Lindeman Named Coach Of Year
2/26/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
The Air Force men's mile relay team knew what they had to do in the final event of the Mountain West Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships Saturday in the Cadet Field House. The Falcons were in fourth place in the team standings going into the last event of the day, but only four and a half points out of second.
No one was going to catch defending champion Brigham Young. They had already broken the 200-point barrier and were more than 70 points ahead of the rest of the pack. BYU’s final tally was 214 points.
The Falcons needed to defeat Colorado State in the relay and hope Wyoming did the same to secure second place. Air Force did their part by finishing second behind Brigham Young on a gutsy performance by all four Falcon team members. Unfortunately, Wyoming finished fourth behind Colorado State. In the end, CSU captured second place with 132.50 points. The Falcons were just two and a half points behind for third (130), followed by Wyoming (127.50), New Mexico (29) and Utah (16).
The third place finish earned head coach Ralph Lindeman Mountain West Conference Coach of the Year honors in a vote by his peers.
"I am extremely honored by this award," said Lindeman. " But I have an excellent staff and they have a huge share in this. Without their support this wouldn’t have been possible.”
“I also couldn’t have gained this honor without the tremendous performances of all our athletes.”
The Falcon women finished seventh among the eight teams with 47 points. But, compared to last year’s point total of 27 points, their improvement was remarkable, according to Lindeman.
“I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of our women. I am just as pleased with their overall performances as I am with the men’s third place finish.”
C1C Ana-Maria Ortega became the first Falcon to win a Mountain West Conference title. She did it in the pole vault by setting a new school record at 12’ ¼”. C1C Jamie Flood took third in the 5,000-meter run and C3C Elissa Ballas placed fourth in the mile (5:15.58).
In the distance medley relay, the team of C3C Tracy Denaro, Ortega, C4C Kelly McPherson and C4C Jean Taylor took third place (12:42.69) behind Colorado State and Brigham Young.
The men’s mile relay tea m of C1C Tyler Paige, C3C Marc Fulson, C3C Tom Clark and C4C Nick Bromberek provided a fitting climax to Saturday’s finals with a second-place time of 3:15.67, but the main event for Air Force during Saturday's competition came in the pole vault.
C1C Ben Gensic captured second place with a vault of 16’4 ¼”. C3C Paul Goossen took fourth (15-11) and C2C Greg Starling seventh (15-5) to add 15 points to the Falcons point total.
"There is no question that the pole vault was the highlight of our Saturday competition," said head coach Ralph Lindeman. "It was great that we scored in three places."
Lindeman was also quick to point out a fourth place finish by C1C Joe Monaco in the 3,000-meters (8:48.21) as a great comeback after winning the 5,000-meters on Friday. C4C Ben Payne and C1C Shane Rogers finished seventh and eighth in the race, respectively, to give the Falcons 10 points.
The Falcon men’s team got off to a good start in the championship on Thursday when C1C Kurt Duffy, Clark and C3C Nick Herald finished third, fourth and sixth respectively in the pentathlon. Their finish gave the Falcons a first day lead with 14 points--two better than second place Colorado State and Brigham Young who tied with 12 points after the first day of competition.
Colorado State’s Doug Crumb successfully defended his pentathlon title by scoring 3,820 points—64 points less than he scored in last year’s inaugural championship. BYU’s Chris Kemp finished in second place with 3,669 points.
Duffy scored 3,570 points for third place while Clark finished with 3,547 points. Herald scored 3,425 points—just 10 points shy of taking fifth place over BYU’s Daniel Parkinson.
Duffy’s best events were the 60-meter high hurdles where he posted a time of 8.42 for 881 points and the 1,000-meter run with a time for 2:46.76 for 800 points. Clark scored the most points by a Falcon in a single event. He tallied 888 points in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.38.
In the women’s competition, Air Force’s Brittany Edmonds placed eighth among the nine competitors in the pentathlon with 3,175 points. BYU freshman Maret Komarova won the title with 3,892 points followed by New Mexico’s Keren Sari with 3,694 points and Colorado State’s Lindsey Malmgrem with 3,674 points.
Overall, Saturday's finals produced seven meet records. In the men's competition, BYU's Ken Andam set a record in the 60-meter dash with a time of 6.62. In the 800 meter run, BYU's Jeffrey Hopkinson posted a time of 1:53.04 to eclipse the old mark of 1:53.78.
Colorado State's outstanding distance runner Bryan Berryhill ran the mile with a winning time of 4:10.61 to set a new standard. Wyoming's Quincy Howe shattered the championship record in the triple jump with a mark of 54’9 ¼”. The old record was 50’8 ¼”.
In the women's competition, Brigham Young walked away with the title with 203 points. Colorado State took second with 141 points followed by UNLV (98), New Mexico (57), Wyoming (56), Utah (49), Air Force (47) and San Diego State (8).
Record-setting performances were turned in by UNLV's Michele Davis in the 200-meters with a time of 23.59. In the mile run, Melanie Steere from BYU, posted a time of 9:47.61 for a new record. Sharolyn Shields from Brigham Young set a new standard in the 3,000-meter run with a clocking of 9:47.61.
The awards were plentiful following the meet. Mike Jones from Utah earned the women's Coach of the Year honor.
The high point awards went to Curtis Pugsley from Brigham Young and Mervin Swaby from Wyoming. Both athletes scored 22 points. Pugsley won the high jump, placed third in the pole vault, fourth in the long jump and eighth in the 60-meter hurdles. Swaby won the long jump, took second in the triple jump and finished fifth in the 60-meter dash.
The women's high point honor went to UNLV's Davis who scored 30 points. Davis captured first in the 60-meter dash, 200-meters and 400-meters. That performance also earned her the women's Outstanding Female Athlete award. The men's award when to Wyoming's Jason Gervais.
Pugsley also won the outstanding freshman performance honor. On the women's side, BYU’s Maret Komarova won the honor. Komarova accounted for 17 points for the Cougars.
