SHIPPENSBURG, PA. and ITHACA, N.Y.- The Cortland women's outdoor track and field team, in their final meets before the SUNYAC Championships, traveled to Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania on Saturday for the 15th annual Paul Kaiser Classic and also sent competitors to Sunday's Cornell Big Red Invitational.
 
At the Paul Kaiser Classic, the Red Dragons' recorded six All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying performances. The 4x100-meter relay unit of Kelly Gardner (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North), Maya Campbell (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South), Steffany Batista (Spring Valley/Ramapo) and Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter) placed third out of 13 relay teams with an AARTFC qualifying time of 48.29 seconds that ranks them first in the SUNYAC.
 
Gardner and Campbell both put together AARTFC qualifying performances in their individual events as well. Gardner finished eighth of 42 in the long jump, reaching a distance of 5.27 meters (17' 3.5"), while Campbell finished fourth of eight in the 100-meter hurdles with a personal best time of 14.83 seconds.
 
Kaylee Uhl (Waverly) finished sixth out of the field of 25 in the 400-meter hurdles with an AARTFC qualifying time of 1:06.80. Molly Baker (Newark Valley) placed seventh out of 27 in the high jump, clearing an AARTFC qualifying height of 1.58 meters (5' 2.25"). Harley Buczkowski (Holland Patent) finished eighth of 47 in the hammer throw with a distance of 45.97 meters (150' 10") to round out Cortland's AARTFC qualifying performances for the weekend.
 
Shannon Imbornoni (Bethpage/Our Lady of Mercy Academy) placed fourth out of a field of 76 in the 800-meter run with final time of 2:22.36. Bridget Bennett (Castleton/Maple Hill) was Cortland's top performer in the 200-meter dash placing 22nd of 77 in 27.54 seconds. Jesse Correale (Staten Island/Notre Dame Academy) finished 12th of 36 in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:01.82.
 
At Cornell, Cat Lutjen (Sound Beach/Miller Place) was the runner-up in the javelin throw, hitting a distance of 33.26 meters (109' 1"). Freshman Morgan Sharer (Wyckoff, NJ/Ramapo) improved her personal best performance in the javelin throw by recording a distance of 25.40 meters (83' 4").
 
Eliza Nichols (Smithtown/Smithtown West) and Maddie Ciuffetelli (Dix Hills/Half Hollow Hills East) recorded top-five finishes in the 3,000-meter run. Nichols was third at 10:47.40 while Ciuffetelli was fifth at 11:00.95. Asia Cornwall (East Greenbush/Columbia) finished fifth in the 400-meter with a time of 1:04.93. Kitty Tang (Staten Island/Coll. of Staten Island H.S. of Int'l Studies) also finished fifth for Cortland in the long jump with a distance of 4.78 meters (15' 8.25").
 
The SUNYAC Outdoor Championships will be held at Brockport on Friday and Saturday, May 3-4.

(recap by Cortland sports information intern John Nocco)

Complete Results:
Shippensburg Men/Women (PDF)
Cornell Women
Cornell Men

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

Heading down to Shippensburg was a great opportunity for the program, and it was wonderful to see some great performances from it. We're mostly in the mode of trying to tune up for the conference meet so any big PRs are obviously extremely exciting during this time of year while our focus is on other things.

Dane Sorensen breaking the 16' barrier in the pole vault is obviously a huge achievement, and quite exciting for us!  David Bernstein having a lifetime PR in the hammer throw was also tremendous, as was the huge lifetime best in triple jump by Wendell Brand.  Our women's 4x100 relay, running for the first time together this year, ran a great time despite windy conditions the take over the conference lead, and Kelly Gardner leapt to just a centimeter under her personal best in long jump; freshman Molly Baker had a really nice effort in high jump to clear her highest of the year.  The wind at Shippensburg definitely hindered a lot of performances, but for the most part we did a good job of fighting through it as a team.

We were also fortunate to have the opportunity to send folks over to Cornell for a small meet on Sunday.  Despite the cold our distance squad put together some really nice efforts, especially from Eliza Nichols, Maddie Ciuffetelli, and Grant Boyd in the 3000 as part of our preparations for the conference championships next week.  I'd also like to point out that while a few folks may have ended their season today, they did so with some pretty big personal bests, so congratulations to Dan Gross and Pat Carew who both went out and ran fast in the 5000 and Morgan Sharer who threw a college PR in the javelin!