Heptathlon Trio Has Strong Start to Invitational

USAF ACADEMY, Colo. – Three career-best marks propelled Air Force senior Wyatt Murphy to a Day 1 lead in the heptathlon this afternoon (Jan. 20), as a trio of Falcons kicked off the program's annual Air Force Invitational at the Cadet Field House Indoor Track.

Murphy, who collected 3250 points to exit the opening day with a 154-point lead over the rest of the 11-athlete lineup, kicked off the event with a meet-leading 955 points in the 60-meter dash. Racing to a 6.80 finish – a mark just 0.02 shy of his personal best, Murphy crossed the finish line 0.35 second ahead of the rest of the field. The senior added career-best distances in the long jump (23'9½" – the 11th-best mark in Air Force history; 874 points) and shot put (40'0", 618 points), before closing out the day by matching his personal-best clearance in the high jump (6'6¾") for an event-best 803 points.

Sophomore Braeden Holcombe amassed 2906 points during the first four events to stand third – just 190 points out of second. Like Murphy, Holcombe also registered career-best marks in three of the four events. After opening the meet with a 752-point run in the 60-meter dash (career-best 7.38), Holcombe vaulted from seventh to third in the overall standings with a personal-best distance of 23'0" in the long jump (816 points) and maintained that placement throughout the day with a 36'11½" distance in the shot put (562 points) and a career-best 6'5½" clearance in the high jump (776 points).

Fellow sophomore Brian Hubbard rounded out Thursday's trio of competitors, as he tallied 2630 points to sit in ninth after four events. Hubbard tallied a career-best distance of 21'11¾" in the long jump (743 points), while adding a 7.24 in the 60-meter dash (799 points), a 37'3¾" in the shot put (568 points) and a 5'5¾" in the high jump (520 points).

The trio returns to the Cadet Field House tomorrow (Jan. 21) at 9:00 a.m. (MT) for the final three heptathlon events – 60-meter hurdles, pole vault, 1000-meter run. The individual events of the Air Force Invitational also get underway on Friday, with the rest of the Air Force team beginning action at 1:00 p.m.

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