BROCKPORT, N.Y. - Cortland set two school records and registered a total of 10 all-conference performances, including five titles, as the Red Dragons finished in fourth place at the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
 
Geneseo took home the team crown with a total of 246 points. Brockport, the host school, finished second with 178 points, followed by Plattsburgh (123), Cortland (119), and Buffalo State (48) to round out the top five of the nine-school competition.
 
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) won in 47.72 seconds, breaking the old school record of 47.86 seconds set by Midge Moore, Dana Kupiec, Africa Harper and Sarah Bonnell in 2014. Campbell also broke the school record in the triple jump with her second-place effort of 11.96 meters (39' 3"), besting the previous mark of 11.69 meters set by Amber Stephens in 2013.
 
Batista and Gardner also won individual league titles. Hunter won the 100-meter dash in 12.49 seconds and Batista captured the 200-meter dash in 25.23 seconds. Cat Lutjen (Sound Beach/Miller Place) was the league champ in the javelin throw, recording a distance of 37.01 meters (121' 5"), and Molly Baker (Newark Valley) won the league title in the heptathlon with a total of 3,976 points.
 
The Red Dragons earned four second-place finishes. In addition to Campbell in the triple jump, Batista was runner-up in the 100-meter dash in 12.54 seconds, Shannon Imbornoni (Bethpage/Our Lady of Mercy Academy) finished second the 800 meters at 2:19.51, and Nicole Van Pelt (Montgomery) reached a height of 1.57 meters (5' 1.75") for her runner-up high jump.
 
Harley Buczkowski (Holland Patent) finished third in the hammer throw, recording a distance of 47.88 meters (157' 1"). All-SUNYAC honors go to the top three places in each event. Winners are first-team, runners-up are second team, and third-place finishers are third team.
 
The 4x400-meter relay team of Kaylee Uhl (Waverly), Bridget Bennett (Castleton/Maple Hill), Jesse Correale (Staten Island/ Notre Dame Academy) and Imbornoni finished fourth with a final time of 4:03.72. Uhl also placed eighth in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:06.89.
 
Three Red Dragons recorded fourth-place finishes in individual events: Hunter in the 200-meter dash in 25.75 seconds, Eliza Nichols (Smithtown/Smithtown West) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at 11:37.14, and Campbell in the 100-meter hurdles in 14.90 seconds. Campbell also finished seventh in 100-meter dash in 12.73 seconds.
 
Kim White (Marathon) placed fifth in the heptathlon with a total of 3,402 points. Lutjen finished seventh in the shot put at 11.39 meters (37' 4.5") and Rachel Whitcomb (Tioga) finished the high jump eighth at 1.47 meters (4' 9.75") to round out Cortland's scorers over the weekend.

Cortland will host at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Outdoor Championships Wednesday at Thursday, May 15-16. Cortland's AARTFC qualifiers during the SUNYAC Championships were:

Baker, Heptathlon
Batista, 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash
Buczkowski, Hammer Throw
Campbell, Triple Jump
Hunter, 100-meter dash and 200-meter dash
Imbornoni, 800 meters
Lutjen, Javelin Throw
Nichols, 3,000-meter Steeplechase
Uhl, 400-meter Hurdles
Van Pelt, High Jump
White, Heptathlon
4x100m Relay (Gardner, Campbell, Batista, Hunter)
4x400m Relay (Uhl, Bennett, Correale, Imbornoni)

(Recap by Cortland sports information intern John Nocco)

Complete Results

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

We had quite a fun weekend!  I'd be lying if I told you that we weren't hoping for each team to finish at least one spot higher than we did, but that's also a credit to the teams that were in front of us at the end of the weekend.  We're quite proud of how we showed up and competed over the weekend, and in the few places that we may not have succeeded as well as we had expected or hoped, we are confident that those will be good learning experiences for our future.  It's remarkable as we are analyzing the results on noticing the number of personal bests and season bests that were reached by team members through the weekend.
 
Between the two teams, there are 42 events – 21 for each gender.  We took home the conference title in 11 events, which is easily more than our 'fair share.'  It's always nice to have some tangible evidence like that pointing out how things are moving in the right direction for us!  We had some pretty dominant performances that moved well up the national qualifying list: not only from our two new school records (congratulations to the ladies on the 4x100 relay – Kelly Gardner, Maya Campbell, Steffany Batista, and Taylor Hunter as well as congratulations again to Maya in the triple jump) as well as some awesome triple jumps where our top two men broke the facility record while claiming the top two spots on the podium with some huge jumps (congratulations Micah Assibey-Bonsu and C.J. White).  Micah's leap was the 2nd-farthest ever recorded by a Cortland athlete outdoors!  Wendell Brand narrowly missed out on earning us a 1-2-3 sweep in the event, but did set a new personal record and moved up the national list with his first effort over 47 feet in taking fourth!

David Bernstein improved on his career best in the hammer throw with a huge toss in claiming the win on Friday!  For a bit of perspective, David threw a 16-pound cannonball on a wire 62 yards; the farthest NFL field goal is only 3 feet farther!  David also came back on Saturday to score in the discus, which was quite an achievement considering that he was the last qualifier for the meet.  Junior Zachary Kashmer also had a number of personal bests over the weekend, and continued the Cortland tradition of dominance in the decathlon.  Zach's score places him as safely qualified for the NCAA Championships, and broke the meet record held by teammate Brent DiVittorio, as well as the facility record of teammate and former assistant coach Connor Christopherson.
 
While we're looking forward to the last-chance opportunities this upcoming weekend as well as the chance to host the AARTFC Regional Championships on May 15th and 16th, we don't want to lose perspective on our seniors, some of whom concluded their career this past weekend.  In particular, Cortland continued it's success in the hurdles as senior Storm Malone once again defended his title in the 110-meter high hurdles, while classmate Austen Johnson defended the title for Cortland keeping alive our three-year streak of having a Red Dragon has been atop the podium for both events.  One of the few seniors for the women's team, Nicole Hallenbeck closed out her career with her fastest effort ever in the 400 hurdles!  Another great example of our sustained excellence is Tyler Hochadel, who has competed in the finals of every throwing event he was qualified for over his four year career as a Cortland Red Dragon.  The coaches are incredibly thankful for the seniors with the program, and wish to thank them for their dedication, hard work, and sacrifice for our extended track and field family.