Air Force Academy
MWC Championships
Air Force Concludes Competition at MWC Championships
3/1/2008 12:00:00 AM | Women's Swimming and Diving
March 1, 2008
Oklahoma City, Okla. - With nine finalists on Saturday, the Air Force men's and women's swimming and diving teams wrapped up competition at the 2008 Mountain West Conference Championships, being held in Oklahoma City, Okla. The men finished in fourth place with 531 points, while the women placed ninth with 151 points. Winning its fourth-straight title for the men was UNLV, while BYU captured its second-straigh title on the women's side.
Sophomore Sean O'Keefe (Lake Oswego, Ore.) registered his second NCAA B standard mark of the week, finishing fourth in the 1650 free with a time of 15:24.43. O'Keefe, who improved on his personal best by nearly 20 seconds, jumped into third place on the Academy top-10 list. Meanwhile, freshman Tom Hansen (Fr., Berkeley Heights, N.J.) also scored for the Falcons, finishing 12th in the event.
Junior Kai Yamashiro (Kaneohe, Hawaii) finished fourth in the 200 backstroke after recording a career-best time of 1:48.03 in the preliminaries, while Benjamin Gunn (Fr., Gainesville, Ga.) finished seventh with a personal best mark of 1:48.57 in the prelims. Yamashiro now ranks fourth in the Air Force record books in the event, while Gunn rates fifth on the Falcons' all-time list.
In the 100 free, junior Bryan Avery (Mililani, Hawaii) finished seventh, notching a personal-best mark of 45.33 in the preliminaries. Avery now ranks seventh all-time in the Air Force record books. Meanwhile, senior T.J. Cowling (Newport News, Va.), who placed 12th, moved into ninth place on the Academy top-10 list with his preliminary time of 45.54.
Justin Day (Jr., Peyton, Colo.) was the Falcons' top performer in the men's 200 breaststroke, finishing 10th, while Greg Edmonds (So., Fairfax Station, Va.) and Spencer Butt (Jr., Sterling, Va.) placed 12th and 16th, respectively. Edmonds notched a mark of 2:04.28 in the preliminaries, ranking ninth in the Academy record books, while Day's time of 2:04.46 in the finals is good for 10th on the Falcons' top-10 list.
In the 200 butterfly, Air Force had four swimmers advance, led by Gunn, who took third place with a career-best mark of 1:48.14, tying for fourth in the Falcons' record books. Nick Dixon (Jr., Canton, Mich.) and Avery finished seventh and eighth, respectively, in the event, while freshman Eric Robinson (Lakewood, Colo.) took 14th place.
On the women's side, junior Jane Hwang (Irvine, Calif.) advanced to the finals in the 100 free, finishing eighth. Hwang's mark of 51.31, a personal best, ranks second all-time at the Academy.
In the platform dive, senior Danielle Dowds (Huntington Beach, Calif.) finished fourth with a score of 210.00, while Ashleigh Peck (Jr., Beaver Falls, Pa.) and Chelsea Tompkins (So., Grand Junction, Colo.) placed 13th and 15th, respectively.
Finally, in the 400 freestyle relay, Hwang, Katelyn Hunter (So., La Crescent, Minn.), Kelly Grabarek (Fr., Laguna Niguel, Calif.) and Jessica Rodgers (Fr., Colorado Springs, Colo.) registered a season-best mark of 3:32.86.
Players Mentioned
