The Idaho State men’s and women’s track and field teams compete this week at the 2019 Big Sky Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships. Events will be held Thursday-Saturday inside Worthington Arena in Bozeman, Montana.

Thursday

Day one features the multi-events. The conference championships begin with the heptathlon at 10 a.m. The pentathlon follows, starting at 10:30 a.m.

Friday

The field events commence with the women’s weight throw beginning at 3 p.m. Track events begin at 3 p.m. with the preliminary rounds of the men’s 60-meter hurdles.

Day two of the meet features six finals in field events and four finals on the track.

Saturday

The final day of competition gets underway with the men’s weight throw at 10:30 a.m. and five field events follow. The track hosts 16 finals starting with the men’s mile at noon.

How to follow

Live video will be available on Pluto TV channel 238 and Watch Big Sky TV.

What to watch for: Men

Michael Dean leads a deep field for the ISU men in the 60-meter dash. Dean holds the current ISU record in the event with a time of 6.78 seconds and is currently ranked No. 4 in the conference. Treyshon Malone and Tanner Conner also have top-12 Big Sky Conference times.

Malone, ISU’s 200-meter record holder, leads the conference with a time of 21.30 seconds. Kodee Vining sits at No. 5 in the conference in the event. Malone also leads the conference in the long jump. Earlier this season, he set a new ISU record in the event with a distance of 7.66 meters (25 feet, 1.75 inches).

Conner, the ISU record holder in the 60-meter hurdles, is ranked No. 2 in the conference with a time of 7.93 seconds. Malone also holds a top-10 conference spot in the event.

Harlan Benedict and Antonio Chavez hold top-10 marks in the pole vault. Benedict is ranked No. 4 in the conference with a height of 4.65 meters (15 feet, 3 inches) and Chavez is ranked ninth.

In the weight throw, Trevor Jensen currently holds the No. 6 position on the Big Sky performance list with a distance of 18.26 meters (59 feet, 11 inches).

What to watch for: Women

Molly Olsen and Jenica Dodge both hold top-10 conference marks in the mile and 3,000-meter events. Dodge leads the Big Sky in the 3,000 with a time of 9:35.49, which is the second-fastest time in ISU history. Dodge also holds the No. 2 spot in the conference rankings for the 5,000 meters.

Idaho State holds three of the top five conference spots in the pole vault. Jessica Swannack leads the Bengals with a height of 3.90 meters (12 feet, 9.5 inches), which ties her for fifth in the ISU record books. Sierra Kiser and Brooke Anger are ranked No. 4 and No. 5 in the conference, respectively.

Ashley VanVleet-Sturgis and Hannah Bartz hold top-10 Big Sky Conference marks in the long jump. In the triple jump, the Bengals hold another two spots thanks to Brianna VanVleet and Sadie Sutton.

Idaho State boasts another stacked field in the pentathlon. VanVleet-Sturgis, VanVleet and Shayla Henderson are all among the top 10 competitors. VanVleet-Sturgis leads the Bengals with a score of 3,803 points.

Last year

A season ago, the men finished ninth and the women finished 12th at the indoor conference championships in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Preseason polls

ISU was picked to finish ninth on the men’s side and 10th on the women’s side in the preseason coaches poll.

The ISU men’s team is No. 13 and the women’s team is No. 14 in the latest Mountain Region Poll released by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).

In the USTFCCCA conference rankings the men’s and women’s teams both currently rank fifth.