BROCKPORT, N.Y. – Cortland's distance medley relay team earned all-league honors with a third-place finish at the 2018 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships. The two-day event was held at Brockport's Special Events and Recreation Center.

Cortland finished seventh in the final team standings with 29 points, just one point behind Oneonta and less than six points behind Oswego. Geneseo won the team title with 280 points, followed by Brockport (158), Plattsburgh (60), Fredonia (49.33) and Oswego (34.66) in the top five.

The DMR team of Eliza Nichols (Smithtown/Smithtown West), Hayley Palmer (Wellsville), Megan Wagner (Niskayuna) and Sam Himes (Buffalo/Sweet Home) placed third with a time of 13:02.52. The top three finishers in each event earn All-SUNYAC honors. Winners are first team, runners-up are second team, and third-place finishers are third team.

Harley Buczkowski (Holland Patent) finished fifth in the weight throw at 14.78 meters (48' 6") and eighth in the shot put at 11.32 meters (37' 1.75") to score in two events. The 4x400-meter relay unit of Carolyn Wagner (Delmar/Bethlehem), Shannon Imbornoni (Plainview/Our Lady of Mercy Academy), Jesse Correale (Staten Island/Notre Dame Academy) and Melissa Emilio (Oneonta) finished fifth in 4:10.25.

Imbornoni recorded a sixth-place finish in the 800 meters (2:27.61, 2:22.61 prelims) and Cat Lutjen (Sound Beach/Miller Place) was sixth in the shot put (11.48 meters/37' 8"). Three Red Dragons registered seventh-place finishes: Kaylee Uhl (Waverly) in the 400-meter dash (1:01.80; 1:00.92 prelims); Melissa Emilio (Oneonta) in the 800 meters (2:27.87, 2:22.27 prelims); and Sara Billings (Gansevoort/South Glens Falls) in the 3,000 meters (10:40.03).

Rounding out Cortland's scorers at the meet were Maya Campbell (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South) with an eight-place finish in the 60-meter hurdles (10.25, 9.49 prelims) and Nicole Wise (Franklinville) with an eighth-place score of 2,514 points in the pentathlon, including 677 points in the 60-meter hurdles (10.19) and 573 points in the 800 meters (2:40.01).

Cortland will compete at the inaugural All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Indoor Championships Friday and Saturday, March 2-3 at Ithaca College. Cortland's AARTFC qualifiers during the SUNYAC Championships were:

DMR (Nichols, Palmer, M. Wagner, Himes)
Buczkowski, Weight Throw
Emilio, 800 meters (prelims)
Dana Messina (East Meadow), 200-meter dash (10th place, 26.68)

Complete Results:
Women
Men

Coach's Corner - Comments from Head Coach Steve Patrick on the Men's and Women's SUNYAC Indoor Championships

Track and field is a really strange sport, in that it such a collection of mostly individual efforts. We had a lot of great individual efforts (as well as some stellar relay efforts) over the two days at the SUNYAC Championships! We are quite proud of what the team accomplished over the weekend!
 
While our efforts on the weekend didn't result in the team placing where we had hoped for, there were so many more positive surprise performances through the weekend than negatives. The negatives have some value for us, in that they are great learning experiences for the future!
 
While I'm worried that I will miss one, I'd like to highlight the amazing improvements so many of our student-athletes had over the weekend. On the men's side from Dev Williams in the long jump (which broke a school record), Brent DiVittorio in the 60HH, Tyler Hochadel in the weight throw, our men's DMR (Ryan Konotopskyj, Jonny Polo Rankin, Amauris Olivo,and Cabel McCandless), both of our men in the 200 (Peyton Lalone and Easton Reagan), Adam Perilli in the 400, and our men's 4x4 (Easton Reagan, Ricky Castello, Austen Johnson and Noah Serrette. Ryan (Konotopskyj) and Cabel (McCandless) both came back from Friday night's DMR with excellent scoring performances – and season bests – in the mile and 3000, respectively.  The heptathletes (Zach Kashmer, Isaiah Brooks, Kellen Martin, Kevin Diaz Lopez and Jesse Haynes) put together a great weekend as well, with four men earning spots on the podium, and all five recording lifetime personal bests!
 
The Lady Red Dragons were led by huge improvements from Cat Lutjen and Harley Buczkowski in the shot put, as both improved drastically on their season's best to score. Maya Campbell had a huge PR to make finals in the 60HH – over the past week she has improved by nearly a full second in the event!  In the finals she was in a great position but crashed the final hurdle pretty hard.  We were happy she toughed it out to the finish line!  Our women's DMR of Eliza Nichols, Hayley Palmer, Megan Wagner and Sam Himes did a great job on Friday night; Megan and Sam returned to run great 3000 meter races on Saturday. Both ladies ran season bests.  Senior Melissa Emilio and freshman Shannon Imbornoni both did outstanding work in the trials of the 800 – the fastest efforts ever for both – to make the finals on Saturday, and freshman Nicole Wise had a great pentathlon to earn eighth place with a new lifetime best point total.
 
It's also very important that we thank the many folks that travelled great distances to support the team. We had so many parents, friends, and alumni in attendance that it was a fantastic event to be a part of! We are excited to have a group of the team continuing on to the Regional Championship meet next weekend, as well as the NCAA Championships in two weeks. The part of the team that is finished with the indoor track and field season is excited to make a big push for the upcoming outdoor season!