CHESTER, PA. – The Cortland's women's outdoor track and field team began its 2019 season with a fourth-place finish out of 29 schools at Widener University's Danny Curran Invitational. The two-day event was held on Friday and Saturday. The Red Dragons recorded one first-place finish and six All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying marks during the meet.
 
Messiah won the team title with 94 points, followed by TCNJ (88), Hamilton (73.5), Cortland (53.5) and Stevenson and Stevens Institute (52 each) in the top five.
 
Junior Eliza Nicholls (Smithtown/Smithtown West) was Cortland's top finisher over the weekend placing first in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with an AARTFC qualifying time of 11:45.10.
 
In the 200-meter dash, Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter) and Steffany Batista (Spring Valley/Ramapo) each finished with AARTFC qualifying times. Hunter was third out of 120 competitors in 25.63 seconds, followed by Batista in fourth at 25.93 seconds. Kelly Gardner (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North) placed 17th with a time of 26.70 seconds.
 
Hunter and Gardner each placed in the top 15 in the 100-meter dash. Hunter finished fourth out of 83 participants in 12.77 seconds, while Gardner was close behind in 12th with a time of 13.04 seconds.
 
The 4x400-meter relay unit of Batista, Jesse Correale (Staten Island/Notre Dame Academy), Kaylee Uhl (Waverly), and Shannon Imbornoni (Bethpage/Our Lady of Mercy Academy) placed second with an AARTFC qualifying time of 4:03.04. Imbornoni also hit an AARTFC qualifying time in the 800-meter run with her ninth-place time of 2:20.55.
 
Cortland's other AARTFC qualifier was Maya Campbell (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South), who finished second of 41 in the 100-meter hurdles in 15.31 seconds. Ali Galus (Buffalo/Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart) finished 15th in 17.22 seconds.
 
Kaylee Uhl and Nicole Hallenbeck (Hudson/Taconic Hills) recorded two top-10 finishes for the Red Dragons in the 400-meter hurdles. Uhl placed fifth of 28 in 1:07.67 and Hallenbeck finished 10th in 1:09.97.
 
Harley Buczkowski (Holland Patent) finished fifth out of 30 competitors in the hammer throw reaching a distance of 43.88 meters (143' 11"). Riley Wood (Wallkill) finished eighth in the triple jump (10.52 meters/34' 6.25") and Nicole Van Pelt (Montgomery/Valley Stream) placed eighth in the high jump with a height of 1.53 meters (5' 0.25"). Wood also placed 12th of 51 in the long jump with a distance of 4.75 meters (15' 7").
 
Batista was Cortland's top finisher in the 400-meter dash, placing eighth of 51 in 1:00.63. Correale finished 12th with a time of 1:01.03 and Bridget Bennett (Castleton/Maple Hill) finished 15th at 1:02.05.
 
Cat Lutjen (Sound Beach/Miller Place) recorded two top-15 finishes in the javelin throw and shot put. She placed 12th out of 29 competitors in the javelin (30.67 meters/100' 7") and 15th out of 44 competitors in the shot put (10.52 meters/34' 6.25").
 
In the 5,000 meters, Madison Ciuffetelli (Dix Hills/Half Hollow Hills East) finished 12th of 50 in 19:37.07, Courtney Maurin (Pine Bush) finished 23rd (20:19.18), and Courtney Schoepfllin (Chaffee/Pioneer) finished 25th (20:28.30).
 
Taylor McClay (Eastport/Eastport South Manor) placed 19th of 93 in the 1,500-meter run at 5:00.86 and 22nd of 103 in the 800-meter run at 2:27.88. Gabby Moncada (Tully) placed 23rd in both the 1,500 meters (5:04.85) and the 800 meters (2:30.07).
 
The Red Dragons will send competitors to two separate meets next Saturday - the Hamilton Invitational in Clinton, N.Y. and Millersville Metrics in Millersville, Pa.

(Recap by Cortland sports information intern John Nocco)

Complete Results (TFRRS)

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

There isn't enough time to point out all of the positives that happened over this weekend!  One of the big things I want to make sure is highlighted is the individual sacrifices from Grant Boyd, Chad Dunham, and Eliza Nichols this past weekend.  In the 10k, Chad made pacing his teammates a huge priority; his efforts was rewarded with a conference qualifying mark for freshman teammate Mike Verde.  Both Grant and Eliza were perfect pacesetters for teammates for the first 3000 meters of the 5k on Friday night – leading to four new PRs for their teammates – even though they knew it might impact their individual effort in the steeplechase on Saturday.  Eliza had a great race on Saturday to win the steeplechase, while Grant ran his second-fastest time ever in a great effort on Saturday to be the second collegian.
 
Across the spectrum of events, things were going very well for the Red Dragons this weekend!  In the sprints, freshman Taylor Hunter was excellent in the women's 100 and 200, Maya Campbell had a great high hurdles, Steffany Batista and Jesse Correale were strong in the 400, and Kaylee Uhl and Nicole Hallenbeck had stellar opening efforts in the 400 hurdles.  Riley Wood had wonderful leaps in the triple jump and long jump, while Nicole Van Pelt was excellent in high jump.  Cat Lutjen made tremendous progress in the javelin throw, and Harley Buczkowski had a great start to her season in the hammer throw.  For some of these folks, it is really important to remember how little they have been able to really prepare for some of these 'outdoor track only' events like the 400 hurdles and the javelin throw.

For the men's team in the speed and power events, Liam Joyce impressed in the 100 and 200, with Kai Bryant not far behind in the 100.  Their 4 x 100 relay (with Connor Lewis and Chjuvaughn Cameron) ran a great opening time; Lewis came back with huge PRs in the 200 and 400!  Austen Johnson and Aiden Farrell had strong days in the 400 hurdles, while freshman Michael Eubanks had a great effort in both the 200 and the 400!  For the field events, Wendell Brand (a winner in the triple jump), Dane Sorensen (the pole vault winner), David Bernstein (who had a huge opening day through in the hammer), and Bryan Finn (who was likewise excellent in both shot put and discus throw) started off our outdoor season with a bang!

We showed great depth in all of our distance races today, led not only by Grant and Chad, but also with strong runs by Cabel McCandless in the 5k, Nolan Vest in the 1500, and Richard Samuels with the victory in the 800.

We're looking forward to getting another strong week of training in, and excited for the possibilities of our meets next weekend host by Millersville University and Hamilton College.