Women finish first in Big Sky Conference Indoor Track and Field Championship

State Hornet Staff

Sacramento State track and field was triumphant in the Big Sky Indoor Track and Field Championship over the weekend as the women’s indoor team took first place and the men’s indoor team was also successful, coming in second in Flagstaff, Arizona.

On the final day, the men tallied up their points to 127.50, putting them in second. The women accumulated 99.83, taking first place in the championship.

Entering the final event on Saturday, the women were less than a point behind Montana State, but the Hornets pulled out the win in the 4×400 relay. Sac State’s team composed of Brianna Cole, Joy Weems, Stephanie Blumm and Dominique Whittington finished with a time of 3 minutes and 41.84 seconds, breaking last year’s program record of 3:43.27.

“I was proud of my team and stuff and I thought, like, everyone came together and gave great effort and that is why we got the outcome that we got,” said Whittington, a senior.

For the women, Sac State edged out second place Montana State as they finished with 98.33. Host Northern Arizona University concluded with 89, placing third.

NAU finished in first place for the men with 144 and Sac State scored 127.5 to put them in second. Montana State was well behind both teams, tallying up a score of 90.

In the three-day Big Sky championship, 17 events took place between Feb. 26-28.

During the first day of the championship, the women competed in the pentathlon and the men participated in the first four events of the heptathlon.

Sac State women landed second and third place in the pentathlon, while Montana State’s Carley McCutchen took first place, scoring 3969 points.

Junior Kassandra Corrigan finished in second place and finished the pentathlon with a total of 3751 points, setting the Sac State record en route. She set a personal best in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.94, then got 5 feet 7 3/4 inches in the high jump, which tied the second-best mark in school history. The junior had a shot put of 33-1/2, a personal best, and recorded a 17-9 3/4 in the long jump. In the 800-meter, Corrigan had a time of 2:26.63.

Sophomore Elizabeth Venzon came in third, earning 3656 points. She completed the 60-meter hurdles with 9.20 and ranked third with her mark of clearing 5-6 1/2 in the high jump. The sophomore had a shot put of 33-3/4 and a long jump of 17-3/4. In the 800, Venzon ran a 2:26.64.

For the men, Alec Acevedo tied for first place with Idaho State’s William Phillips, both scoring 2895 points.

Acevedo competed strong in the four events. He marked a career best during the 60-meter dash, running 7.03 and getting the best time in the meet. In the long jump, he jumped 21-9. His shot put was 39-1/2 and he had a high jump of 6-2.

Max Jette came in fifth place in the heptathlon. The freshman ran 7.35 in the 60-meter dash, recorded a long jump of 20-9 3/4 and a shot put of 36-10 1/2. Jette had a high jump of 6-6 3/4, which ties him for 10th place in the program’s history.

The second day of the meet was also victorious for the track athletes as Zach Coniglio won the shot put with 61 and repeated as the Big Sky champion, protecting his title in that event.

“I felt pretty happy,” Coniglio said. “I won the meet by almost five feet which is pretty good. I was really excited about that. I didn’t get any school records, but I won.”

The men’s Karsten Niederer qualified with third place in the 60-meter, running 6.93. Kyle Orloff also qualified for seventh place in the 200-meter, running 21.85. Evan Crayton-Crogan qualified with his time of 48.13 in the 400.

In the long jump, Richard Cooper came in second with 24-1, Michael Turner was third and Julian Young was fourth, as the latter two placed had marks of 23-10. Cory Barger came in sixth with 23-6 3/4 and Mitchell Bland was ranked seventh with 23-6 1/4.

Cooper recorded a personal best during the long jump and spoke about his accomplishments this past weekend.

“I felt great,” Cooper said. “I feel honored to have been able to jump that far. I was just focused throughout the event and I just had to tell myself that my jump was going to come and that I had to be patient for it.”

The women had Caprice Powell qualify in the 60 and 200-meter. Powell was eighth in the 60 with 7.58 and she won the 200 with a time of 23.98.

Whittington ran 53.91, getting first place in the 400-meter, and broke her own school record. In the 60-meter hurdles, Kristen Robinson qualified with 8.50 and Blumm qualified with 8.71.

“Everyone for the women did their part and it was great to see them win the conference title,” Cooper said. “For the men, we did our part. We put in the work and our team put in great effort by the guys.”

The success from the Big Sky championship for indoor track and field brought more achievements to the already highly-decorated program.

This article was updated on Thursday, March 5.