MSU track sends first relay team to NCAA Nationals

BOZEMAN, Mont. — Montana State University track and field will make program history in Eugene, Oregon, as the Bobcats are sending its first-ever relay team to compete in the women’s 4x400m at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

“We honestly didn’t know that we were the first team to make it,” MSU junior Peyton Garrison said. “Some of the pictures that were shown, we were jumping in excitement and we’re just so excited.”

But the manner in which the MSU relay team reached the championships required a little help from the rule book.

The team of Corvallis native and freshman Olivia Lewis, Garrison, junior Giula Gandolfi, and junior Caroline Hawkes finished with a time of 3:34.31, second-fastest in school history, to take 13th place at the NCAA West First Round in College Station, TX. The top 12 teams, top three from each heat and the next three fastest times, advanced to nationals, meaning the Bobcats were the first team out of the field.

However, those lows quickly turned to highs as a Northern Arizona team that made the top 12 from an earlier heat was disqualified. NAU protested the disqualification, and after waiting hours under the night sky and with the stadium empty, Montana State officially booked a ticket to Eugene.

“We were for sure sad, because we were the last team out, and then a couple of us girls looked up on the TV, and the TV had said that we had made it,” Garrison said.

“The relays are difficult, because it’s not just one person, you have to have four people, and they have to be at an incredibly high level,” MSU head track and field coach Lyle Weese said. “To get a relay into the NCAA Championships, it really signifies the level that the long sprints women’s program is at.”

For Garrison and Gandolfi, it wasn’t their first race in the NCAA West First Round. Both competed in individual events two days earlier with Garrison placing 42nd in the 200m and Gandolfi taking 27th in the 400m hurdles.

“We were a little nervous before the 4×4, of course you have to be, but I think it definitely helped having another race,” Garrison said. “We can get the energy out, the nervousness out, and I think that helped a lot.”

“I think it’s always a balance of competing, recovering from that, and going on to the next event in the meet,” Weese said. “I’m a big believer that if you have competed in an event at a meet, a lot of times it’s easier from the mental side and pressure side to compete in that second event.”

But it was Hawkes as the anchor leg that helped propel the Bobcats into nationals. After receiving the baton from Gandolfi, Hawkes moved the team from seventh to fourth in the heat, including beating out Oklahoma State by nine hundredths of a second for the final spot in nationals.

“It was amazing. Caroline always pulls through, Caroline is always the hardest worker out here, and that’s also another big reason why we are out here,” Garrison said.

“That was probably the best relay leg or the best 400m that Caroline has ever run,” Weese said. “The first 200m she was moving like crazy and making up a lot of ground, and she caught up to some of those individuals that she ended up passing them.”

MSU will look to take advantage of its opportunity on the highest stage as the Bobcat relay team shares a final race of the season together and represents a growing women’s program.

“We have a really close 4×4 team, and so all of us are best friends, we work together every single day. We show up to the track, we work together, we go out to eat together and we spend so much time,” Garrison said. “Being so close and being friendly, and we love each other so much, and that makes us work hard for each other. I think that’s why we made it.”

“It’s really built upon itself,” Weese said on the success of the MSU women. “It’s been that situation where they’ve raised each other’s ability level, but to see so many school records from every event group is really an exciting thing for our program, and also that so many of them will be back for future years.”

The Montana State relay team will compete in the semifinals of the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene on Thursday at 7:36 p.m. PST. If they advance to the finals, the Bobcats will compete on Saturday, June 14 at 8:21 p.m. PST.