Karsen Beitz set new records for the Montana track and field program on April 16, running the fastest times in both the men’s 100-meter and 200-meter events during a meet in California. Beitz surpassed a program record in the men’s 200 meters that had stood since 1968, finishing with a time of 20.55 seconds to win the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate.
The significance of Beitz’s performance is highlighted by his standing alone atop Montana’s history books, beating previous marks set by Jack Emigh in 1939 and Willie Jones in 1968. His time now ranks among the top ten performances ever recorded in Big Sky Conference history and places him within the top fifteen of NCAA West region athletes this year, likely securing him a spot at upcoming national competitions.
Although wind conditions prevented some results from being recognized as official records, Beitz also ran his fastest career time in the men’s 100 meters with a mark of 10.17 seconds, placing second out of an eighty-four-man field. “As well as he competed indoors and as successful as he has been, today is really the breakthrough that we’ve been looking for as far as getting to the next level,” head coach Doug Fraley said. “I felt that he was ready for it both physically and mentally today and the great conditions and great competitions in those races pushed him over the edge. I’m very proud of what he accomplished in both of those events today.”
Other notable performances included Callie Wilson’s wind-aided run of 11.46 seconds—her second outdoor event—which would have broken Montana’s women’s record if not for excessive wind speed. Teammates Brooke Zetooney (11.64) and Rileigh McGree (11.72) also moved up to third and fourth place respectively on Montana’s all-time list after their runs at Long Beach.
The Grizzlies saw further success across various events: Alex Shields recorded his second-best shot put throw ever for Montana at fifty-eight feet eight-and-a-half inches; freshman Titus Jeffrey placed twelfth overall with one hundred eighty-one feet five inches in discus; Cooper Henkle won men’s javelin with two hundred thirteen feet nine inches; Patrick Kremer claimed first place—and entered program top ten—in long jump at twenty-four feet one-quarter inch.
Fraley praised multiple groups within his squad: “I felt like our sprints and hurdles groups on the women’s side had a good day,” Fraley said. “We had some PRs, we had some season bests, and I feel like the trajectory of those groups looks really good…for this point in the season to come out on day one of this trip and perform like they did was very encouraging.” He added about Henkle: “It was a really good day for the male throwers…the focus today was for him to try to improve that javelin mark…and he did a really good job taking care of that today.”
Looking ahead, Montana will compete next at Friday’s Beach Invitational while three middle distance runners participate separately at Azusa Pacific University’s Bryan Clay Invitational starting Friday as well. Fraley concluded: “It’s always good to get off to a good start…It’s good to have options in a three-day span.” He continued: “We just want to take momentum we created today and ride that into tomorrow and Saturday…They get another crack at it, which is big bonus coming to multiple meets one week.”
