Throwers Headline Opening Day of MW Championships

CLOVIS, Calif. – Highlighted by three podium finishes, members of the men's throwing squad combined for 35 of the track and field team's 43 points during the opening day of competition at the Mountain West Outdoor Championships in California.

The Falcons got on the board quickly, accumulating 18 points in the hammer throw – the first scored event of the weekend for the men. Sophomore Cooper Stroka picked up the Falcons' first medal of the 2023 championships, as he recorded a throw of 192'11" to take third in the event and lead the men to four of the eight scoring finishes. Junior Gerrit Tamminga took fourth with a distance of 188'7", while freshman Texas Tanner and senior Jace Pittman finished fifth (186'2") and sixth (180'2"), respectively.

Backed by podium finishes from sophomores Joe Nizich and Keith Oswald, Air Force added 17 more points to their team score in the javelin. Nizich recorded a season-best 213'2" to place second, while Oswald added more than 10 feet to his personal best (204'7") to finish third in the meet and debut at No. 19 on the program's all-time standings. Tamminga picked up his second scoring finish of the day, as he recorded a career-best distance of 178'5" to finish sixth.

Senior Ryan Johnson closed out the night with a runner-up finish in the 10,000-meter run. Clocking a time of 29:58.30 in the 16-runner final, Johnson marked the program's 20th podium finish in that event.

Backed by the 35-point output from the two throwing events, the men amassed 43 points on the opening day and hold an 11-point advantage over the rest of the field.

On the women's side, Air Force claimed its first podium finish of the 2023 championships in the first track final, as freshman India Jones recorded the sixth-fastest time in program history – a Class Record time of 34:16.66 – to finish third in the meet and account for the program's first 10K podium finish since 2017 – and just the third overall.

With Jones' six points, the women are currently in fifth.

Under the championships' new three-day format, three preliminary races were held today. Sophomore Darek Hackett and Cameron Breier won their respective heats to automatically qualify into the finals of the 400-meter hurdles, while classmate Javin Bostic advanced on time to the 200-meter finals. Hackett clocked a time of 51.97 to earn the fastest time in qualifying, while Breier recorded a season-best 52.03 – the 13th-fastest time in program history – to take second in the 11-runner prelim. Bostic also impacted the record book during his preliminary race, as he recorded the eighth-fastest 200-meter time in Air Force history (21.19) to finish seventh. On the women's side, junior Ava Gilliana finished second in her qualifying heat of the 800-meter run (2:10.88) to earn an automatic spot in Saturday's finals.

AIR FORCE TOP-10 MARKS
No. 8 – Javin Bostic, 200-Meter Dash (21.19)

The first five events of the decathlon were also contested on Thursday, with junior Brian Hubbard leading an Air Force trio after the opening day. Hubbard, who improved his Day 1 total by more than 200 points, is in second with 3610 points, while classmate Braeden Holcombe is in fourth (3529) and freshman Connor Munson is in sixth (3295). Hubbard recorded career-best marks in the long jump (21'10¾"), shot put (39'5¼") and 400-meter dash (50.94), while rounding out his day with a 10.97 in the 100-meter dash (just 0.05 off his PR) and a 5'10¾" in the high jump. Holcombe recorded season-best performances in four of the five events, while Munson posted one PR and made his collegiate debut in two other events.

The Falcons return to Veterans Memorial Stadium tomorrow (May 12) for the second day of competition at the Mountain West Outdoor Championships. Action gets underway at 9:30 a.m. (PT), when Hubbard, Holcombe and Munson start the final five events of the decathlon.

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