February 1, 2008

Yellowjacket Indoor Track and Field Squads Head to Dave Little Invitational

BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State Billings men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams will compete in the Dave Little Invitational indoor meet hosted by Black Hills State University this weekend.  The meet will be in Spearfish, S.D, and will begin at 2 p.m., Friday.

“We are hoping to improve on our season marks and move up the GNAC rankings prior to qualifying for the conference championships on Feb. 18,” head coach Dave Coppock said.

Several Yellowjackets currently are ranked in the top 16 in the conference in their respective events.  On the women’s side, MSUB has eight athletes ranked in the top 16 and the men have five.  On the women’s side, Britney Derhak (60 meters), Amanda Baum (60m hurdles), Malori Woodford (400m),  Micah Merrill-Johnson (800m, Mile), Sarah Jackson  (800m), Lexi Halvorson (shot put), Kacie Vanderloos (shot put) and Kelsee Clark (shot put), all have top-16 marks in the GNAC. 

On the men’s side, the Yellowjackets are led by Nathan Diede (60m, 200m), James Hopkins (60m), Ryan Ceynar (800m), Jarred Rensvold (Mile) and Kyle Richards (shot put) who all currently are ranked in the top 16 in the conference.

“We have several more athletes who are very close to moving into the rankings and we’re hoping that they’ll see some improvement this weekend at Black Hills,” Coppock said. 

The competition of the Dave Little Invitational includes MSUB and Chadron State from Division II, along with NAIA National Champion Dickinson State, South Dakota School of Mines, Dakota Wesleyan and host Black Hills State. 

“With such a strong field, it should be a big help in pushing up our performances,” Coppock added.