2004 Indoor Season Review

The Air Force track and field program "played" a 2004 indoor season that saw five Academy records fall, two athletes earn Mountain West Conference titles and another receive All-America honors.
The Air Force men opened the season with a third-place finish at the Air Force Invitational, before posting back-to-back second-place marks at the Wyoming Triangular and the Air Force Classic.
During the season, the Falcons registered first-place finishes on 20 different occasions. Senior leadership was the key to the Falcons' success on the men's side as six of the top seven scorers were seniors. Sean Temple led the squad with 45.25 points, just edging out Anthony Park, who tallied 45 points.
The Falcon women finished 11th at the season-opening meet and third in their next two scoring meets. Four different athletes won their respective events during the season, including senior LaTravia Robinson, who led the team with 23 points.
The season culminated for the Falcons at the Mountain West Conference Indoor Championships, held at the Cadet Field House. For the men, the standings were not decided until the final relay team had crossed the finish line, creating one of the most exciting and unpredictable finishes in conference history. Air Force finished third at the conference meet for the fourth straight season, backed by two conference champions.
Anthony Park won the first indoor long jump title in Academy history, posting a mark of 24'4?". Sean Temple successfully defended his conference title in the 60-meter hurdles, leading a 1-2-3 Air Force sweep of the event. Setting a new MWC record time of 7.89, Temple led teammates Luke Marker (7.92) and Jim Campbell (7.93) to the sweep.
On the women's side, Air Force finished eighth, with seven Falcons contributing to their point total.
The indoor season came to a close as junior Paul Gensic became the first Falcon to garner indoor NCAA All-America honors since 1998. Finishing sixth at the national meet, Gensic posted a height of 17'7" - the second-best mark in Academy history - to become Air Force's first pole vaulter to earn the honor during the indoor season.
Five Academy records were set during the season in a variety of events. Ben Payne set a new time of 14:04.26 in the 5000-meter run, while the distance medley relay team of Nathan Franz, Troy Jensen, Bryant Bevan and Mark Walter clocked a new time of 9:40.62. Nick Herald set the heptathlon record with 5,187 points, while Anthony Park broke the program's 20-year old triple jump record three times in three consecutive meets, finishing with a distance of 50'9?". Freshman Olivia Korte also notched a program-best record, throwing a 53'10?" in the 20-pound weight throw.
In addition to the program records that were set in 2004, there were 34 other incursions into the all-time top-10 lists. There were 24 cadet-athletes that moved into the top-10 on the men's side, while 15 places were moved on the women's side. Of those numbers, 14 men's marks were worthy of top-five placements, as were nine of the women's tallies.

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