Jeremy Drenckhahn and Melissa Fuerst Pace Falcons at adidas Invitational

Oct. 14, 2011

MADISON, Wis. - Backed by career-best times in their respective races, juniors Jeremy Drenckhahn and Melissa Fuerst paced the Air Force cross country team at the third-annual Wisconsin adidas Invitational on Friday, Oct. 14, in Madison, Wis. Drenckhahn finished 36th in the men's 8K race, while Fuerst placed 86th in the women's 6K event.

Drenckhahn and senior Jim Walmsley finished within just two seconds of one another, finishing 36th and 38th, respectively, in the 270-runner race. Drenckhahn shaved 20 seconds off of his previous best 8K time to complete the course in a time of 24:22.2, while Walmsley clocked a time of 24:24.3. Junior Andrew Quallio posted a personal-best 25:03.3 to finish 142nd, while classmate Matt Bell (203rd, 25:34.8) finished 203rd in his season debut at the 8K distance. Sophomore Isaiah Bragg rounded out the scoring runners with a 241st-place time of 26:17.2, while sophomore Jake Hawkins and junior Ted Artz recorded respective times of 26:28.5 (245th) and 26:37.4 (253rd).

Air Force tallied 660 points to finish 30th in the 39-team race. With five runners placing within the top 16, meet host and second-ranked Wisconsin won the adidas Invitational with 66 points. No. 6 BYU and No. 4 Stanford finished third (120 points) and fourth (125 pts), respectively, while No. 14 Princeton (227 points) and seventh-ranked Indiana (271 points) rounded out the top five.

Improving her 6K time by 14 seconds, Fuerst clocked a career-best time of 21:09.2 to finish 86th in the 305-runner race. Classmate Kate Kanetzky clocked in at 21:57.5 to finish 211th, while freshman Heather Connick finished 232nd with a personal-best time of 22:11.4. Juniors Jen Bremser (248th, 22:20.2) and Morgan Mosby (265th, 22:31.2) rounded out the scoring finishers, while senior Katie Carroll completed the Air Force contingent with a 296th-place time of 23:45.1.

The women combined for 1,042 points to finish 41st in the 44-team event. Washington, ranked 24th in the national polls, won the meet with 199 points, while Vanderbilt, a team receiving votes, took second with 211 points. No. 14 Arizona recorded 230 points to take third, edging out top-ranked Villanova by two points. Sixth-ranked Stanford rounded out the top five with 256 points.

The Falcons are off from competition next week, while preparing for the 2011 Mountain West Cross Country Championships. On Saturday, Oct. 29, the Falcons will begin the championships season in Fort Collins, Colo., for the annual conference meet.

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.