Falcons Rewrite Record Book on Opening Night of SoCal Trip

AZUSA, Calif. – Highlighted by four Air Force Top 10 times – and two more ranked within the Top 15, nine members of the track and field team kicked off a busy weekend of action in Southern California on Thursday (April 14) night with events at the Bryan Clay Invitational and Mt SAC Relays.

Senior Brid O'Connell started the Falcons' Record Book Rewrite by posting the fifth-fastest 800-meter time in Air Force history to open competition at the Bryan Clay Invitational. Racing to a career-best time of 2:09.99, O'Connell became just the fifth Falcon to break 2:10 at 800 meters. Accounting for the program's fastest time since 2014, O'Connell finished within the top third of the full 160-runner event.

The Falcons' entire lineup of 5000-meter runners followed O'Connell's lead and made significant changes to the Air Force Record Book in their respective races – highlighted by the ninth-fastest times on both the women's and men's all-time standings.

Crossing the finish line of her Invitational race in 16:33.72, freshman Ally Peterson knocked 21 seconds off her previous best time to enter the program's Top 10 at No. 9. Her time capped a series of women's races that saw classmate Tiaree Towler post the 12th-fastest time in Academy history at 16:54.21 and senior Adrianna Wilder account for the program's 14th-fastest time at 16:54.39. Towler, in the first outdoor race of her collegiate track career, finished second in her Open section, while Wilder deleted 25 seconds from her previous best time to place second amongst collegiate runners (fourth overall) in her section.

On the men's side, sophomore Eli Bennett clocked a personal-best time of 13:54.21 to move into the Top 10 of the program's all-time standings (ninth) and finish fourth out of 21 runners in his Invitational section at the Bryan Clay Invitational,

In addition to the competition in Azusa, sophomore Rayna Fruchey and junior Aidan Boyle represented the Falcons in the 3000-meter steeplechase at the Mt. SAC Relays in Walnut. Deleting six seconds from her previous career-best time, Fruchey jumped from eighth to sixth on the program's all-time standings, while Boyle clocked a season-best time of 8:56.88 – a mark just shy of his PR – to finish 18th out of 71 runners in the overall field.

The Falcons return to action tomorrow (April 15) morning for a full day of competition, as they wrap up the Bryan Clay Invitational, continue at the Mt. SAC Relays, and open the Beach Invitational. The day gets underway with the men's hammer throw at 9:00 a.m. (PT).

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