. Idaho (51)
9. Northern Colorado (33)
10. Portland State (9)
WOMEN’S TEAM SCORES
1. Montana State (181)
2. Northern Arizona (128)
3. Montana (111)
4. Idaho (110)
5. Sacramento State (72.5)
6. Weber State (58)
7. Eastern Washington (53)
8. Northern Colorado (42)
9. Idaho State (38.5)
10. Portland State (25)
MONTANA MEN’S POINT SCORERS
Karsen Beitz – 16 (10 200m, 6 100m)
Cadence Waller – 10 (400m)
4x100m – 10
4x400m – 8
Carson Hegele – 8 (pole vault)
Alex Shields – 8 (shot put)
Titus Jeffrey – 8 (5 discus, 3 shot put)
Patrick Kremer – 6 (long jump)
Hunter Loesch – 6 (javelin)
Kyle Iorg – 5 (javelin)
Truman Thompson – 5 (800m)
Sam Henderson – 5 (4 triple jump, 1 high jump)
Cooper Henkle – 4 (2 javelin, 2 discus)
Zachary Travis – 3 (high jump)
Carter Petersen – 2.5 (pole vault)
Braden Ankeny – 2 (200m)
Ethan Grimm – 1 (javelin)
MONTANA WOMEN’S POINT SCORERS
Callie Wilson – 20 (10 100m, 10 200m)
Erin Wilde – 10 (high jump)
Brynn Fuller – 10 (javelin)
4x100m – 10
Ashley Carroll – 8 (javelin)
4x400m – 8
Lily Meskers – 7 (5 400m, 2 200m)
Sophia Clark – 6 (400m)
Ella Moodry – 6 (javelin)
Lillian White – 6 (discus)
Shealyne McGee – 5 (pole vault)
Brooke Stayner – 3 (heptathlon)
Morgan Thomas – 3 (hammer)
Claire Hutchison – 3 (400m)
Hannah Moses – 3 (pole vault)
Reghan Skogen – 1 (pole vault)
Mikenna Ells – 1 (400m)
Ainsley Shipman – 1 (100mH)
