Incredible Bobcats

[mchammer]

Asa Staven and Jeff Mohl are 1-2 in the hep and scoring in several individual event simultaneously. They competed all day, and do it again today. Bobcat Legends.

[TomCat88]

Asa Staven and Jeff Mohl are 1-2 in the hep and scoring in several individual event simultaneously. They competed all day, and do it again today. Bobcat Legends.

Yes, very impressive. Should be a fun, exciting day. Fun to follow this on Twitter.

Also, the men's Nordic (cross country) team lit up the Regional field yesterday at Bohart. Finishing 3-4-8 to beat last year's national champion Colorado and one of this year's favorites Utah.

Big day today with all this and men's and women's hoops in Missoula.

[TomCat88]

Five of seven events in the books.

Staven (MSU) - 4,097
Mohl (MSU) - 3,899
Lind (EWU) - 3,659

[Gidal Kaiser]

Staven 1, Mohl 2; Staven breaks the Big Sky record again. Tomorrow's news today

The 2012 Big Sky Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships were nearly everything they were cracked up to be for Montana State.
The Bobcat men ended in second place with 122 points and garnered 11 medals and All-Conference selections. Northern Arizona was the commanding team champion with 215 points.
MSU was picked fourth in the preseason Big Sky Conference poll this season, and in 2011 the Bobcat men placed third behind conference champion Sacramento State and Idaho State.
“We had a good meet, but we fell about 12 points short of what we expected,” head coach Dale Kennedy said. “It was just unreal what Northern Arizona did … there were just so many bright spots for us, it’s hard to think about missing some points you thought you should have had.”
Senior Asa Staven produced one of the best weekend performances after winning the heptathlon with 5,731 points to set a new Big Sky Conference record. This is the second time the Georgetown, Texas, native has broken the Big Sky record. Staven broke it on Feb. 5 at the Mountain States Games with a score of 5,691; he is just 29 points off an NCAA Championships qualifying mark.
His performance also earned him the Big Sky Outstanding Performer of the meet.
“You set these goals and know what you’re capable of, but it’s never going to be easy,” Staven said. “Even though I did good in some events and worse in others, it came down to the 1000 meters. I had to dig up that energy from somewhere, and I just ran as hard as I could.”
Staven finished fourth in a time of 2 minutes, 48.17 seconds for 785 points. His effort in the 1K held off teammate Jeff Mohl (5,438), who claimed second place. Mohl sat in second after day one of the multis and went on to finish with an additional individual medal in the pole vault, placing second on Friday night.
Chris Wilson was Montana State’s second Big Sky champion after crossing in the 60-meter dash first in 6.80 seconds in a photo-finish. His time of 6.80 converts to a 6.34 55 dash, tying the program record set back in 1972 by Skip Gunlikson. Wilson ran a 6.89 in Friday’s prelim race.
“I had a terrible day, terrible start in the prelims yesterday. I had my mind ready. My focus was getting out of the blocks and going because I struggled with that all year,” said Wilson. “The false start (by NAU’s Dennis Givens) shook everyone up a little bit, but in my mind I thought, ‘Stay focused, you know what you came to do, keep your mind in it.’”
Kennedy called Wilson’s performance “awesome.”
Following Wilson, freshman distance runner Grant Grosvenor won the 800. Coming into the race, Grosvenor held the fastest time from Friday’s preliminary race (1 minute, 55.15 seconds) and thinned that with a championship time of 1:52.45.
“It’s hard running up here at altitude, but it’s fun. I was looking for (Northern Arizona’s Jordan) Chipangama the whole race and stay on his own shoulders the whole time,” Grosvenor said. “I saw his arms or his fists come into my peripherals and I found a last gear and it helped me kick in for the last 40 meters or so.”
Sophomore Trevor Gilreath rallied from a 12th place finish in the weight throw to surface as Big Sky Champion in the shot put with a lifetime best hurl of 17.34m (56-feet- 10.75). Gilreath finished over a half a foot ahead of second place.
“It feels great, I won a last chance throw, so it was really exciting,” Gilreath said. “I’m pumped up. We all started off pretty slow. We all stepped up in the prelims and finals, so it was 50/50."
In the 3,000, an event loaded with Bobcats, senior Dan Jackson came in second behind Nothern Arizona’s Diego Estrada, with a time of 8:32.74 and freshman Jake Turner picked up the bronze in 8:35.06. Jackson also placed second in the 5,000 on Friday night, finishing behind Estrada.
The Bobcat women finished seventh overall with 56 points, three all-Big Sky Conference performances and one individual champion. Weber State took the women’s team title with 132 points. Last season, MSU was sixth, with Sac State winning the women’s side. For ladies, the weekend can be used “as a stumbling block or stepping stone” into the outdoor season, Kenndy noted.
“It was a really difficult battle for the women,” Kennedy said. “We fell about 20 points short (of our goal) on the women’s side.
“We thought we’d finish anywhere from third to fifth… that was not something the kids or the coaching staff had thought about, had planned. It was a shocker to all of us. We had some shining performances, but the kids just didn’t score very many points.”
The “shock of the meet” was the distance medley relay on Friday taking third in a time of 12:27.04, and senior Amanda Murphy followed her shot put victory on Friday with a weight-throw toss of 61-09.50 for a bronze medal.
Several Bobcats were on the brink of conference honors and also tabbed lifetime bests. Sonia Antar recorded a lifetime best in the 400 (55.75, fourth); Rebekka Chambers also earned fourth place in the pole vault with a PR height of 3.90m (12-09.50).
The women’s 4x400 relay team of Katie Niemeir, Chantel Jaeger, Lierin Flanagan and Antar also came in fourth with a season best time of 3:46.82.
The 2012 outdoor slate begins on Friday, March 30 in Missoula at the Al Manuel Invitational.

[BelgradeBobcat]

Congrats to Asa Staven and the men's indoor track team for saving the day!

[TomCat88]

Congrats to Asa Staven and the men's indoor track team for saving the day!

MSU also won the men's 20K nordic team title yesterday at NCAA Regional. The team (alpine/nordic; men/women combined) set a school record with 11 skiers (6 men, 5 women) qualifying for the NCAA Finals. Norris was second in the 20K, just one second behind the winner.

[wbtfg]

Would the indoor championships have ended up any different had Patrick Casey not transferred?

[mchammer]

With Casey we would have scored more points, but not enough to win over NAU. NAU's point total was an all-time record.