The Air Force track and field team made significant progress at the Colorado Invitational in Boulder on January 24, with several athletes posting times that placed them among the program’s best performances. The event saw six new entries into the Air Force Top 10 all-time marks, ten additional performances within the Academy’s Top 25, and four first-place finishes.
Sophomore Ryan McFadden led the team’s achievements by recording a time of 7.69 seconds in the women’s 60-meter dash final. This performance is now the second-fastest in Air Force history for that event and matches the Sophomore Class Record set by Apryl Ford in 1981. McFadden had previously run a 7.79 in the preliminary round before improving her time to secure second place overall.
Other notable top-10 marks included Cam Bodine’s fourth-ranked time of 2:09.04 (altitude-adjusted) in the women’s 800-meter run, Amaya Stepp’s eighth-best time of 56.54 in the women’s 400-meter dash, Wyatt Cernyar’s ninth-best men’s 800-meter run at 1:50.31 (altitude-adjusted), Morgan Glaser’s ninth-ranked women’s 60-meter hurdles finish at 8.90, and Ella Johnson entering tenth place for her altitude-adjusted time of 9:30.61 in the women’s 3000-meter run.
The women’s team secured first and second places in three events during Saturday’s competition. Freshman Amaya Stepp won the women’s 400 meters with a personal best, while sophomore Ella Pears finished second with a time that moved her to No.14 on Air Force’s all-time list. Junior Liliane Aittama claimed her second consecutive win in the women’s 800 meters, followed closely by Cam Bodine whose converted time further solidified her position among program leaders.
Juniors Anna Harden and Ella Johnson finished first and second respectively in the women’s 3000 meters, both improving their rankings within Academy records after altitude adjustments were applied to their times.
In other results, sophomore Morgan Glaser improved her standing in the women’s hurdles during preliminaries, advancing alongside junior Allison Fernstrom to the finals. Freshman Eleanor Borcchard posted a personal best in both hurdles and sprints, while junior Scarlet Fetterolf entered at No.16 for her mile performance after conversion for elevation.
On the men’s side, sophomore Wyatt Cernyar advanced to ninth all-time with his career-best result in the men’s 800 meters during a runner-up finish out of a field of twenty-five runners. Three other Falcons also finished within the top ten of that race.
Senior Jettason Rose equaled his career-best time to finish second in the men’s 60-meter dash final; sophomore Asher Jenkins matched his own best during preliminaries and placed third overall in finals. Freshman Zachary DeWalt made his debut on Air Force’s all-time list for the men’s 200 meters by finishing fourth among thirty-four competitors.
Sophomore Matthew Edwards earned recognition as he entered at No.23 all-time for his altitude-adjusted mark in the men’s 3000 meters after placing as top collegiate finisher out of forty-two participants.
The men also achieved a one-two finish in their own version of the 400-meter dash through freshman Jordan Elie-Stuart and junior Ryan Hajek. Additional strong showings came from Jenkins (third place) and junior Dominykas Remeikis (fifth place) across various events.
Following two meets held this season at Boulder, Air Force will next compete out-of-state at Manhattan, Kansas during its first appearance at the DeLoss-Dodds Invitational scheduled for January 30-31.
“There were many impressive performances today,” said an Air Force spokesperson following Saturday’s meet.
