Air Force Academy
Front Range Classic
Air Force Men Win Front Range Classic Title
5/1/2011 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
May 1, 2011
FORT COLLINS, Colo. - Highlighted by six first-place finishes, the Air Force men's track and field team won its third Front Range Classic title on Sunday, May 1, in Fort Collins, Colo. The women, who finished third in the fourth-annual event against Colorado, Colorado State, Northern Colorado and Wyoming, accounted for two first-place finishes and an Academy record in the 400-meter hurdles from junior Emily Cotharn.
Air Force claimed four first-place titles from the field events, while setting two meet records. Senior Conner Van Fossen won the javelin throw, breaking his own FRC record with a toss of 219'5", while sophomore Cale Simmons improved his meet record to win the pole vault with a clearance of 17'2¾". Junior Robert Drye won the hammer throw with a distance of 194'10", while sophomore Zach Wood cleared 6'6¾" to win the high jump.
From the track, junior Bryce Bergman won the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 52.79, while running the third leg of the 4x400-meter relay team that won that event in a time of 3:15.57. Joining Bergman on the winning relay was freshman David Ptacek, classmate Michael Craig and senior Matt Jones.
Van Fossen paced four Falcons to top-five finishes in the javelin throw. Freshman Tim Urista recorded a throw of 211'10" to finish second, while classmate Nate Bratka and senior Jon Santiago placed fourth (169'11") and fifth (167'5"), respectively. Simmons guided the Falcons to a sweep of the top-three finishes in the pole vault. Sophomore Rob Simmons recorded the ninth-best clearance in program history (16'8¾") to finish second, while freshman Elliott Beski too third with a height of 15'2¼".
The Falcons also earned additional scoring finishes in the 400-meter hurdles and high jump. Jones and freshman Cory Engel finished third (53.43) and fourth (54.57), respectively, while sophomore Travis Smith placed fourth in the high jump with a clearance of 6'2¾".
Junior Kyle Schwochow threw the sixth-best shot put distance in Academy history at 55'7" to finish second in the shot put, leading Drye (third, 52'5¼") and classmate Sean Herbison (fifth, 52'0") to scoring finishes. Fellow junior James Cole also moved into the program's all-time record book in discus throw, recording the seventh-best throw in Academy (176'2") to finish second. Air Force also earned four of the top six placements in that event, as sophomore James Chambers (167'1"), Bratka (161'5") and sophomore Brian Ford (159'6") finished fourth, fifth and sixth.
Freshman Daniel Funk rounded out the field event scorers for Air Force, as he finished fourth in the triple jump with a distance of 44'11¾".
On the track, juniors Manny Smith and Nick White finished second in their respective events. Smith clocked a time of 48.18 to take second in the 400-meter dash, while White was the runner-up in the 800-meter run in 1:53.78. Sophomore Anthony Delgado took third in the sprint (49.06) and Ptacek finished third (50.27), while sophomore Blair O'Bryant placed third in the 800-meter race with a time of 1:53.95.
The Falcons competed in the 4x100-meter relay for the first time this season and Craig, Delgado, Bergman and Engel placed third with a time of 41.82. Sophomore Matt Bell also accounted for a third-place finish in the 3000-meter run (8:38.10), while Tyler Small and sophomore Andrew Quallio finished fifth (8:49.67) and sixth (8:50.07), respectively.
Engel also scored for the Falcons in the 110-meter hurdles (fourth, 14.63), while Craig added a fifth-place finish in the 200-meter dash (22.15). Rounding out the scoring finishes for the Falcons at the fourth annual meet against Front Range foes, were fourth-place finishes from freshmen Jake Hawkins (1500-meter run, 4:00.55) and Gavin Owens (3000-meter steeplechase, 9:46.84). Fellow freshman Lance Wolfsmith clocked a sixth-place time of 10:31.50 in his steeplechase debut.
On the women's side, Cotharn shattered her own Academy record in the 400-meter hurdles. Finishing second with a time of 61.52, Cotharn broke her own record by over a half second. It is the third time in less than one month that the program's record has been broken. Classmate Rachel Thomas, who first set the program record at 62.50 on Apr. 2, placed third in today's meet with a time of 63.29.
The women accounted for a pair of first-place finishes at the Front Range Classic. Freshman Kassie Gurnell recorded a FRC meet record of 39'8¾" to win the triple jump, while sophomore Bizzy Mellado took first in the pole vault with a height of 11'11¾".Mellado paced the Falcons to the top-three finishes, as junior Kimber Shealy and senior Melissa Beerse tied for second (based on attempts) with the same heights.
In addition to Cotharn's Academy record, several runners-up at the Front Range Classic accounted for top-10 marks in the program record books. Cotharn and Thomas also ran the anchor leg of the of the 4x400-meter relay (including sophomore Bethany Gross, freshman Tasha Mayne) that clocked the fourth-best time in Academy history (3:51.83) to take second. Sophomore Lesly Torres tied for third on the program's all-time high jump list with a second-place clearance of 5'6", while senior Christina Burke recorded the ninth-best discus distance in program history at 150'1" to take second in that event.
Sophomore Jen Bremser was the runner-up in the 3000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:50.14, while freshman Annette Eichenberger placed second in the 800-meter run with a time of 2:18.42. Mayne finished fourth in the 800-meter run (2:19.76), while freshmen Regan Rogers and Jamie Hart finished fourth and sixth, respectively, in the high jump with matching heights of 5'4½".
With a time of 10:21.34, sophomore Melissa Fuerst placed third in the 3000-meter run, while junior Katie Carroll and sophomore Kate Kanetzky finished fifth (4:57.28) and sixth (5:01.00), respectively, in the 1500-meter run. Gross, who ran a leg of the runner-up relay team, finished sixth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 58.45.
From the field, freshman Alana Piccone and junior Rachel Gebauer finished fourth (117'5") and sixth (106'4"), respectively, in the javelin throw, while freshman Teresa Loya rounded out the scoring finishers with a sixth-place throw of 42'2" in the shot put.
With 199 points, the men claimed their third Front Range Classic title in four years. Colorado State - last year's champion - finished second with 185 points, while Wyoming (127 points), Northern Colorado (46) and Colorado State (14). On the women's Wyoming ended Colorado State's three-year run of FRC titles, scoring 235 points to defeat the Rams (157 points). Air Force scored 113 points to take third, while Northern Colorado (57) and Colorado (14) rounded out the team standings.
The Falcons are off until May 11-15, when they return to Fort Collins, Colo., for the 2011 Mountain West Conference Outdoor Championships.
Players Mentioned
