FINAL RESULTS
GRESHAM, Ore. — Idaho State put together amazing performances at the Big Sky Outdoor Track and Field Championships, bringing home eight medals with all-conference honors, and collecting scoring finishes across 14 events over four days at Mt. Hood Community College Track. The Bengals were led by a pair of historic individual performances, a dominant showing in the multi-events and contributions from distance runners, field athletes and relay teams alike.
Tom Stoelken headlined the Bengal effort, becoming a back-to-back Big Sky decathlon champion with 7,202 points to repeat the title he claimed as a freshman a year ago. The sophomore led the field in the 110-meter hurdles (14.81), discus (41.84m) and javelin (57.99m) while also finishing among the top three in shot put. His 7,202-point total held off Weber State's Tyler Warnick (7,161) and Brogan Garrett (6,693) in what was the signature individual performance of the weekend for Idaho State.
Senior Axel Tirado-Sanchez wrote his own chapter in program history. Tirado-Sanchez won the men's discus for the third consecutive outdoor season with a mark of 60.14 meters, breaking his own ISU school record, cementing his standing as one of the premier throwers in Big Sky Conference history. He entered as the top seed and delivered when it counted, topping a competitive field that featured several throws in the upper 50-meter range. Tirado-Sanchez wasn't finished there, adding a third-place finish in the shot put at 17.39 meters to make him one of the most productive individual performers at the meet. Chris Lupkes complemented that throwing success by winning the men's hammer at 64.95 meters, giving Idaho State three men's field event titles on the weekend.
The women's heptathlon proved to be one of the deepest Bengal efforts of the meet, with three Idaho State athletes finishing in the top eight. Josie Settle led the way with a runner-up finish at 5,001 points, showing her strength in the long jump (5.81m) and 800 meters (2:27.27) to close out the competition. Lydia Lindsey was right behind in fifth place at 4,746 points, posting one of the better 200-meter splits in the field (25.17) and clearing 1.60 meters in the high jump. Brynn Bider rounded out the Bengal trio in eighth at 4,496 points and actually led the entire heptathlon field in the shot put with a mark of 11.55 meters.
Ashley Reeck gave Idaho State another multi-event scorer on the women's side, earning points in two individual events across the four-day meet. Reeck placed fourth in the women's 3,000-meter steeplechase at 10:14.24, then came back to finish seventh in the women's 5,000 meters at 16:39.03. Seth Babbel mirrored that kind of double-event production on the men's side, placing third in the 10,000 meters at 29:57.96 to earn a medal before returning to finish fifth in the 5,000 meters at 14:01.79.
Idaho State's field event depth extended well beyond the throwing circles. In the men's high jump, Jackson Wilkey and Kaiden Lee finished third and fourth respectively, both clearing 2.06 meters. Migail Van Huysteen contributed a fifth-place finish in the men's pole vault at 4.74 meters. On the women's side, Tori Conrad tied for third in the high jump with a clearance of 1.71 meters, and Jordyn Kearn placed sixth in the women's discus at 44.75 meters.
On the track, Khutsisa Rampete reached the men's 100-meter final and placed seventh at 10.74 seconds. Sunny Gunn finished seventh in the men's 1,500 meters at 3:48.45, and McKoy Richardson placed seventh in the men's 400-meter hurdles final at 53.98 seconds. Anise Becker picked up a scoring finish for the women with an eighth-place result in the 400-meter hurdles at 1:04.23. Porter Sutton capped the Bengal individual scoring with an eighth-place finish in the men's triple jump at 14.06 meters.
Idaho State's relay teams added to the team point total across both genders. The men's 4x100 finished fifth in 41.03 seconds, and the men's 4x400 matched that placement with a time of 3:13.34. The women's 4x400 rounded out the relay contributions with a sixth-place finish at 3:51.52.
On the men's side, Northern Arizona won the team title with 171 points, followed by Sacramento State (110), Montana (107.5) and Montana State (105). Weber State finished fifth at 93.5 points, with Idaho State placing sixth at 80 points ahead of Eastern Washington (58), Idaho (51), Northern Colorado (33) and Portland State (9). In the women's competition, Montana State claimed the team championship with 181 points, with Northern Arizona (128), Montana (111) and Idaho (110) rounding out the top four. Sacramento State finished fifth at 72.5 points, while Idaho State placed ninth at 38.5 points. Weber State (58), Eastern Washington (53) and Northern Colorado (42) finished sixth through eighth, with Portland State (25) rounding out the field.
