By JOEL CARLSON for GoGriz.com
Montana redshirt senior Lindsey Hall won the pentathlon Monday at the Montana State Combined Events Dual at Bozeman, and redshirt senior Austin Emry leads the heptathlon, which concludes Tuesday, through four of seven events.
Hall finished in the top three out of 12 pentathletes in the first four of five events, with the top mark in the 55-meter hurdles and shot put, and claimed the overall victory with a score of 3,541. Her school record is 3,928, which she set at the 2012 Big Sky Conference indoor championships.
Montana State’s Carley McCutchen, who was competing unattached, finished second with 3,530 points, just 11 off her career best, and MSU senior Amber Amsbaugh, a Big Sky indoor and outdoor high jump champion, placed third with 3,371 points.
Montana redshirt senior Lindsey Hall.
Griz senior Shayle Dezellem, with 3,104 points, was sixth, freshman Maggie Hering (2,834) seventh and freshman Lakyn Connors (2,712) 10th.
Hall opened her day with a time of 8.13 to win the 55-meter hurdles, then had a high jump of 5-5. She won the shot put by nearly three feet by throwing better than 40 feet (40-4) for the second straight meet and settled for a long jump of 17-7 after consistently breaking 19 feet in warm-ups.
“Lindsey had a great day. Things look really promising for the season,” UM multi-events coach Adam Bork said.
“She looked great in the first four events, and that’s the best I’ve seen her long jump. That’s as fast as she’s ever been on the runway, and the pop she was getting off the board had her in the mid-19s in warm-ups.”
Without a chance to post a score that would challenge for a spot to nationals, Hall eased off and cruised to a time of 2:52.17 in the 800 meters.
McCutchen, who won the long jump at 18-2.25, finished in the top four in all five events, and her 162-point advantage on Hall in the 800 meters nearly allowed McCutchen, who ran a 2:37.43, to erase the lead Hall had built through four events.
Dezellem won the 800 meters in a time of 2:26.72 and finished fourth in the shot put (31-8.5). Montana’s only other top-five event finish was Connors’ fifth-place showing in the shot put (30-2.25).
The men’s heptathlon featured the three athletes — MSU’s Jeff Mohl and Powhattan Williamson, plus Emry — who finished first, second and third at last year’s Big Sky indoor championships at Bozeman, but Monday held little of the same drama or excitement.
Emry is banged up enough that it was questionable whether he was even going to be able to compete in all four events Monday, and Mohl is out of indoor eligibility and Williamson is redshirting.
Redshirt Senior Austin Emry.
Even so, Emry, the 2013 Big Sky decathlon champion, finished in the top two in all four events Monday, winning the long jump and shot put, and has a 44-point lead over Mohl, the 2012 Big Sky decathlon champion.
Emry ran a 6.71 to finish second to Mohl in the 55 meters, then won the long jump (22-9.75) and shot put (41-8) to take the overall lead. Mohl trimmed Emry’s advantage to 44 points by going 6-6.75 in the high jump. Emry went 6-5.5.
Emry will take 3,036 points into Tuesday’s 55-meter hurdles, pole vault and 1,000 meters. Mohl has 2,992. Williamson is sitting third with 2,768 points.
“Austin is hurting, but not as much as we were expecting,” Bork said. “It’s hard to expect a big day when you’re beat up, but he still had some really solid marks. As he gets healthy, he’ll just get better.”
Redshirt senior Keith Webber, who is competing mainly for the opportunity to pole vault on Tuesday, sits fifth among the five heptathletes who finished Monday’s four events.