February 18, 2008

MSUB Indoor Track and Field Teams Head to First GNAC Championship

NAMPA, Idaho – The Montana State Billings men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams head to the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championships Monday, Feb. 18 at the Idaho Sports Center.  The meet is hosted by Northwest Nazarene University.   This will be the first GNAC Championship for the MSUB track team since it joined the conference last fall.

The Yellowjackets nearly qualified the entire team in the individual events and will enter two relays as well.  Those athletes that were not in the top 16 after the regular season are entered at wildcards or will run one of the relays.

“I was quite surprised that we qualified so many individuals after the final scratch list came out,” MSUB head coach Dave Coppock said.  “We were a ways down in the ranking after the last regular season meet.”

The Yellowjackets look especially strong in the men’s 60 meters with freshman Nathan Diede and in the 5,000 meters senior Richie Pemberton.  On the women’s side, look for freshmen Lexi Halvorson, Kacie Vanderloose and Kelsee Clark to have a strong showing.  In addition, the men’s mile relay (4 X 400 meters) looks strong as well.

“We’ve really been struggling this season since returning from the holiday break,” Coppock said.  “The team is doing all they can to adapt to the weather being poor for most of the season.  We did get outdoors last week and made up a little ground.”

From a conference standpoint, Seattle Pacific was tabbed as the favorite to win on the women’s side having eight top-seeded athletes in 13 individual events.  The Falcons are the overwhelming favorite to win their fifth-straight title.

On the men’s side, Western Oregon looks to be the favorite as it has the most seeds (4) and the most top four seeds (16). 

“We have a very young team, most of whom have never competed indoors, so I’m happy to have them all make it to the conference championships this first time out,” Coppock added.