The Montana State track and field program announced on Apr. 2 that its athletes will participate in two separate meets in California this weekend: the Stanford Invite and the Mike Fanelli Track Classic.
This marks the first time during the outdoor season that the team will split for competition, with most of the squad traveling to California for these events. The Stanford Invite will see Ben Parks open competition for Montana State in the men’s hammer throw collegiate event, while Tilde Bjerager, Sabine Brueck, and Millie Hubbell are set to begin running events in the 100-meter hurdles.
At the Mike Fanelli Track Classic, hosted by San Francisco State University, a group of distance runners including Stella Diaz, Samantha Geraets, Eva Koos, Claire Rutherford, Hailey Watkins on the women’s side and Ryan Harrington, Quinn Newman, AJ Ringert on the men’s side will compete primarily in distance events starting Friday morning. Live results from both meets are available online; however, there will be no live streaming coverage.
Lyle Weese, Dale Kennedy Director of Track & Field and Cross Country at Montana State said: “The majority of our team will be competing at the Stanford Invite with some distance athletes competing at the Mike Fanelli Invite, hosted by San Francisco State. It is a big weekend for us as, across the board, we will be up against high-level competition. The distance athletes always look forward to competing at sea level so this weekend is a bit of a treat for them. The jumps throws and sprints are looking forward to competing in nice weather and facing off with elite competition.”
A total of 31 women and 28 men from Montana State are scheduled to compete between both meets. Notable recent performances include Tilde Bjerager breaking her school’s record in her outdoor debut with a converted time of 57.79 seconds in the 400-meter hurdles during last week’s Cat-Griz Dual/Al Manuel Invitational.
Looking ahead on their schedule after returning from California this week, Montana State plans further appearances at major invitationals later this month before postseason competitions begin with Big Sky Outdoor Championships in May.
