Ortega, Monaco Win Track Titles
2/23/2001 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field Managers
Air Force tallied 59 points with strong performances in three of the four final events. Wyoming was a close second with 57.50 points followed by pre-meet favorite Brigham Young with 56, Colorado State with 43.50, New Mexico with 9 and Utah with 6. The meet concludes Saturday with finals in all events.
Monaco won the 5,000-meter run with a time of 15:22.79. Teammate Ben Payne, a freshman, finished third in the race to give the Falcons 16 points in the event.
Although Monaco was the only event winner for the Falcons, they captured third and fourth place in the high jump; took third and fifth place in the long jump and finished fourth in the distance medley relay.
"I can't begin to tell you how excited I am for our men's performance," said Air Force head coach Ralph Lindeman. "We scored 10 more points than I thought we could today and we are way up on our performance charts for Saturday's finals."
There was only one meet record set on Friday. Mervin Swaby successfully defended his title in the long jump by going 25-feet, 1 1/4-inches. He broke his own 2000 record of 24-feet 11 1/4 inches. Wyoming's Jason Gervais also defended his title in the weight throw with a winning toss of 73-feet. The Cowboys took the top three places in the event. Jason Hammond finished second (69-feet, 1 1/2 inches) and Derek Woodske took third (68-feet, 11 3/4 inches).
In the women's competition, Brigham Young held a commanding lead with 79 points followed by Colorado State (48), Utah (28), Air Force (26), New Mexico (23), Wyoming (12), UNLV (9) and San Diego State (8). Brigham Young's Kirsten Bolm won the long jump and Lindsey Thomsen finished first in the 5,000 meters. Bolm won the long jump for the second straight year with a leap of 20-feet, 2 1/4 inches. Thomsen finished almost 18 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor with a clocking of 17:39.20. Teammate Tara Northcutt, a sophomore like Thomsen, was second at 17:56.75. Air Force's Jamie Flood finished third in the event with a time of 18:23.53.
Air Force's Ana Maria Ortega captured the pole vault with a vault of 12-feet 1/2-inch. The mark sets a new Air Force record and is just 2 and 1/4 inches off the meet record. Ortega becomes the first Air Force athlete to win a Mountain West Conference title.
"Last year our women scored just 15 points in this championship meet," said Lindeman. We have already scored 26 and I think we can score at least 40 or possibly 50 points. I am as excited about the women's performance Friday as I am for the men leading the competition. Ana Ortega just missed going over 12-feet, 6-inches. She is just a great competitor."
The Championship meet concludes Saturday win finals in all events.
