MSU Billings to Add Track & Field (4/5/07)

BILLINGS, MT – Dr. Gary Gray, Director of Intercollegiate Athletics at Montana State University-Billings, announced Thursday that the university will add men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field beginning with the 2007-2008 academic year.  The addition of the four new sports (men’s indoor, men’s outdoor, women’s indoor, and women’s outdoor) will give MSU Billings 17 intercollegiate sports, the most of any college or university in the state.  Montana State in Bozeman has the next most with 15, and the University of Montana in Missoula has 14.

“We’re excited to bring on board men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field as our next four Yellowjacket sports,” said Gray, who has now overseen the addition of 10 new sports at the university since 1996.  “This is a great time for us to add track and field since they are officially sanctioned sports in our new conference, the Great Northwest Athletic Conference.  It’s our pleasure to add four more teams to expand participation opportunities for Montana’s track and field student-athletes.”

While the addition of track and field coincides with the university’s upcoming move to the GNAC, it was not a condition of conference membership.  MSU Billings has explored the possibility of adding track and field for a number of years, but neither indoor nor outdoor track and field have been conference sports in the Yellowjackets’ two most recent conferences (Pacific West and Heartland).  MSU Billings track and field athletes will immediately be eligible to compete for GNAC conference championships next year.

Gray says that current men’s and women’s cross-country head coach Dave Coppock will also serve as the head coach for both the men’s and women’s track and field programs.  Coppock has been the MSU Billings cross-country coach for 19 years.  A 1979 graduate of the University of Montana, Coppock ran cross-country and track for the Grizzlies.  He guided the Yellowjacket women’s cross-country team to the 2006 Heartland Conference championship and was named the conference’s Coach of the Year.  Coppock is also a two-time Montana USATF Road Racer of the Year.

“The GNAC is a well-established and highly-competitive track and field conference on a national level, and this is a great time to add track and field here at MSUB now that we’ve joined that league,” said Coppock.  “Adding a Division II track and field program here will give Montana kids a great opportunity to compete in the NCAA while attending an in-state school.”

Eight of the other nine schools in the GNAC sponsor men’s and women’s outdoor track and field, and seven of nine schools sponsor indoor track and field.  University of Alaska-Fairbanks does not sponsor track and field at all, and University of Alaska-Anchorage has only outdoor track and field.  With the addition of the four sports, MSU Billings will have the most intercollegiate sports of any school in the GNAC.  Western Washington is next with 16 sports, and the average number of sports per school in the conference is 13.6.

“Initially, I’m interested in recruiting athletes who have the range to be competitive from the long sprints to running cross-country in the fall,” said Coppock.  “We lose a lot of eastern Montana kids to the Dakotas where the NAIA schools there offer track and field.  This should fill a huge void in this region and open up some opportunities to a lot of Montana athletes.  This will be a great opportunity for Montana kids to get a high-quality, low-cost college education while being able to compete in NCAA track and field.

“We’ll have the opportunity to compete in a wide range of meets anywhere from Colorado to the Dakotas to the Pacific Northwest and West coast,” added Coppock.  “I attended the GNAC Indoor Championships this winter at the Idaho Sports Center in Nampa, and I was really impressed with the track, facilities, organization, and officiating.  It’s a high quality meet which will be a great experience for our athletes. I came away from that meet thinking that we just have to do this.  It's too great an experience to pass up.  Bringing college track back to Billings will add another dimension and interest to an already strong track and road racing sports community.”

MSU Billings sponsored men’s track and field in the 1960s and 1970s, primarily under the direction of Hall of Fame coach Nels Christiansen.  The university was a member of the NAIA at that time.