BOZEMAN, Mont. — Montana State track and field heads to the heart of TrackTown, USA, this week, competing at the 2025 NCAA Division I Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon.
Action from Historic Hayward Field begins Wednesday and continues through Saturday. The entire meet will be televised on ESPN and ESPN2, with online streaming available through ESPN+.
Concluding one of the greatest seasons in program history, Montana State will have a record seven student-athletes across four entries donning the Blue and Gold in Eugene.
The Cats’ four entries are tied for the third-most in program history behind only the five in 2023 and 2022. The Cats also qualified four to the national meet in 2015.
The two entries on the women’s side mark just the fourth time in program history that MSU has qualified multiple athletes on the women’s side (2015, 2012, 2006).
Rob McManus (3,000 meter steeplechase), Harvey Cramb (1,500 meters), Hailey Coey (long jump), and the women’s 4×400 meter relay team of Olivia Lewis, Peyton Garrison, Giulia Gandolfi, Caroline Hawkes, and alternate Jadyn VanDyken will all compete at the American cathedral of track and field after rising to the top at the NCAA West First Rounds two weeks ago in College Station, Texas.
McManus, a senior from Cashmere, Washington, makes his third straight appearance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 3,000 meter steeplechase. The current face of ‘Steeple U’ is making his fourth career appearance at the NCAA Championships after placing 15th in the mile at NCAA indoor nationals in March.
Over the past five years, the Cats have sent ten total qualifiers to the national meet in the 3,000 meter steeplechase, with Duncan Hamilton going three times, Levi Taylor three times, McManus three times, and Owen Smith once.
McManus, a three-time All-American, finished 16th in the 3,000 meter steeplechase in 2023 and 13th in 2024—one spot out of making the final after being passed in the final moments of last year’s semifinal by teammate Levi Taylor.
This season, McManus enters the competition holding the sixth-fastest time in the field (8:26.83), qualifying for the national meet on the back of a dominating performance at the NCAA West Regional, where he recorded the third-fastest time (8:30.65).
The two-time defending Big Sky champion in the steeplechase is just the fourth Bobcat in history to compete at three straight NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships, joining Levi Taylor (2022-24), Duncan Hamilton (2021-23), and Nick Lam (2007-09). The distance runner is also one of just five Bobcats ever to earn at least three All-American honors (Taylor, Hamilton, Lyle Weese, Shannon Butler), and with a fourth All-American nod this week, would rise to second all-time behind his former running mate in Hamilton, a six-time All-American in track and field.
“Rob has been comfortable in all of his races but especially in the steeple races this year,” Weese said. “It’s just an event that he has a high level of comfort and a lot of confidence in. I think a key for him is just taking that into the race and not over-thinking it, but just punching his way through to the final while not worrying too much about saving energy or anything else, just finding a way to get to the final.”
McManus runs in the first of two heats of the national semifinals for the 3,000 meter steeplechase on Wednesday night, toeing the line at 4:38 p.m. PT/5:38 p.m. MT on ESPN. The top five finishers from each of the two 12-man heats advance to Friday night’s final, with the next two-fastest times rounding out the field.
Cramb, a sophomore from Brisbane, Australia, makes his first appearance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 1,500 meters. It’s the second career appearance at a national meet for Cramb, who placed 11th in the mile at the NCAA Indoor Championships in Virginia Beach in March.
The reigning Big Sky Champion cruised through both of his races at the NCAA West Regional in Texas two weeks ago, winning his first round heat before taking an auto-qualifier in the national quarterfinal. The Australian owns the 23rd-fastest time in the country this year (3:37.31).
“Harvey is a great championship racer,” Weese said. “The way that he likes to race with a fast close fits in really well at these meets, so the 1,500 is a really good event for him and something that he’s really comfortable in. I anticipate that he will go out and compete really and has a really good chance to fight his way through to the final on Friday.”
