Air Force Academy

Oct. 25, 2007

The Air Force women's swimming and diving team returns to action this weekend, Oct. 27, when they host Colorado State and New Mexico in the season-opening Mountain West Conference meet. The meet, scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m., was originally slated to be hosted by San Diego State, but was moved due to the wildfires blazing across southern California this week.

Scouting the Falcon Women...
The Air Force women's swimming and diving team enters this weekend with a 2-1 dual record, with a pair of wins over Colorado School of Mines and Metro State. The Falcon swimmers finished sixth at last weekend's Early Bird Invitational, hosted by Colorado State.

Air Force's top finisher last weekend was junior Jane Hwang, who registered three top-10 individual performances, including a second-place finish in the 200 IM. Hwang currently ranks fifth in the MWC in the 100 free and sixth in the 200 IM.

Scouting the Falcon Men...
The Air Force men's swimming and diving team, out of action this weekend, captured first place at last weekend's Early Bird Invitational.

The Falcons registered a total of seven wins, with three relay victories, while sophomore Sean O'Keefe added a pair of wins and juniors Bryan Avery and Kai Yamashiro notched wins as well. Air Force recorded a total of 21 top-three finishes on the weekend.

Scouting the Rams...
Colorado State is coming off a first place showing at their own Early Bird Invitational last weekend, with top five finishes in all 20 events. The Rams also hold a 2-0 dual record and 1-0 MWC mark, with a victory over TCU.

Among CSU's leaders are freshman Michelle Price, who leads the MWC in both the 100 and 200 backstroke, and senior diver Elyse Hall, who has a league-best mark at 3-meters.

Diver Carrie Quinn holds a league-best mark at 1-meter, while sophomore Ashley Grisdale ranks third in the MWC in the 400 IM.

MWC Honors...
Junior Bryan Avery was named Mountain West Conference Men's Co-Swimmer of the Week on Oct. 25. Avery led the Falcons to a first-place finish at the Early Bird Invitational, competing in seven total events, including four relay races. Individually, Avery finished first in the 200 individual medley (1:58.83), second in the 100 butterfly (52.60) and eighth in the 200 butterfly (2:04.81). He also helped Air Force to victories in the 400-medley relay (3:28.90), 200-medley relay (1:35.18) and 800-freestyle relay (7:01.07), while the Falcons' 400- freestyle relay team finished second in 3:09.07 with Avery's assistance.

Last week, sophomore Kyle Van Valkenburg captured the first Mountain West Conference Men's Diver of the Week honors of the 2007-08 season, marking the first time for an Air Force diver since 2005. Van Valkenburg led the Air Force divers at their season-opening meet, taking second place in the 3-meter dive with a score of 267.65, while finishing third at 1-meter with a mark of 264.45.

Up Next...
The Air Force swimming and diving teams are back in action next weekend, Nov. 2, when they take on TCU in conference action. Meanwhile, the men face SMU on Nov. 3, while the women head to the Open Water Collegiate Nationals.

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