CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Cortland women's outdoor track and field team followed up a strong performance over the weekend with a first-place team finish Tuesday at the CNY College Challenge, hosted by the Red Dragons.

Cortland finished the meet with 160 points edging second-place Ithaca (159) by one point. Cornell finished third (98), followed by Oswego (48), Cobleskill (17) and SUNY-ESF (9).

Three Red Dragons hit All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying performances in the 200-meter dash. Steffany Batista (Spring Valley) and Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter) each moved into the top 20 nationally in the event – Batista is now 16th after her second-place time of 25.17 seconds, and Hunter is now 17th after her third-place effort of 25.18 seconds. Kelly Gardner (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North) also starred in the 25-runner field with a fourth-place time of 25.73 seconds.

In the javelin throw, Cat Lutjen (Sound Beach/Miller Place) was runner-up in the field of 15 with an AARTFC qualifying distance of 35.93 meters (117' 10"). Sarah Norris (Ballston Spa) placed fourth in the event at 30.29 meters (99' 4"), while Liz Spencer (Somers) was fifth at 25.25 meters (82' 10"). Lutjen was also runner-up in the shot put, reaching a distance of 10.53 meters (34' 6.75").

Cortland's other AARTFC qualifying performances on the day included second-place finishes by Kaylee Uhl (Waverly) in the 400-meter hurdles (personal-best 1:04.63), Harley Buczkowski (Holland Patent) in the hammer throw (48.82 meters/160' 2"), and Nicole Van Pelt (Montgomery/Valley Central) in the high jump (1.58 meters/5' 2.25"). Kitty Tang (Staten Island/Coll. of Staten Island H.S. of Int'l Studies) was second in the long jump with a personal-best 5.03 meters (16' 6").

Three Red Dragons recorded top-five finishes out of a field of 16 in the 400-meter dash. Jesse Correale (Staten Island/Notre Dame Academy) was Cortland's top performer, recording a second-place time of 1:01.74. Shannon Imbornoni (Bethpage/Our Lady of Mercy Academy) finished third at 1:01.74 and Bridget Bennett (Castleton/Maple Hill) finished fifth with a time of 1:02.55.

In the 1,500-meter run, Cortland swept the top three podium spots with Maddie Ciuffetelli (Dix Hills/Half Hollow Hills East) leading the way in first (5:09.88), followed by Eliza Nichols (Smithtown/Smithtown West) in second (5:10.00) and Catherine Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees) in third (5:30.78).

Courtney Maurin (Pine Bush) won the 10,000-meter run, improving her personal best time on the year to 42:24.32. Athena Johnson (Port Washington/Paul D. Schreiber) placed third in the discus at 30.57 meters (100' 3") and Gillian Lee (Syosset) was third in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 16.97 seconds.

Cortland will send competitors to two meets this weekend - the Shippensburg Paul Kaiser Classic on Saturday and the Cornell Big Red Invitational Sunday. The Red Dragons will not have any competitors at the Penn Relays Thursday as originally planned.

Recap by Cortland sports information intern John Nocco)

Complete Results:
Women
Men

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

We certainly put together some great efforts tonight!  It's a little strange in that for some of our team we were going after big performances and PRs, while in other areas we were doing a little more than an overglorified practice.
 
Long jump was a huge success tonight!  Wendell Brand had a huge jump to move way up the national list, while teammates Ezra Schutt and Malik Hinds also put together great efforts.  Kitty Tang had a huge PR for the women, which was also great to see!
 
Kaylee Uhl ran a great PR tonight in the 400 hurdles.  It's nice that things are definitely coming together for her in that event!
 
Our women's 200 was pretty spectacular tonight as well!  To have freshman teammates – Steffany Batista and Taylor Hunter – run so fast is quite incredible; seeing both names up high on the NCAA performance list is quite a treat as well!  They are currently the 2nd and 3rd fastest freshmen in the country – only .01 and .02 out of first – which is obviously a great achievement!
 
We've had a tremendous string of efforts from the team recently.  It's great that the hard work people have been putting in has been paying off with some great performances!  We're looking forward to the opportunities at Shippensburg on Saturday and at Cornell on Sunday, and then of course the upcoming SUNYAC conference championships next weekend.