Pilot’s team places 3rd in air race

Tonya Hodson of Marion helped a Kansas State University-Salina team to its best finish ever in this year’s Air Race Classic.

The team took sixth place out of 41 teams and third out of 14 college teams. The race is the longest-running women’s transcontinental air race, dating to 1929.

Her four-woman team flew a Cessna Skyhawk 172 S-model from Pasco, Wash., to Fayetteville, Ark., stooping in Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, and Oklahoma. Hodson is a senior in the university’s professional pilot program. It was her second year on the team.