Pounds wins second NCAA javelin title

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AFPN) --  Saving the best for last and using a final throw of 190 feet, 3 inches, recent Air Force Academy graduate Dana Pounds successfully defended her javelin title at the NCAA Track and Field Championships here on June 9. Defeating the runner-up by nearly 12 feet, the Lexington, Ky., native claimed her second national title in as many years.

Pounds becomes the Academy’s first back-to-back national champion at the Division I level. She is also just the second track and field member ever to claim back-to-back national honors in the same event and the first during the outdoor season. Callie Calhoun won the 3,000-meter run titles at the Division II national indoor championships during the 1990-91 seasons.

The team’s three-time MVP also claimed All-America honors for the third consecutive year -- again, the first Falcon to achieve that honor since Calhoun.

Pounds opened the rotation with a throw of 184 feet. She followed that up with a toss of 173 feet, 4 inches, before a pair of foul throws book-ended a toss of 163 feet, 4 inches.

As the next-to-last competitor in the 12-person rotation, Pounds knew that she had the title in hand before her final throw. Despite that knowledge, Pounds reeled back for the final throw of 190 feet, 3 inches, that head coach Ralph Lindeman could only describe as “awesome.”

In addition to her mark in the academy’s record books, Pounds is the first Mountain West Conference athlete to earn back-to-back titles at the national meet since the conference’s inception.

For the second straight season, Pounds completed the trifecta of conference, regional and national titles. She set this season’s national standard at the MWC championships, where she claimed her third conference crown with an academy, MWC and championship-meet record throw of 195 feet, 8 inches.

The 5-foot, 2-inch Pounds followed that up with a new Midwest Regional meet mark of 186 feet, 10 inches, to earn the automatic bid into the national meet. And despite a season-low throw of 162 feet, 11 inches, in the qualifying round, Pounds saved the best for last as she heaved the javelin 190 feet, 3 inches, for the victory.