Falcons Wrap Up Opening Day at MWC Championships

Feb. 27, 2008

Oklahoma City, Okla. - With six events completed, the Air Force men's and women's swimming and diving teams wrapped up the opening day of competition Wednesday at the 2008 Mountain West Conference Championships, being held in Oklahoma City, Okla. The men currently sit in fourth place in the team standings with 88 points, while the women are currently ninth with 36 points. Wyoming leads the men's competition, while BYU is in first place on the women's side.

The day started with a pair of diving events, in the women's 1-meter and men's 3-meter. Sophomore Kyle Van Valkenburg (Tucson, Ariz.) finished ninth overall in the men's 3-meter dive, scoring a season-best of 308.95 in the consolation finals. Meanwhile, teammates David Arlington (So., Eagle River, Alaska), Nathan Glandon (Sr., Abilene, Texas) and Randy Rogers (Jr., Fort Worth, Texas), finished 10th, 11th and 13th, respectively.

The evening session featured the 200 medley relay and 800 freestyle relay events. In the men's 200 medley relay, the Falcons finished sixth, with Kai Yamashiro (Jr., Kaneohe, Hawaii), Justin Day (Jr., Peyton, Colo.), Chris Morin (So., Crown Point, Ind.) and Robert Dawson (Fr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) recording a season-best mark of 1:31.16.

The Air Force men registered their best finish of the day in the 800 free relay, placing second. The team of Bryan Avery (Jr., Mililani, Hawaii), Sean O'Keefe (So., Lake Oswego, Ore.), T.J. Cowling (Sr., Newport News, Va.) and Benjamin Gunn (Fr., Gainesville, Ga.) shattered their previous season-best by 10 seconds, with a time of 6:36.32.

Meanwhile, the women finished ninth in both the 200 medley relay and 800 free relay, with the group of Jane Hwang (Jr., Irvine, Calif.), Kaeli Kluesner (Fr., Denver, Colo.), Kelly Grabarek (Fr., Laguna Niguel, Calif.) and Becky Gleason (So., Ballwin, Mo.) registered a season-best mark of 7:47.14 in the 800 freestyle relay.

The second day of action commences tomorrow, Feb. 28, beginning with the men's 1-meter dive and men's 500 free at 10:00 a.m. (CT), while the finals competition is slated to start at 6:00 p.m.

Footer

The appearance of hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by the u.s air force of non-u.s. government sites or the information, products, or services contained therein. Although the u.s. air force may or may not use these sites as additional distribution channels for department of defense information, it does not exercise editorial control over all of the information that you may find at these locations. Such links are provided consistent with the stated purpose of this website.