Air Force Academy

May 16, 2001

Wednesday, May 16, 2001

AIR FORCE TRACK AT MWC CHAMPIONSHIPS

SAN DIEGO, CA--Air Force senior Kurt Duffy heads into the second day of competition in the Mountain West Conference Championship decathlon Thursday just four points out of first place.

In the first five events Wednesday at San Diego State's "track on a roof," Duffy tallied 3,536 points to sit in second place behind Dan Parkinson from Brigham Young who scored 3,540 points. Falcon sophomores Tom Clark and Nick Herald were fifth (3,197 points) and sixth place (3,049) respectively.

"I think Kurt has a very good chance to win this competition and give us a big boost as we head into Friday's qualifying," said head coach Ralph Lindeman. "I thought going into the decathlon that we had a chance to score 15 points. I am hopeful that both Tom and Nick can improve one place before the competition ends."

Thursday is expected to end up in a three-way battle for first between Parkinson and Colorado State's Doug Crumb who sat in third place with 3,505 points. Lindeman said Duffy's strongest events on the second day are the pole vault, 110 high hurdles and 1,500-meters.

"Kurt is a real competitor and if he gets it going, than taking first would be one of the early surprises of this championship meet,' said Lindeman.

In the women's heptathlon, Air Force freshman Brittany Edmonds was in ninth place with 2,684 points. BYU's Kirsten Bolm leads the competition with 3,605 points.

This is the first of three years that San Diego State is scheduled to hold the outdoor championships on their brand new state-of-the-art track that was built on top of a three-story campus parking garage.