Air Force Academy
Pre-Nationals
NCAA Pre Nationals: Men's Team Placed Fourth
10/18/2003 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
In the men's 35-team 8,000-meter race, No. 1 ranked Stanford University won the race with a score of 25 points followed by Iona College, who finished second (95), Michigan (148) and Air Force. No. 18 Villanova finished fifth with a score of 204 followed by No. 4 ranked Brigham Young in sixth (223). Cal Poly, who is ranked 24th, finished seventh with a score of 243 followed by eighth-place finisher Indiana (296). Florida State and No. 6 ranked Central Michigan (318) tied for ninth place.
The Academy's top finisher was C1C Ben Payne from Arvada, Colo., who finished 21st. The Falcons' team leader, Payne's time of 23:59 was a season-best time. C2C Brian Dumm followed with a time of 24:11 in 34th place. C1C Chris Acs was the Falcons' third-best runner in with a time of 24:21 (44th), followed by Mark Walter and Abe Wengel finishing with times of 24:22 (46th) and 24:26 (51st), respectively.
"The men's team had a very solid performance and very similar to what we've done in the two earlier meets. We had 26 seconds from our first to our fifth man, which is comparable to Nebraska (34 seconds) and Indiana State (25 seconds) and that's the key for us," Head coach Mark Stanforth said following the race. "Of the 70 teams that ran in the two races (Purple and Gold), only three teams had their fifth man in ahead of ours."
"There were 17 of the top 40 ranked teams in the country in our race (Purple) and, to beat all but three of those teams is exciting. We need to continue to progress and the remainder of the season will be exciting as well," Stanforth said.
In the Pre-Nationals, the men's team finished 19th in 2000, third in 2001 and 19th in 2002. The group of remarkable runners has been improving on their previous race times throughout their Academy careers. Both Payne and Acs have earned the Mountain West Conference cross country athlete of the week honors three times each during their careers.
"Our women ran well, the fastest five person average we've had yet this year; however, the competition in the Pre-NCAA meet is almost at the level of the NCAA championships. Our women were not intimidated and I was really pleased by the fact that, even though they were back farther than they are used to, they continued to compete throughout the race," Stanforth commented.
Brigham Young won the 32-team women's 6,000-meter race that included over 200 runners. Air Force runner C1C Anne Chumlea finished with a time of 22:25 (126th). C3C Vivien Aspden completed the race with a time of 22:43 (143rd) followed by C4Cs Beth Catherwood in 22:46 (145th) and Ashley Culp in 22:47 (146th) and C1C Kelly McPherson with a time of 22:48 (148th). This was AFA's best Pre-Nationals meet finish in two years (2000/45th, 2001/22nd, 2002/31st).
The 2003 Mountain West Conference Cross Country Championships will be held Saturday, Nov. 1 in Balboa Park in downtown San Diego. The course will be set up on the Morley Field Course with the men's 8,000-meter race starting at 9 a.m. (PST) and the women's 6,000-meters race at 10 a.m. Morley Field is located at the corner of Texas and Upas Streets, in the northeast section of Balboa Park.
NCAA Pre-Nationals Men's and Women's Top 10 Team Finishes: Men's 8K: 1. Stanford (25) 2. Iona College (95) 3. Michigan (148) 4. Air Force (196) 5. Villanova (204) 6.BYU (223) 7. Cal Poly (243) 8. Indiana U. (296) 9. Florida State (318), Central Michigan (318) 11. Texas A&M (340).
Women's 6K (includes 27th place through 32nd place finishers): 1. BYU (86) 2. North Carolina (99) 3. Notre Dame (127) 4. Michigan (135) 5. N. Arizona (177) 6. Princeton (179) 7. Georgetown (214) 8. Nebraska (305) 9. UC Santa Barbara (327) 10. Baylor (332) ... 27. Air Force (708) 28. Iowa (725) 29. California (731) 30. Montana (746) 31. Loyola (792) 32. Valparaiso (837).
