Danielle McCarty Places Fifth in MWC Pentathlon

Feb. 26, 2009

USAF ACADEMY, Colo. - With the second-best accumulation in Academy history, junior Danielle McCarty finished fifth in the pentathlon, as the Air Force track and field team opened competition at the 2009 Mountain West Conference Championships on Thursday, Feb. 26. McCarty upped her personal-best total by 59 points to place fifth in the 19-competitor event with 3,365 points.

McCarty's mark is also a new Junior Class record, displacing the previous total of 2983 that Katie Joynt set in 1997. McCarty picked up a third-place finish in the 800-meter run (2:31.05) for her best finish of the night. She also finished within the top half of competitors on the high jump (sixth, 5'3"), 60-meter hurdles (ninth, 9.43) and shot put (ninth, 32'6½"), while finishing 11th in the long jump (16'11¼").

Freshman Phaelen French finished 18th in the heptathlon, with a career-best 2,844 points. That total, a personal improvement by 146 points, is the eighth-highest output in program history. French's best finish of the day came in the final event, as she clocked a time of 2:27.41 to place second in the 800-meter run. She clocked a time of 10.62 in the 60-meter hurdles, while recording distances of 16'4¼" and 29'4½" in the long jump and shot put, respectively. Also contributing to her score in the pentathlon was a clearance of 4'6¾" in the high jump.

Today's action also featured the first four events of the heptathlon. Junior Skylar Morgan currently sits in fifth place with 2,733 points. Classmate Joel Nolan was forced to pull of the event following an injury on the second event of the day. Morgan, who is making his season debut this weekend, posted a pair of fourth-place finishes in the high jump (6'0½") and long jump (22'0¾"). In addition, he finished fifth in the shot put (38'2¾") and seventh in the 60-meter dash (7.42).

Action continues tomorrow (Feb. 27) with the conclusion of the men's heptathlon and the beginning of the individual events.

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.