Taylor Meeks
Sports Editor
The Idaho State University men’s and women’s track and field teams concluded their indoor season with higher finishes and more all-conference results than in previous years at the 2020 Big Sky Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships on Feb. 27-29 in Holt Arena.
The men’s team was led by senior Treyshon Malone who contributed three championships, one second-place finish and one third-place finish to help the Bengals to an 89.5-point second place rank. This is the highest team finish for the men’s team since the 2009 season. The women’s team had an impressive third-place finish with 79 points, marking its highest place finish since 2013. Twelve Bengals contributed points over 10 events and were led by senior pentathlete Ashley VanVleet-Sturgis and junior pole vaulter Brooke Anger.
“We knew when we had our coaches meeting before [the championships] where the potential was,” head coach Hillary Merkley said. “It was a great outcome. I’m just overwhelmed and proud of them for everything they did.”
Malone broke Idaho State records in three of his five events and earned two Big Sky honors. He broke the 60-meter dash record with a time of 6.69 seconds, the 200-meter dash record with a time of 20.94 seconds and the long jump record with a mark of 7.93m (26’0.75”). His indoor season performance earned him the Big Sky Men’s Outstanding Performer award and the Men’s Most Valuable Athlete award.
With his ISU record-breaking long jump mark, Malone not only cemented himself as second all-time in the Big Sky record books, but he qualified for the 2020 NCAA Indoor Track and Field National Championships with a ninth-place ranking. He will compete this weekend on March 13-14 in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
“It was one of my goals I wrote down at the beginning of the year pre-season,” Malone said. “I was looking, and my heart started beating super-fast because I really get to go. This was a goal of mine, and I am going out of my senior season with a bang so far.”
Though Malone was the center of conversation and excitement during the championships, other Bengal athletes put up incredible times and marks on both sides.
Tanner Conner defended his Big Sky championship title in the 60m hurdles Saturday afternoon, winning the event in a swift 7.73 seconds. The time set a new ISU record, a new Big Sky Conference record and earned him a spot amongst the best runners in Holt Arena history who ran in the golden spike track meets.
“When I first came here, I wanted to leave my footprint here,” Conner said. “I feel like that’s a pretty good way to do it. It’s been a goal of mine for a while.”
The Orange and Black had multiple athletes reach new personal bests that gave them fourth place finishes at the championships, including Kodee Vining in the 200m, Cal Duke in the 400m, D’Artagnan Kilgore in the 800m, Owen Mitchell in the high jump and Seth Jarus in the long jump.
In the finals of the men’s 4x400m relay, the Bengal squad, one of the slowest seeded times in the Big Sky, completed the race with a time of 3:18.12 to give it a second-place finish. The team included Adam Elorrieta, Markos Huerta, Duke and Malone.
The athleticism didn’t stop there as the women’s team went on to take home an unexpected third-place victory.
On the first day of the championships, VanVleet-Sturgis dominated the women’s pentathlon to secure the first championship for the Bengals with an all-time Idaho State record score of 3,932. The score also ranks her fifth all-time in the Big Sky.
“It’s unreal,” VanVleet-Sturgis said. “It’s been a long season, in a sense. Just to come out and do what I did, it was beyond my expectations a little bit. It feels pretty amazing.”
VanVleet-Sturgis took first in the long jump with a mark of 5.77m (18’11.25”), the high jump with a height of 1.72m (5’7.75”) and a second-place finish in the 800m to help her overall score in the pentathlon.
Her sister, Brianna VanVleet, followed her in the pentathlon to place second with a score of 3,789. VanVleet won the women’s 60mH in 9.28 seconds, second in the long jump with a mark of 5.63m (18’5.75”) and second in the high jump with a height of 1.69m (5’6.5”).
Molly Olsen, for the first time in her career at Idaho State, earned all-conference honors with a second-place finish in the 3,000m race. She also took fourth in the women’s mile.
“Going into the race, I didn’t really have super high expectations for myself,” Olsen said. “I was going in as the number one seed, and I didn’t want that to stress me out. I think it ended up being exactly what we wanted.”
The Bengals 4x400m relay team, consisting of Olivia Holmes, VanVleet, Indi Gallagher and VanVleet-Sturgis, performed in one of the most exciting races at the end of the meet. Sitting in the slowest seeded heat and just 1.5 points behind Weber State, the team overcame adversity to run a 3:48.61 time.
The finish was the third-fastest time in Idaho State history and was enough to pick up all-conference honors as well as edge out Weber for the third-place victory.
Anger won her first Big Sky title of her career after vaulting a personal best height of 3.98m (13’0.75”) to take first. The mark moved Anger into fourth all-time in the Orange and Black record book.
“We decided not to focus on the outcome and just focus more on the process and tell kids what they needed to do individually to take care of business,” Merkley said. “A lot of people stepped up and did really well. I would say that every single one of the guys and girls did their very best and that’s all I ever ask of them. It turned out awesome.”
After defying eighth and ninth place preseason rankings and showcasing a string of elite performances at the indoor championships, the men and women’s teams take a well-deserved break before heading into the 2020 outdoor season.
ISU will compete in its first outdoor meet of the season on March 19-20 in Santa Barbara, Calif. at the Jim Klein Multi Event meet.
“As we go into outdoor, it’s kind of like going back to building a foundation that’s going to carry us through the outdoor season,” Merkley said. “I think our philosophy is believe in people, let them know we believe in them, help them prepare the best way and focus on the process and the outcomes will come.”
