"The Dynamic Throwing Duo"

Dana Pounds and Olivia Korte are not exactly what you would call household names, but what they have accomplished recently at The United States Air Force Academy could well be considered monumental and historic.

"I am not certain that anyone in Colorado Springs truly understands the magnitude of Olivia and Dana's accomplishments at USAFA ... maybe not even Dana or Olivia," notes their throwing coach Scott Irving.

"In my estimation, what they have done in their brief throwing careers has brought credibility to the notion of women being in the NCAA Division I at the Academy," Irving continues. "When I arrived at USAFA, I believe there was a lingering NCAA Division II mentality, particularly among the women."

Some coaches even noted in Irving's first few years that it would have been better had the women remained Division II, because they could have excelled at higher levels nationally.

"Quite frankly, had the women remained Division II, I would not have taken my present job. The women have not only been forced to elevate their own performance as a result of being in the upper most division in the NCAA, they are no longer holding the men down. Dana and Olivia exist as perfect examples of what the future holds for women at the Academy."

Southern Methodist track and field coach, Dave Wollman, remarked to Irving that he "...never thought it could happen at an Academy..." after witnessing the USAFA women in a stellar discus performance, Korte included, at the Mt Sac Relays in 2004.

It seemed to Irving a negative statement at first, but he has since taken it as one of the nicest compliments that he has ever received.

Irving admits that he even wondered aloud what he had gotten into when he first arrived at the Air Force Academy in December 1999. Yet, after the first year, he never dreamed that it couldn't happen at USAFA and was convinced that USAFA athletes could compete at the highest levels, even the women who were still sporting a Division II mentality.

Irving underscores that, "Dana and Olivia are proof positive that USAFA women are competing at the highest levels and that they do indeed deserve to be in Division I."

Pounds has proven week in and week out during the 2005 season that she is one of the top javelin throwers in the U.S. and one to be reckoned with at the national level. She has been a dominant force in every competition this year, throwing over 180' in all but two meets and losing only once to a Danish Olympian at the Mt Sac Relays. She defended her Drake Relays' title, reset USAFA and Mountain West Conference records along the way, and became the Academy's first female national champion at the Division I level.

Irving acknowledges that winning a title in any event can be elusive. He should know. In nearly thirty years of coaching, the last collegiate javelin title by an Irving-coached thrower was in 1981, when Oregon's Sally Harman captured the top honor at the AIAW (Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women) National Championships in Austin, Texas.

While he has been blessed to coach six national champions, only one has been a collegiate. Twice in his coaching career he has had throwers finish two-three at the NCAA meet in the women's javelin.

In fact, at Austin in 1985, his women, having thrown personal records, were going one-two before the final effort by an Alabama thrower from Iceland moved her from fourth place to first by inches.

At Provo, Utah, in 1982 his throwers went up against the then collegiate record holder, Karin Smith, and finished two-three, but one of them took a measure of revenge at the USA National Championships to win.

On other occasions he has had throwers finish three-four and has had as many as three women in the top-eight for the javelin at the NCAA meet, including more than a dozen NCAA All-Americans in the event, but the title is always elusive.

Pounds has accomplished so much and so quickly at the Academy that other track and field athletes at USAFA may get overlooked. In fact, Irving is convinced that the general public, including coaches of other programs and even the cadet wing probably consider Pounds a one-time wonder, a fluke, or a bit of an aberration at USAFA.

After all, this is a military academy, isn't it?

The athletes aren't supposed to excel at such a high level in the NCAA Division I. Irving remembers a time, not so many years ago when a manager on the team was remarking about the success of the football program, saying something to the effect that the Academies are not supposed to be that good, because it goes against the mission of the Academy being predominantly a military institution.

Irving found the remark ridiculous and contrary to the Academy's core values. Irving wondered, "How can we be considered excellent if we are not competing at the very highest levels of the NCAA? While I was new to the Academy at the time, I still thought we were about 'excellence in all we do', the value we see posted on the mural of the Field House and now at the base of the ramp. This is not to say that every athlete at the Academy will reach NCAA All-American status or win a championship, but the vision should be to excel at the very highest levels not only on the field, but even in the recruiting wars."

Pounds' teammate, Olivia Korte, is proving that USAFA can win some recruiting wars and also change the perception of Pounds being a one-time wonder as a cadet and the only marquee name for women at USAFA.

"I told the field event athletes in January that there were more Dana Pounds out there among their group and that she is not the only one who can achieve success at USAFA," Irving recalls. "I wanted them to know that not only do I believe it, but that they should believe it as well. Olivia Korte has begun to believe it."

She must believe she has some of the qualities that Pounds exhibits, having made an impact in her first year, by setting the school record in the discus throw outdoors. This year she has achieved a significant triple, by setting the school record indoors for the women's weight throw, resetting her discus mark and destroying the outdoor shot put mark by over two feet.

At 6'1?", Korte stands nearly a foot above Pounds, but in the discus throw she finds herself in a forest of taller and highly competitive throwers. Prior to the NCAA Regional meet she was ranked 10th on the Midwest Regional descending order list and 27th on the national discus list - a far cry from Pounds' number one ranking in the country.

