Air Force Academy
Drake Relays
Air Force Opens Competition at Drake Relays
4/28/2016 12:00:00 AM | Track and Field
April 28, 2016
DES MOINES, Iowa – Accounting for one Academy record and one Class record, the Air Force track and field team kicked off competition at the 107th Drake Relays this evening (April 28) in Des Moines, Iowa. The Falcons collected a top-six finish in each of the three events they ran on the Blue Oval.
The 4x1600-meter relay team of sophomore Carina Gillespie, classmate Giulianna Vessa, freshman Jaci Smith and junior Lindy Long posted an Academy-best time of 19:53.61 to finish third. Just the second Air Force quartet to ever compete in the 4x1600, the group took more than one minute off of the time the original relay set in 2003.
In the individual events of tonight's Distance Carnival, Jacob Bilvado broke his own Freshman Class Record in the 5000-meter run when he clocked a career-best time of 14:07.05 to finish sixth. Junior Kyle Eller posted a career-best 14:17.45 to finish 13th in that event, while sophomore Andrew Johnston finished 21st behind a time of 14:43.49.
Senior Daniel Shellhouse rounded out the Falcons' opening day lineup at Drake, as he clocked a career-best time of 30:18.61 to finish sixth in the 10,000-meter run.
Air Force continues action at the Drake Relays tomorrow (April 29), while also beginning competition at the Steve Scott Invitational at UC Irvine.
Players Mentioned
