The Bobcat Nation

Kylee Zent has transferred to MSU from Notre Dame for track and field. She is the all-class state meet record holder in the shot put, and a three time state champ with the discus. She has the best high school marks of any female thrower to enter the program.

Mike Carignan

How do this year's track teams look?

That IS great news. Congrats. She sounds both talented AND smart. Perfect match for MSU.

Yes she is a good student, thanks. Both our men and our women should be better this year, contending for the top 3 places at conference. We have a lot of new athletes, and some are going to have an impact this year. Ellie Rudy will vault high, probably 13+ as a freshman and 14 ultimately. We have a good group of new female sprinters and distance runners. Erin Jones and Kelsey Kirkpatrick will score a lot in the jumps and multis. Our men will be better because we have more sprinters, and all of our best distance runners will compete. Our jumpers and throwers will be better. We added a real good sprinter/jumper in Kevin Ludwig from Telluride, CO. He's the real deal, and will become a very good decathlete. Last year was kind of a rebuilding year. We will still redshirt here and there, which hurts, but we try to do what's best for the athlete.
We will host 4 indoor meets, you can get the dates and times at http://www.montana.edu/cats

Mike

That sounds great, I will definitely make it to at least one meet this year. Hey Mike, who is our sprints coach this year. Is Lacey coaching full time, or was she just helping out after Christy left?

Keep us all informed on what's going on, and we wish you the best of luck on the upcoming season(s)!!

I was very impressed by Erin last season. She's pretty special.

Who are the sprinters? I've always lamented the fact that the Cats men were so good everywhere else, but held back by lack of competitive sprinters who could score at the conference meet.

The women on the other hand have often had strength in every area.

The Bobcat track and field coaches remain the class of the department, along with my favorite, volleyball.

Coach Kennedy is coaching the sprints. Lacy was a good replacement idea for Mastel but Lacy took the interim wellness director position, which was a great opportunity. Still, she helps Coach Kennedy out some when she can. We will conduct a search for an additional coach this summer. We tried last summer but could not find the right person.

Last year was a big year for adding sprinters to the men's team with Steve Heberly and Ty Norris joining the team. Steve placed 3rd at BSC in the 55, and Ty placed in the 400 outdoors. With Mike Novotny and decathlete Brad Benjamin they ran a few 3:14 4x400 relays. Our 20 yr old school record is 3:13. Mike and Brad are back, plus freshman Dan Johnson who should 400 in 48 as well. Dan Morton is a new 400/800 type that can also help with the relay. But Coach Eitel's jumpers add a lot of 100m speed, with BSC decathlon champ Steven Hodge and freshman star Kevin Ludwig who ran 10.83 in high school. Carson Drew is back from a year in Germany and he can 400 under 50, maybe 48. Jumpers Scott Shay and Brett Irigoin have 100 speed. So we have much more depth. The 4x4 records will fall indoors and out, and maybe the 4x1 record. Not awesome, but maybe the best group we've ever had. And they have great attitudes and behavior.

http://www.msubobcats.com/news.php?sid=tf&nid=784

Mike

Thanks, Mike. GREAT article. It is always really nice to learn a little about the person, rather than just the performer.

Track and Field has always done MSU proud and these kids deserve some limelight!

Erin Jones won another multi, competing unattached. Coach Eitel has several new multis, and Kevin Ludwig was impressive in competition with UM's two outstanding decathletes. The men's hep concludes today with the vault, hurdles, and 1000m run. http://www.msubobcats.com/news.php?sid=tf&nid=806

Mike

Thanks Mike. Forgive me for not being in the know - but what does "unattached" mean? Why wouldn't she be running for MSU? I've met Erin and she is certainly someone that we would want to affiliate with as much as possible!

I'm sure that there is a great explanation - I'm just curious.

Thanks again - for clearing this up for me, and for all your efforts,

BB

I had the same question as BobcatBlood when I read the release on msubobcats.com last night. Appears that many athletes were competing "unattached". What exactly does that mean?

She may be red shirting this year, which means she can compete in all of the events, but her points don't count towards MSU's point total. Many athletes will stagger their red shirt seasons in indoor/outdoor track. This may be her year to red shirt during the indoor season.

Yes, most of the top track and field athletes redshirt sometime during their careers. Somebody could do indoor one year and outdoor another. From what I've seen, the coaches try to have athletes available in certain seasons when they want to go for a championship and redshirt some in seasons where they will not be competitive. Allows athetes to work on their goals and training without worrying about the impact on the team. This has definitely played a role in the women's two recent conference titles (indoor one year and outdoor the next). Erin Jones is an impressive athlete who should do some great things in her final season.

Ahh, thanks, guys. That makes sense. Here it is officially from the MSU web site:

"The Montana State women will be paced by Big Sky Conference and MSU school record-holder Erin Jones. Jones, who won last year’s league title with 3,866 points, is redshirting the indoor season and will compete unattached. Also participating on Monday will be Kelsey Kirkpatrick, Meghan Bucy and Sarah Eby."

Erin had shoulder surgery in March and is still rebuilding, getting ready for the outdoor season. Coach Eitel is very wise in his handling of athletes, and did not want to rush her recovery. But college track is very different from the other sports in the way that we allow unnattached athletes to enter meets. Our Jan 21 meet will feature '72 olympic hammer thrower, Tom Gage, who is 60 years old and one of the top masters throwers in the world. Then we will host other meets that will be strictly college varsity, without redshirts. Imagine Stenerud taking the field for a field goal during one of our non-conference football games.

mchammer wrote:Imagine Stenerud taking the field for a field goal during one of our non-conference football games.

Yeah, where was he two years ago??? We could have used him!!!!

Thanks for filling us in Mike, and thanks for all of the great info. Always great to hear another team of MSU student-athletes is doing well.

MSU hosts an indoor meet tomorrow, Jan 21 in the Fieldhouse. The weight starts at 4:30, and most of the events follow at 5:30. It will run to 10 PM or so. UM, Dickinson, U. Mary, Black Hills State, and various unattached. It is an unscored meet. Our next meet will be scored with UM on the 28th, same start times.

Mike

Hammer,

I was wondering how the track stadium renovation project is coming? Will there be real bleachers and such in the near future?