Academy track team breaks school records

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AFPN) --  The Air Force Academy’s track and field team set several school records during the annual Drake Relays here April 22 to 24. Competing in nine events, the team broke three school records, and one team member was crowned an event champion.

Dana Pounds threw a school record 172 feet 1 inch in the javelin to win the event April 23. Throwing the longest women's javelin at the Drake Relays since 1986, Pounds crushed the previous record of 167-3 which she set just five weeks earlier. She is the academy's first Drake Relay Champion since 1976.

The men's 4x110-meter shuttle hurdle relay team finished in 2nd place at 56.33 seconds. The Falcon quartet of Sean Temple, Luke Marker, Jim Campbell and Jonathon Myers also set a new academy record in that event, breaking the 29-year-old record.

Four other cadets teamed up for another school record and third-place finish in the men's 4x1600-meter relay. Nathan Franz, Brian Dumm, Chris Acs and Mark Walter crossed the finish line in 16 minutes 25.07 seconds, finishing ahead of 11 other collegiate teams. The quartet's time shatters the academy's previous 23-year-old record of 16:31.4.

The only women's track participants, the distance medley relay team of Kelly McPherson, Jami Hodge, Cindy Dawson and Nicole Graham, finished the race in ninth place at 11:54.91 -- the second-fastest in academy history.

Paul Gensic was the runner-up in the pole vault, recording a height of 17-4 1/2. He finished second in a field of 21.

Campbell also finished 14th in the 400-meter hurdles, with a time of 53.24, before joining Temple, Bryant Bevan and Nick Bromberek to a sixth-place finish in their section of the 4x400-meter relay with a time of 3:15.23. Bromberek, Bevan, Franz and Walter also competed in the distance medley relay and finished fourth with a time of 9:56.58.

Falcons discus throwers Olivia Korte and Dominique Boivin finished 11th and 13th, respectively, among the field of 29. Korte recorded a mark of 153-10, while Boivin threw a 150-10.