Ryan Cole, Six Falcons Honored by Mountain West
10/29/2016 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 28, 2016
KUNA, Idaho – Air Force head coach Ryan Cole was named the Mountain West Women's Coach of the Year and six runners earned all-conference honors at the conclusion of the 2016 Mountain West Cross Country Championships.
In his third year at the helm of the Falcons' distance program, Cole guided the women to a runner-up finish in the team standings at the conference championship meet, which was held on Friday, Oct. 28, in Kuna, Idaho. With three of the top-six finishers representing the Academy, the women captured the best team finish in program history.
Cole is the first coach of any Air Force women's team to be honored by a major conference since the women joined the Division I level in 1996. Cole, who was named the men's coach of the year in 2015, is the first cross country mentor since Mark Stanforth (1999 men, 2003 men) to earn multiple honors from the Mountain West.
Six Falcons earned first-team all-conference honors following their performances at yesterday's championship meet. The tally, which featured the most combined all-MW selections in MW history, included a program-record three females and program record-matching three males.
The three all-MW selections for the women's team equals the total number of first-team selections that Air Force has ever claimed at the MW Championships (one individual, three times). Junior Carina Gillespie equaled the best individual finish by a member of the women's team, as she placed third in the 88-runner 6K event, while senior Lindy Long and sophomore Jaci Smith claimed all-league honors after finishing fifth and sixth, respectively, at the conference meet.
Air Force was the only team in the conference to garner three first-team selections … and one of just two to place three runners in the overall top 10.
On the men's side, sophomore Jacob Bilvado, junior Andrew Johnston and senior Matt Dorsey earned first-team all-MW honors after finishing fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively, in the 8K race that included 66 total runners. The three first-team selections equals the Academy record for the most top-seven finishers in a single meet (2003).
It is the second all-MW award in cross country for Dorsey, who earned second-team status last year, and the first such award for Bilvado, Gillespie, Johnston, Long and Smith.
Players Mentioned
