CORTLAND, N.Y. - Kelly Gardner (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North) achieved a pair of All-Atlantic Region Track & Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying performances as the Cortland women's track & field team met a total of five individual regional standards during the CNY College Challenge, hosted by Cortland Tuesday.
 
Cortland finished second in the team standings. Ithaca was first with 97 points, followed by Cortland (71), Oswego (7) and Cobleskill (6) using a 5-3-2-1 scoring system among the Division III schools in each event.
 
Gardner finished in second place in both the 100-meter dash and the 200-meter dash to get the qualifiers. In the field of 11 in the 100-meter dash, she set a career best in 12.55 seconds, and her 25.50 seconds in the 200 also set a personal best. Dana Messina (East Meadow) finished seventh out of 29 in the 200 meters in 26.64 seconds.
 
Maya Campbell (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South) completed the 100-meter hurdles in 15.64 seconds and finished first out of 10 in the event with an AARTFC ticket. She was also the top finisher out of eight in the triple jump at 10.64 meters (34' 11"). Riley Wood (Wallkill) was third in the triple jump at 10.42 meters (34' 2") and finished 12th in the 200-meter dash in 27.57 seconds. Also in the hurdles, Kaylee Uhl (Waverly) won the event at the 400-meter length in 1:06.58 and qualified for the AARTFC's. Nicole Hallenbeck (Claverack/Taconic Hills) finished third out of seven in the event in 1:10.25.
 
Harley Buczkowski (Holland Patent) was a qualifier with a first place finish in the hammer throw out of 12 with a distance of 47.81 meters (156' 10"). She was also third out of 14 in the discus at 32.84 meters (107' 9"). Shannon Hanmer (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) was fourth in the discus at 32.02 meters (105' 1") and was sixth out of 15 in the shot put at 9.95 meters (32' 7.75").
 
Cat Lutjen (Sound Beach/Miller Place) had two top-three performances in her two throwing events. She was second out of 11 in the javelin at 31.15 meters (102' 2") and third of 15 in the shot put with an 11.20 meters (36' 9") heave. Teagan Perry (Windsor) was fifth in the javelin with a personal best 26.21 meters (86' 0").
 
Cortland took four out of the top five spots in the 400-meter dash, highlighted by a winning run by Jesse Correale (Staten Island/Notre Dame Academy) in 1:00.16. Asia Cornwall (East Greenbush/Columbia) was second in 1:00.92 while Carolyn Wagner (Delmar/Bethlehem) and Hayley Palmer (Wellsville) clocked in at fourth and fifth with times of 1:03.62 and 1:04.45, respectively. 
 
Additionally, Megan Wagner (Niskayuna) and Sara Billings (Gansevoort/South Glens Falls) registered second and third place finishes in the 1,500-meter run in 4:59.89 and 5:06.93, respectively. Jacqueline Guzman (Ronkonkoma/Connetquot) was third of seven in the long jump at 4.56 meters (14' 11.5").
 
The Red Dragons are scheduled to compete at the Cornell Big Red Invitational on Sunday.

(Recap by Cortland sports information student intern Kyle Lancto)

Complete Results:
Women
Men


Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:

We were really fortunate with today's weather, and the coaching staff was really proud to see the team come out and take advantage of the opportunity!  Any time you are able to perform at a level that is nearly a guaranteed trip to the NCAA championships it is a great thing, so seeing Storm Malone run that fast in the high hurdles was pretty cool.
 
Senior Teagan Perry wasn't able to compete in the heptathlon at our home meet last weekend due to an injury, and needed a javelin mark to earn a spot into the conference meet. She hit a big personal best in javelin today, and should be able to represent the Red Dragons next weekend at the SUNY Championships.

For the throws, Bryan Finn came through with a great day – if I'm not mistaken, he had personal bests in all three events (shot put, discus throw, and hammer throw). That's the second time in the last two weeks were one of the 'big men' has had a three for three day!
 
Our men's 400 hurdlers continued to move in the right direction, with our top three under the 56 second barrier. That's an event that has been very limited in terms of training opportunities, so it was pretty great to see those kind of performances.
 
Our sprints made some really great progress today. Jesse Correale and Asia Cornwall had really nice 400s, as did Ricky Castello and Connor Lewis. Liam Joyce had a great day in the 100 and 200, and Payton Lalone had a great return from a hamstring injury. The star of the day might have been sophomore Kelly Gardner, however. She opened the day with a strong 4x100 relay leg, and then moved on to a huge PR in the 100 of 12.55 seconds. Because she was running so well, we put her into the 200 at the last minute, and she simply flew! Her time of 25.50 seconds is currently the fastest in the conference and within the top 50 in the country!