Pocatello, ID — Idaho State Track and Field returned to action for the 2026 indoor season at the Snake River Open inside the ICCU Dome on January 15–16. The meet offered the Bengals a chance to gauge performances against a highly competitive group of D1 schools that participated.
Head coach Hillary Merkley emphasized that the Snake River Open is an important benchmark, noting that "After a long break, we knew results from this meet were going to be a bit weaker performances, but overall it turned out to be a strong showing." She added that the meet also provides valuable competition: "We don't always have such strong numbers show up to this meet from other D1 schools, which creates really good competition in a lot of races."
Men's Highlights
The men's throws were once again a highlight, led by senior Axel Tirado-Sanchez. Axel produced a career-best performance in the weight throw with a mark of 20.07 meters, moving him up to 34th nationally and rebreaking the school record he set last month. He also posted a solid showing in the shot put, demonstrating his continued early-season dominance.
On the track, Alex Connor recorded another top ten mark for the ISU record books, as he ran a blistering 6.86 in the 60m to rank him 6th all time. Jacob Webster also posted the 10th fastest mark in school history in the same event with a 6.92 and followed that up with a runner-up finish in the 200m (22.02). Tegon Lords ran 8.17 in the 60mH preliminaries to follow up a strong performance from last meet where he looks to keep climbing the all-time record list. Lastly for the track events, Sunny Gunn was on a tear in the 3000m as he recorded a 23 second personal best and also running himself into 5th place all-time with a 8:20.33.
In the field, sophomores Jackson Wilkey and Kaiden Lee both cleared 2.02m (6'7.5") in the high jump, while the pole vault saw sophomore Maddix Blazovich post a clearance of 4.95m (16'2.75"). Jackson Wilkey also led the long jump for this meet with a mark of 12.89m (42' 3.5").
Women's Highlights
On the women's side, Sophomore Chelsea Uba led the team in the 60 meters wth a time of 7.86, followed closely behind by team leader in the 200m, Christina Ngandu Ye in 7.87. Natalya Babcock and Kamber Scott led the team in the 800m and the mile respectively in 2:19 and 5:07. The majority of the distance squad recorded PBs in the 3000m; consisting of Kaitlyn Blackham, Kamber Scott, Allie Lemons and Molly Connor.
In the hurdles, Chelsea Uba and Kaylin Caruso led the team in the 60m distance, showing promise in early-season competition. The jumps also featured impressive efforts, with Brielle Ricks winning with a jump of 4.00m (13'1.5") in the pole vault and Brynn Bider recording a 3rd place in the long jump with a mark of 5.57m (18' 3.25").
The women's throwers were led by Meagan Moore and Laura Young, who threw 14.26m (46' 9.5") and 13.57m (44' 6.25") respectively in the shot put. While the weight throw was led by Maddie Romberg with a first-round throw of 17.24m (56' 6.75"), which earned her second overall in the event,
The meet wrapped up with the 4×400 relay, giving the Bengals' relay teams valuable experience as the indoor season continues. Merkley highlighted the overall effort: "We had to make a few modifications to people in the jumping events, with step counts and approaches, but they still were able to have strong performances from short approaches."
The Snake River Open provided the Bengals with an important benchmark after the break, showing both individual highlights and team depth. Idaho State will return to competition next week in Bozeman, MT at the Bobcat Challenge (Jan 23-24). The Bengals will return home in 2 weeks time for the Stacy Dragila Invitational (Jan 30-31).
