BOZEMAN, Mont. – The University of Providence track and field team had an historic performance at the Bobcat Challenge, the first indoor track and field meet the team has had in two seasons.

Rico Pryor won the men's weight throw and Jillian Sanchez won the women's weight, becoming the first two Argo athletes to ever win a weight throw competition at an indoor track and field meet. Pryor won the event with a throw of 15.96 meters and was less than a foot off from the B standard qualifier. Sanchez won the event with a throw of 16.63 meters, shattering her own previous school record and is also well over the A standard, officially qualifying for the NAIA National Indoor Championships. Her mark is currently the third highest mark in the entire nation.

"It was a really good day," assistant coach Alan Cress said. "This is the first-time ever that we've won a weight throw. Then we went out and won another one. For both of them to win the event at Montana State, that's huge. Never in my mind was I expecting that. I was expecting good performances - I knew that they were close to the top. For them to go out and perform that well this early in the year is phenomenal."

Allyson Connor also had a good showing as well, finishing fourth in the women's weight throw at 14.19 meters. Kathryn Evans had a solid performance in the shot put, finishing fourth with a mark of 11.48 meters. Sanchez finished 6^th in the shot put at 11.08 meters.

Cress credits the hot start to the dedicated work that the athletes have put in. The team didn't have an indoor season last year due to Covid-19, and the team used that as motivation to work even harder during the extended time off.

"We knew they were hungry to compete," Cress said. "They had a realization that they can do better and go further than what they thought. Their hard work paid off. They worked their butts off all fall. They put in the time, battled the weather – whatever we had to do to go out and work. They went out to the meet and proved that the whole system is working to get them the best that they can be."

The team will continue that hard work at practice these next two weeks as they prepare for the Stacy Dragila Invitational in Pocatello, Idaho on Jan. 29.

"Rico's has to go out and get that qualifier now," Cress said. "Jillian can now set her sights on the championships in March. Her training regime can change now that the pressure is off. Allyson is still capable so she'll be working towards that qualifying standard now too. We all still have goals and we know the process works so we're just going to get back to it."