With the 2023 indoor track season around the corner, both Montana State men’s and women’s track and field teams were picked to finish third in the Big Sky Conference Indoor Coaches’ Poll, as announced by the conference office on Thursday.
The men’s and women’s polls were nearly identical. Northern Arizona was the unanimous top team in the men’s and women’s polls with 100 possible points, while both Idaho teams were ranked second. Montana State, Idaho State and Weber State rounded out the top five in both polls.
For the men, Eastern Washington, Montana, Sacramento State, Northern Colorado and Portland State rounded out the poll. On the women’s side, Sacramento State, a tie for seventh place between Eastern Washington and Montana, then Northern Colorado and Portland State wrapped up the preseason rankings.
“We’re really excited about the men’s and women’s teams,” Bobcats head coach Lyle Weese said. “For the women, we added so many people who can come in and contribute right away. We’re generally a better outdoor team because we’re strong in events that are only outdoors, but we’ve strongly improved on both teams during indoor season this year.”
On both teams, Montana State returns a slew of contributors from last season, in which the men’s team placed third at the Big Sky Indoor Track and Field Championships and the women’s team placed fourth. Both Bobcat Indoor All-Americans from last year — Lucy Corbett (high jump) and Duncan Hamilton (3,000 meters) — return, as well as seven individual medalists from the conference meet a year ago. MSU’s returning conference champions include pole vaulter Colby Wilson, hurdler Elena Carter, Corbett, and three of the four legs from MSU’s 4x400-meter relay team — Julian Hazen, Chris Bianchini and Will Anderson.
“We’re excited about the possibility of qualifying more people at the national meet,” Weese said. “Indoor nationals is so difficult to make it into, so it will be a challenge for both Lucy and Duncan to make it back, but they can definitely do that.”
MSU already has a pair of meets under its belt in the 2022-23 season: The Bobcats hosted the Bobcat Preview meet on Dec. 7 against several in-state teams, plus Hamilton and Matthew Richtman PRed in the indoor 5,000 meters at Boston University’s Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Dec. 3. Both meets were successful. Hamilton broke the school’s indoor 5,000-meter record in Boston with a 13:34.45, then the Bobcats set eight new top-10 indoor marks at their home opener four days later.
“It seemed like last year we made a huge jump between indoor and outdoor season,” Weese said. “From what we’ve seen so far in fall training, our first meet and through the cross country season, it seems like we’ve maintained that performance level we had in outdoor season. We’re looking to build on that, have a really strong indoor season and continue that to the outdoor season.”
The Bobcats are back in action on Jan. 13 for the WSU Cougar Classic Invitational at The Podium in Spokane, Washington.
“The Podium has really added a lot to our schedule,” Weese said. “It will be really nice to compete on a track where there are no adjustments for altitude, track size and track type. Competing there will be really beneficial to us because it’ll be similar to the NCAAs.”
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