None the less, in one meet Korte moved from 10th in the region to third and from 27th nationally to number 11 on the NCAA descending order list with her school record 175'5". Incredibly, she broke the USAFA record twice in the discus at the regional meet, once in the preliminary rounds and once in the finals.

According to her coach, she has more distance in her. "Olivia has so much more in her. She is only beginning to scratch the surface of her ability and the variety of school records demonstrates her athleticism and potential."

Korte attended the USAFA Prep School and while she received a number of inquiries from many universities nationally, only a handful followed up and Irving is happy that he was one of them, "Olivia has been a real diamond in the rough, and I could not believe that so many colleges missed out on recruiting her."

While Korte's road map to success has been a little different than Pounds, they do share some similarities. They were both all-around athletes in high school and both considered playing basketball in college. Pounds did in fact play for the Falcons in her first year at the Academy and Korte played both volleyball and basketball at the Prep School where she gained Most Valuable Offensive Player honors for basketball and Most Valuable Defensive Player honors for volleyball. Falcon women's basketball expressed interest in her, but Irving was convinced that she could achieve NCAA All-American status in the discus and Korte believed it too.

While the status eluded her this year, the fact that she earned a spot to the NCAA meet in Sacramento is a testament to a belief that she belongs at the highest levels of Division I.

Irving echoes this thought, "Olivia, like Dana, can and will be one of the best in the NCAA. Will that be this year? Nothing will surprise me after her performance at the regional meet, but Olivia is taking all the right steps to making herself known among the ranks of the NCAA. I had many coaches come up and congratulate me at the region meet and it wasn't because of Dana, it was because of the emergence of little known Olivia Korte. Many asked if she was a senior and were shocked when I told them she was in her sophomore year. I could have said that she is a C3C, cadet third class, but I don't think they would have understood."

Korte acknowledges that she is competing against the best, "My goal at the region meet was to make it to the NCAA Championships and be considered among the best in the country and now I have revised my goal to make the finals (top 12) at the NCAA meet. I think it is a realistic and attainable goal."

As far as Irving is concerned, it is certainly nice to have two USAFA female athletes receiving so much attention from his coaching colleagues.

"I truly believe that they are putting USAFA on the map in track and field nationally," Irving contends. "Some coaches probably thought Dana was an aberration. Now, given Olivia's success, I hope they are beginning to believe that there is something to the system (coaching and recruiting) at USAFA. And, even if they don't, I am convinced that the athletes at USAFA do and that's all that really matters. To have one athlete already achieve NCAA Division I All-American honors last year (Pounds' and USAFA's first), then finish sixth at the Olympic Trials and now win the national title is significant."

"To have two female athletes competing at the NCAA meet seems almost historic and monumental to me," Irving continues. "They have overcome a lingering NCAA Division II mentality at USAFA. They have overcome the added military, academic and athletic demands that so define an Academy. Their plates are not only fuller than the 'normal' college student's plates; the plates of the 'Olympic Sports' coaches are fuller at USAFA. Unlike the 'Premier Sports' at USAFA or my counterparts at other Division I institutions who seldom, if ever, teach a class, I personally teach 18 classes. It is important to remember that we have all overcome much to reach this level (athletes and coaches) and it is my fervent hope that their success will spill over to the other women's sports and help give inspiration to all the athletes at USAFA, men and women alike."

Most of Irving's coaching counterparts at other universities are familiar with his past success and can see why the Falcons are excelling. It is a system that helped create top-10 finishes for women's track and field programs at Oregon and Florida in the 1980s.

As Irving's question affirms, "Is there any reason USAFA can't do the same? After all, we are recruiting very similar athletes in comparison to the programs at which I previously coached; athletes who took time to develop. Dana and Olivia definitely started something very big at the Academy and it is impacting recruiting in a very positive way for both men and women and helping to establish a system that can perpetuate itself for years to come."

What Korte and Pounds have accomplished together, so far, seems every bit as big, if not bigger, than the USAFA men's basketball team getting to the NCAA tournament or the USAFA men's football team being ranked in the top ten nationally.

How is this possible?

First, they have accomplished this at what might best be described as a predominantly male bastion of higher military education where the females comprise only about twenty percent of the total enrollment. Second, for most of their brief history in the NCAA Division I women's teams at USAFA have struggled. Pounds and Korte are setting a standard for other sports to follow. Finally, they are competing against nearly 300 other institutions that sponsor track and field. Of that number only about 26 athletes qualify in each event, that's representation equal to about one out of every 10 universities. By comparison, in basketball approximately one out of every five teams receives a bid to the NCAA tournament. In football there are fewer than 120 teams in the NCAA Division IA.

All these comparisons support the contention that Pounds and Korte are indeed a dynamic duo in the throws at USAFA, a throwing duo that seems quite destined to continue to make some very historic and monumental statements during their careers at the Academy and beyond.

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