Indoor Season Begins for Yellowjackets Track and Field

BILLINGS, Mont. – The Montana State Billings track and field team is begins its third indoor season this Thursday, Dec. 3, at the Black Hills State Winter Open in Spearfish, SD.  MSUB track and field is entering the season with its largest team in program history and expects to see a number of indoor school records fall throughout the season. 

“We’re coming off a much-improved fall preseason of conditioning,” said head track and field coach, Dave Coppock. “The addition of our two assistant coaches, Dan Biehl (sprints/jumps) and Matt Drinkwalter (throws) has prepared us to enter the season at a much higher level than in the past.”

On the women’s side, the sprinters are looking very strong with a returning core group of Justine Simos, Erika Halle and Britney Derhak.  Simons is the school indoor record holder in the 55/60 meters and 200 meters. Halle holds the 400 meters and long jump records, while Derhak is ranked in the top three in school history in the 55/60 meters, 200 meters and long jump as well.

The female throwers have made huge progress this fall under coach Drinkwalter, most notable are 2008-09 GNAC indoor conference placers Kacie Vanderloos and Hilary Gourneau in the shot put. Freshman Brook Berg has looked very good during the fall and should add to the teams’ depth in the shot.

The team is guaranteed to see records in the triple jump, high jump and pole vault; events which were not fielded by MSUB until this season.

The men’s team should get a boost from freshman sprinter Brandon Pearce in the 60 and 200 meters.  Pearce was one of Montana’s top high school sprinters last year and should be competitive immediately at the college level.  The team is also returning Nathan Diede, who will be moving up in the longer sprints this season and should be competitive in the 400 meters.

The distance runners are entering the season ahead of where they were last year and should be led by conference qualifier Tyson Vanderby in the 800 meters and Taylor Canfield in the 3,000/5,000 meters.

For the men’s throwers, the team looks strong and should be led by Bryce Jensen along with Jade Haynie, Josh Morely and freshmen Nick Wilson and Tanner Rottrup.  All are coming off a much-improved fall conditioning program and should break the shot and weight throw records this season.