By JOEL CARLSON
Montana senior Lindsey Hall is in third place, 29 points out of first, after the opening day of the heptathlon at the Big Sky Conference outdoor track and field championships at Flagstaff, Ariz.
Freshman Lakyn Connors is in 10th place, and after a day of ups and downs, freshman Nicole Stroot and junior Shayle Dezellem are 15th and 16th.
Because her season-best score of 5,550 points from the Mt. SAC Relays is tied for 11th on the national performance list and has her locked into nationals, Hall is competing from a strategic position.
The goal is to do just enough to win the heptathlon while not compromising the five events in which she’ll be competing Friday and Saturday.
Hall ranks first in the Big Sky in the 100-meter hurdles, long jump and javelin and second in the high jump. She is also entered in the triple jump.
Consider it a successful day. Hall eased off in the running events, finishing fifth in the hurdles (14.61) and 14th in the 200 meters (26.87) and won both the high jump (5-6.5) and shot put (41-7.25).
She scored 3,165 points and trails only Montana State’s Carley McCutchen, who scored 3,194 points, and Portland State’s Cecelia Jackson, who totaled 3,169.
With the long jump and javelin, two events she should win, leading off Thursday’s three events, Hall should quickly move to the top of the leaderboard. She’ll need to hold off any pursuers in the closing event, the 800 meters.
Connors, with a pre-championships ranking of eighth, opened her day with a career-best 14.85 in the hurdles. She followed with a 4-11.5 in the high jump, 32-3.75 in the shot put and 26.42 in the 200 meters.
She is still a threat to break into the top eight by the end of Thursday’s events and score points for Montana.
Dezellem was eyeing a top-four finish at the championships after a successful buildup to this week, but a no-height in the high jump ended her chances of even finishing in the top 10.
Dezellem, who had cleared better than five feet in the high jump on four occasions this spring, passed on 4-7.75, then missed all three attempts at 4-9.
She came back to post a career-best 34-1.25 in the shot put and run a 26.58, but damage of a no-point event had been done.
Stroot posted three season bests Wednesday, going 5-3 in the high jump, 28-8.5 in the shot put and 26.41 in the 200 meters, but she opened with a 20.84 in the hurdles to begin her day, an event that garnered her just 236 points.
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