Falcons' Men Team Finishes Second In Outdoor Track Championships
5/19/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
May 19, 2001
SAN DIEGO, CA--Air Force track coach Ralph Lindeman was named Mountain West Conference Outdoor Coach Of The Year for the second season in a row Saturday after his men's team finished second in the championships hosted by San Diego State.
It was the second consecutive runner-up finish behind Brigham Young, who won their fifth consecutive conference title. For the record, the Cougars scored 240 points to the Falcons' 182--their most points ever in a championship. Colorado State finished third with 171 points followed by New Mexico (91), Wyoming (90) and Utah 24.
In the women's competition, BYU easily won their 20th consecutive title with 229.83 to runner-up Colorado State's 164.33. The Falcon women finished eighth with 16 points. The highlights in Saturday's finals came in the men's triple jump with freshman Anthony Park winning the competition--his second title of the meet---with jump of 49-7. The two event victories earned him the MWC Freshman of the Year Award.
"It was a clutch performance by `Ace,' because he came off of fouls on his first two jumps in the competition," said Lindeman. "He is a tough competitor who has a great future in this program."
Other Air Force highlights included a second place finish by junior Brian Carpenter in the 1,500-meters (3:45.80), sophomore Marc Fulson's third place finish in the 110-meter hurdles (14.65), sophomore Tom Clark's third place finish in the 400-meter hurdles (52.60), senior Ben Gensic's third place finish in the pole vault (16-5 ?), senior Shawn Johnson's second place finish in the shot put (58-9 ?), and freshman Tim Hughes' runner-up finish in the high jump.
The Falcons also placed third in both the 4x100-meter and 4x400meter relay with times of 41.80 and 3:12.90, respectively.
On the women's side, senior Jamie Flood placed sixth in the 5,000-meter with a career best time of 16:58.29. That time ranks her second in school history. Freshman Elissa Ballas finished seventh in the 1,500 at 4:32.68 and Erica Lankford finished seventh in the triple jump at 38-1/4.
"I thought both our men's and women's team competed with exceptional heart, coming off a difficult week of academic finals. I am especially thrilled by our freshman and sophomores on the men's side who scored 90 of our 182 points," said Lindeman.
