The North Dakota State Bison track and field teams continued to click up the gear at the beginning of the outdoor season.

Both the men and women sent squads to the UC Riverside Track Classic. Both came away with good results.

The women came out swinging in the heptathlon, placing five in the top 10. Senior Rose Jackson won the event.

Jackson came within 16 points of the school record for the second best in program history. Her final tally of 5,540 points also puts her at No. 1 in the nation in the early parts of the season.

Amanda Levin, Macy Denzer, Lexy Boschee and Maea Wall finished fifth through eighth for NDSU. Freshmen Denzer and Wall competed in the event for the first time.

The women added six more event wins on day three of the meet. The headlining act came by a one-two finish in the mile.

Senior Taylor Janssen paced the field with a time of 4:53.93. Hot on her heels was sophomore Kayla Huhnerkoch, finishing just three tenths of a second behind her teammate.

Senior Morgan Milbrath remained undefeated in the 400m this year. She is now seven for seven with a time of 55.42. Her NDSU teammate Alexis Woods finished second with a time of 55.62.

Those two combined again to help the Bison take the 4x400m relay to cap off the meet. Milbarth and Woods were joined by Amy Andrusko and Gabby Grommesh.

It was also Andrusko’s second victory of the day. Andrusko won the 800m.

The Bison were able to take a pair of field events, with Lexy Wittmayer winning the high jump and Klara Lyon taking the pole vault title. Lyon and teammate Lauren Gietzen both cleared 12-05.50. Lyon won with fewer misses of the competition.

The other big result came in the triple jump. Bailey DeMar finished third with a jump of 38-10.50. It was the longest triple by a Bison woman since 2012 and good for No. 10 in school history.

By the end of the meet, the Bison finished second in the team standings.

There were no winners for the Bison men, who sent a partial squad out west.

The best results were runner-up finishes, which the Bison had three.

Once again, the multi-events were the most productive for NDSU. Sophomore Ryan Enerson led six Bison to top-10 finishers in the decathlon.

Enerson’s personal best 6,777 points was good enough for second place. The finish is also best in the Summit League this season.

Joining him in the top-10 were Matt Neururer, Angus Stoudt, Tony Ukkelberg, Matt Moberg and Ben Klimpke. Neururer and Moberg also had personal bests.

Bringing home a second place for the Bison was Matt Jennings, who ran a personal best 4:16.26 in the mile. NDSU’s Brant Gilbertson finished fourth in the event.

Elliot Stone claimed the third second place finish, with a time of 8:33.69 in the 3000m.

Both teams will be back in action next weekend at the Stanford Invitational and San Francisco State Distance Carnival.