ITHACA, N.Y. and ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Cortland women's indoor track and field team sent competitors to the Cornell University Upstate Challenge Friday and Saturday and to the Nazareth Conference Challenge Cup Saturday. The Red Dragons' individual highlights included two All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying performances each by freshman Emily Russell (Southold) and sophomore Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter).

At Cornell, Russell finished fifth in the pentathlon with 2,589 points, which currently ranks second in the AARTFC and 17th nationally in Division III. She scored 712 of those points in the high jump with a height of 1.58 meters (5' 2.25") that currently ranks 10th in the AARTFC. She also scored 529 points in the shot put (10.00 meters/32' 9.75").

Lauren Anderson (Saratoga Springs) was sixth in the pentathlon with 2,389 points that included 602 points in the 60-meter hurdles (10.61) and 544 points in the high jump (1.43 meters/4' 8.25").

The Nazareth meet featured an interesting scoring system. Two schools each from six different conferences competed, and the combined score for each conference was reported. The SUNYAC, represented by Cortland and Geneseo, finished third with 132 points. The Liberty League (Ithaca and Rochester) placed first (247) and the NESCAC (Williams and Hamilton) was second (163). Also represented were the MAC, the Empire 8 and the Landmark Conference.

Hunter finished in third place out of 55 in the 200-meter dash in 26.34 seconds and was sixth out of 34 in the 60-meter dash in 8.08 seconds. She currently ranks sixth in the AARTFC and 31st nationally in the 200-meter dash and is 18th in the AARTFC in the 60-meter dash.

Shannon Imbornoni (Bethpage/Our Lady of Mercy Academy) was fourth in the 500 meters (1:22.24). Kelly Gardner (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North) finished fifth of 30 in the triple jump (10.53 meters/34' 6.75"), with Stephanie Kiluba (Kingston) in 13th place (10.18 meters/33' 4.75"). Kiluba also placed ninth of 36 in the 60-meter hurdles (9.70).

Courtney Maurin (Pine Bush) finished sixth in the mile in 5:36.39. Madison Ciuffetelli (Dix Hills/Half Hollow Hills East) and Cat Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees) each were timed at 5:43.48 in the event. Ciuffetelli was officially 11th and Zamroz was 12th due to thousandths of a second being used to determine placement.

Other Cortland highlights at Nazareth included McKenzie Dombroski (Chittenango) placing sixth of 38 in the 800 meters (2:27.52), and Bridget Bennett (Castleton/Maple Hill) and Jesse Correale (Staten Island/Notre Dame Academy) each covering the 400-meter dash in 1:02.93. Bennett was 10th and Correale was 11th when times were broken down to thousandths of a second.

Cortland will compete at the Ithaca College Bomber Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 1.

Results:
Cornell Women
Nazareth Women
Cornell Men
Nazareth Men

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

It was a great opportunity to have both the meet at Cornell and the 'Conference Cup' at Nazareth this weekend!  You could make an argument that we have finished 'training camp;' some of the team have been putting in two-a-days for three weeks and are probably ready to spend a lot less time training and are actually looking forward to classes starting this Monday!
                                                                              
The highlight for us at the Cornell Upstate Challenge was clearly the multi-event athletes, six of whom hit SUNYAC conference meet standards.  They were led by senior Zach Kashmer, who finished the weekend with a pretty big PR that is 4th All-Time at Cortland, and that should be a performance that qualifies him for the NCAA Championships in North Carolina this March.  He's consistently been one of the hardest workers on the team, and it definitely showed this weekend.  Despite the accumulated fatigue from the hard winter session training, 'Kash' was at or near lifetime bests in a number of events, and is primed and ready to get the other events in line for upcoming contests.  In other event news from Cornell, freshman Marlee Angus had a strong opener for 2020 in the mile and 800.  The first distance race of the year is usually pretty rough, but she had pretty solid efforts in both events.  Freshman Jean-Andre Sassine also put in great work in his first collegiate meet in the triple jump.  Jean has worked very hard to improve his technique, but was limited from competing in December from illness, so to see him open up his career with a SUNYAC qualifying mark is very exciting!
 
Most of the team was on the bus very early on Saturday morning to make the trip to the Golisano Training Center at Nazareth College.  The meet format was pretty unique in that it had pairs of schools from various conferences matched up as 'teams' for the overall score.  It is nice to have a bit of variety in meets at times!  The facility presented our team with a great opportunity to get some quality efforts in.  While it would be hard to overstate how strong Brent DiVittorio's hurdle performance was today, we are still hopeful that more time can come off that performance in the future.   For the women, we had a number of great learning experiences in the jumps and throws as the team was working on implementing new techniques.  It can be very frustrating to change what you are used to, but these athletes are embracing the change and are understanding the long term value in what we are doing. 
 
Taylor Hunter had a very strong day in the sprints, running a lifetime best in the 60 along with one of her best 200 times ever.  In the distance events, Courtney Maurin shined in the mile and 800, while freshman McKenzie Dombroski put together a strong day in the 800 and as a leg on the 4 x 400 relay.  Freshman Stephanie Kiluba had a very nice hurdle race, just barely missing finals.  Ironically, freshman Brett Morse was also just out of finals in the hurdles, but did have a solid effort and a season;s best in the long jump.  We saw a great level of commitment out of our mid-distance runners (putting four men under 2 minutes is always a good thing), as well as from our long sprinters and 4 x 400 relays.  The work the team has been doing is paying off, and we are excited for our upcoming campaigns!