Cramb runs in the second of two heats in the 1,500 meters on Wednesday night, with the start time scheduled for 4:21 p.m. PT/5:21 p.m. MT on ESPN and ESPN+. The top five finishers from each of the two 12-man heats advance to Friday night’s final, with the next two-fastest times rounding out the field.
Coey, a junior from Billings, makes her first appearance at the NCAA Championships in the long jump, becoming the first Bobcat on either the men’s or women’s side to ever qualify in the event.
The school record-holder won a Big Sky title and set the conference record indoors before carrying that momentum outside this spring, where she set the school record in the sand with the second-best jump in conference history (21-03.50). Seeded ninth in the West entering the Regional meet, the Montana native came up clutch with a 21-foot leap to place eighth and secure one of 12 tickets to Eugene this week.
“Hailey compared to pretty much every long jumper is one of the most consistent jumpers in the entire country,” Weese said. “In a meet like this where you just get three attempts to make it through to the final, I think she’s in a really good situation and has a reasonable chance of making it to the final because of her consistency throughout the year. She has been over in the high-20’s and low 21-feet in almost all of her competitions throughout the year, so obviously it would be great if she hit a really great mark, but at the same time you don’t always have to do that—you just have to do what you’ve done before in order to advance to the next part of the competition.”
Ahead of the conference meet in Sacramento in early May, Coey told Parker Cotton of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle “In the past, I used to compare myself to the rest of the conference. Now, I compare myself to the rest of the country.”
The junior has now backed that up with her performances in the postseason, and will get another chance to do so on Thursday in the long jump at the NCAA Championships, scheduled for 5:40 p.m. PT/6:40 p.m. MT on ESPN+.
Rounding out Montana State’s contingent of national qualifiers is the women’s 4×400 meter relay team, making history as the first-ever Bobcat relay to make it to the national meet on either the men’s or women’s side.
The quartet of Olivia Lewis, Peyton Garrison, Giulia Gandolfi, and Caroline Hawkes punched their ticket to Eugene with a heroic effort at the NCAA West Regionals, grabbing the final spot out of the final heat on the final day in College Station with the second-fastest race in school history (3:34.31).
Montana State is one of only two teams outside of the Power Four conferences to race in the 4×400 meter relay (Harvard).
“Having a relay here is very exciting,” Weese said. “Like we’ve talked about before, it just takes a one-off for an individual to make it through, but it takes at least four and oftentimes five or six to get a relay through to the NCAA Championships. Just overall, we’re really excited about that—it’s a great sign of where that long sprints program is at. The 4×400 at the NCAA Championships is crazy—when you look at the teams, they would be some of the top teams for a lot of the nations throughout the world that would be put together for the world championships or Olympic Games teams. They fit in with that really well because of what they’ve done this season. I think this is an environment where they could even take a couple seconds off their school record.”
The Cats will run out of lane two on Thursday night in the first of three heats at 8:36 p.m. MT on ESPN. The top two finishers from each eat plus the next three fastest times advance to Saturday night’s final.
“It’s another step forward for us getting this many individuals to the NCAA Championships and getting a relay here while continuing the recent history of getting a lot of men’s distance through,” Weese said. “Obviously it’s so exciting having Hailey here in the long jump. Both the long jump and 4×400 are very, very challenging events to get people through to the NCAA finals, so we’re just really excited about that and can’t wait to see what they do this week. We do have a lot of newcomers where this is their first NCAA meet. Rob McManus is the only one who has competed at these outdoor championships before, so I’m sure there’s a lot of excitement throughout the group. However, there are also a lot of individuals who have a lot of championship experience, whether it’s those pressure situations at regionals or conference championships.”
MEET SCHEDULE
Wednesday:
Thursday:
- Hailey Coey, long jump (6:40 p.m. MT)
- 4×400 meter relay (8:36 p.m. MT)
#GoCatsGo
(via @nbcsportsauthentic/TT)
