UND wins collegiate aviation championship
Powered by top finishes in flight, ground, and navigation events, University of North Dakota pilots brought home the top Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference (Safecon) title during the annual National Intercollegiate Flying Association championship May 16 to 19.
The annual contest recognizes collegiate aviation excellence and was hosted by the University of Wisconsin at Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport in Janesville.
The Southern Illinois University team finished second overall, followed by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott, Arizona, team. LeTourneau University scored a fourth-place finish, and the U.S. Air Force Academy rounded out the top five.
Central Texas College won the safety award and was also named the top two-year aviation school.
Oklahoma State University’s Heather Atkinson was selected the top certificated flight instructor, and she also brought home the women’s achievement award.
The top pilot was Matthew Browning of Southern Illinois, who also scored the second-most overall points, just slightly behind Saluki teammate Jonathan Ezell.
Coach of the year honor went to UND’s Lewis Liang, and Kent State University earned the Collegiate Aviation Progress Award.
Liberty University won the Loening Trophy, a perpetual trophy named after the Wright brothers' engineer Grover Loening that is presented to the nation’s “outstanding all-around collegiate aviation program.” The collegiate flying association noted the trophy is the “rarest and oldest of all collegiate aviation awards.”
The Judges Trophy went to Southern Illinois with 3,632.00 points. North Dakota followed at 3,491.00 points, less than 100 points ahead of Embry-Riddle-Prescott's 3,402.50 points. Kent State won the American Airlines safety award.
Southern University emerged victorious in the flight events category. North Dakota was second and Western Michigan University was third. The ground events championship was awarded to Embry-Riddle Prescott with UND claiming the runner-up position.
The Southern Illinois message drop team of pilot Warren Wudtke and dropmaster Andrew Finer won first place out of 129 competitors, edging out the North Dakota’s Jason Preston and Garret Turco.
The short-field landing winner was North Dakota's Steven Roche who bested 74 competitors, followed by Kent State's William Kaib, and The Ohio State University's Jonah Desrochers.
The power-off landing competition championship between 126 competitors resulted in a first-place tie between Southern Illinois' Jonathan Ezell and Embry-Riddle Prescott’s Ryan O'Connor.
First place in traditional navigation was earned by the North Dakota team, which also won the unlimited navigation category.
Regional top pilots included Samuel Samberson of the Metropolitan State University of Denver; Ryan O'Connor of Embry-Riddle Prescott; James Ray of Western Michigan; Benjamin White of LeTourneau; Garret Turco of North Dakota; Tate Beller of the University of Nebraska; Justin Krasinski of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; Jonathan Ezell of Southern Illinois; Adam Shaffer of Auburn University; and Stephen Andros of Liberty University.
