CORTLAND, N.Y. – Five Cortland individuals and one relay team registered top-eight scoring performances to help lead the Red Dragons to a ninth-place finish out of 41 schools at the second annual All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Outdoor Championships. The two-day meet was held Wednesday and Thursday at the SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex.

Cortland finished with 29 points. Ithaca won the team title with 107 points, followed by Brockport (86.5), Rowan (81), and Rochester and The College of New Jersey (69 each).

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) finished second in 47.79 seconds – not far off from their school-record time of 47.72 seconds set two weeks ago at the SUNYAC Championships.

Campbell finished third in the triple jump with a distance of 11.85 meters (38' 10.5") and Shannon Imbornoni (Bethpage/Our Lady of Mercy Academy) placed third in the 800 meters in 2:15.83. Cat Lutjen (Sound Beach/Miller Place) turned in a fourth-place effort in the javelin throw at 36.57 meters (120' 0").

A pair of Red Dragons recorded seventh-place finishes – Gardner in the 200-meter dash (25.77) and Harley Buczkowski (Holland Patent) in the hammer throw (48.29 meters/158' 5").

The top eight finishers in each individual event and top three teams in each relay were recognized with medals on the podium stand.

The NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships will be held May 23-25 in Geneva, Ohio. The top 22 women and 20 men in each individual event, including the decathlon and heptathlon, respectively, as well as the top 16 relay teams for both genders, will qualify for nationals.

Cortland women currently sitting in position to qualify for nationals, as of late Thursday evening, were: Campbell in the triple jump (seventh place) and the 4x100-meter relay team of Gardner, Campbell, Batista and Taylor (tied for 14th), both from performances at the SUNYAC Championships. The national field will be announced on NCAA.com on Saturday, May 18.

Complete Results

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

It was a real pleasure to be able to host the 2019 AARTFC Regional Championship meet over these two days.  I'm really proud of what we did as a program and a department to be able to host this, and that only happens with a lot of people pitching in doing a number of thankless jobs!  We had 40 men's and 41 women's team's competing, so it was an awesome couple of days for track and field in Central New York – especially since the weather cooperated and we saw a number of NCAA qualifying performances being achieved here!
 
For our program, Storm Malone running a solid NCAA qualifier was obviously a huge highlight, as were our numerous champions and some big PRs that we saw.  It's great that the women's program can finish in 9th and the men's in 3rd while we were more focused on bigger goals, such as preparing for the NCAA Championships next weekend.
 
This is also a bittersweet moment, as it is saying goodbye to a number of folks who are graduating on Saturday and/or finished with their eligibility: Kai Bryant, Grant Boyd, Harley Buczkowski, Maya Campbell, Ricky Castello, Cole Clemons, Aidan Farrell, Nicole Hallenbeck, Tyler Hochadel, Austen Johnson, Gillian Lee, Storm Malone, Brandon Nugent, and C.J. White are all finishing up with the program this semester – and it's very sad to see them go!  These young women and men have invested a great deal of time and effort into supporting our program, and we are all better for them having chosen to be a part of us.  They have set a high standard for our underclassmen/women to emulate moving forward!