ITHACA, N.Y- The Cortland women's indoor track and field team competed at two events Saturday, sending some competitors to Cornell University for the Cornell Deneault Invitational while others competed at Ithaca College for a tri-meet against Ithaca and Oneonta.
 
At Cornell, Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter) reached an All-Atlantic Region Track and Field (AARTFC) qualifying time in the 200-meter dash. She finished third out of 27 competitors with a time of 26.50 seconds. Hunter was also ninth of 27 in the 60-meter dash at 8.20 seconds. Shannon Imbornoni (Bethpage/Our Lady of Mercy Academy) finished fifth out of 29 runners in the 400-meter dash (1:01.80).
 
In the 300-meter dash, Steffany Batista (Spring Valley/Ramapo) finished sixth posting a time of 42.48 seconds. Jesse Correale (Staten Island/Notre Dame Academy) finished ninth (43.16) followed by Kaylee Uhl (Waverly) in 10th (43.19).
 
Eliza Nichols (Smithtown/Smithtown West) and Sam Himes (Amherst/Sweet Home) recorded top-10 finishes in the 3,000 meters. Nichols finished eighth with a time of 10:55.05 and Himes finished 10th (11:07.90). Gabby Moncada (Tully) posted the best mile time for Cortland with another 10th place finish (5:32.12). Sydney Smith (Niskayuna) was 12th of 31 in the 800 meters (2:26.07).
 
Two first place performances highlighted the Red Dragons' effort at Ithaca College. Harley Buczkowski (Holland Patent) bested 15 other competitors in the weight throw with a distance of 15.81 meters (51' 10.5") than currently ranks fourth in the AARTFC. Maya Campbell (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South) placed first in the triple jump, recording an AARTFC qualifying distance of 11.32 meters (37' 1.75"). Kelly Gardner (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North) finished second in the triple jump with a distance of 10.88 meters (35' 8.5"), another ARRTFC qualifying mark.
 
Gardner also placed second out of 12 competitors in the long jump with a distance of 5.23 meters (17' 2"). Riley Wood (Wallkill) and Rachel Whitcomb (Tioga) finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the long jump as well. Wood recorded a distance of 4.89 meters (16' 0.5") while Whitcomb followed at 4.76 meters (15' 7.5").
 
In the high jump, Nicole Van Pelt (Montgomery/Valley Stream) finished third with a height of 1.55 meters (5' 1"). Molly Baker (Newark Valley) placed fourth with a height of 1.50 meters (4' 11") followed by Abby Feyerabend (Syracuse/Westhill) in fifth at 1.45 meters (4' 9").
 
Bridget Bennett (Castleton/Maple Hill) placed fourth out of 15 competitors in the 60-meter dash (8.28) and sixth in the 200-meter dash (27.59). Malley Bowen (Owego/Tioga) finished fifth out of 14 competitors in the 60-meter hurdles (9.99 seconds). Courtney Schoepflin (Chaffee/Pioneer) recorded the best mile time for the Red Dragons finishing fourth with a time of 5:59.09 and Dorena Motta (Manahawkin, NJ/Southern Regional) was sixth (6:12.09). Nicole Hallenbeck (Hudson/Taconic Hills) finished fourth in the 400-meter dash (1:06.60).
 
The Red Dragons finished third in the 4x400-meter relay as Correale, Batista, Imbornoni and Uhl were clocked at 4:08.34.
 
In the tri-meet scoring, Ithaca finished with 85.5 points, followed by Oneonta with 35.5 and Cortland with 22 using a 5-3-2-1 scoring system.
 
The Red Dragons will compete at the SUNYAC Indoor Championships next Friday and Saturday, Feb. 22-23, at Houghton College.

(Recap by sports information intern John Nocco)

Complete Results - Deneault Invitational
Women's Results - Ithaca Tri-Meet
Men's Results - Ithaca Tri-Meet

Coach's Corner - Comments from Head Coach Steve Patrick

We certainly saw some really nice efforts between our two meets today!
 
Over at Cornell, we had a nice flurry of personal bests – Jesse Correale and Connor Lewis both hit PRs in the 300 meters, Shannon Imbornoni ran her fastest ever in the 400, Ryan Konotopskyj and Nolan Vest both ran big indoor PRs in the 800, and Richard Samuels had a huge PR to win the 400 meters overall!  It's great to have the opportunity to split the squad so that people can get to the meet that serves them best for their overall development.
 
The bulk of the team ran at Ithaca, and we had some very strong results there as well!  Throwers Bryan Finn and Liz Spencer both had PRs in the weight throw, which is an encouraging sign!  Freshman Ryan Miller had a great PR in the long jump, while junior Micah Assibey-Bonsu hit a big leap in the triple jump, which moved him up the NCAA qualifying list significantly.  Our men's 800 runners of Hunter Braun, Jose Cruz, and Clayton Santiago all ran PRs in a strong race, while freshman Bridget Bennett hit a great PR in the 200.  Liam Joyce put in a great day of work with PRs in both the 60 and the 200.  Pole vault was a pretty strong event for us today as well, with junior Malley Bowen having a massive improvement by nearly a foot and half to gain entry into the conference meet!  While Dane Sorensen didn't PR, he had a great competition to earn the victory in the men's pole vault.  We're quite excited to see this kind of great movement forward as we head into the conference championships next weekend!