ITHACA, N.Y. – Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter) won the 200-meter dash and four other Red Dragons earned top-eight individual finishes at the Ithaca College Bomber Invitational women's indoor track and field meet.

Hunter was the top performer in a field of 65 athletes with her 200-meter time of 26.27 seconds. The time is presently 35th nationally in Division III and 10th in the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC). Kelly Gardner (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North) finished eighth in 27.15 seconds.

Gardner, Abigail McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee), Alyssa LaBelle (Poughquag/Arlington) and Hunter finished in second place in the 4x200-meter relay in 1:48.11. Their time currently places them eighth in the AARTFC rankings.

Nicole Van Pelt (Montgomery/Valley Central) tied for fifth place in the high jump in a field of 27 athletes with a height of 1.51 meters (4' 11.5"). Shannon Imbornoni (Bethpage/Our Lady of Mercy Academy) placed sixth out of 38 in the 800 meters (2:24.87) and McKenzie Dombroski (Chittenango) was sixth of 38 in the mile run (5:33.58).

Jesse Correale (Staten Island/Notre Dame Academy) and Bridget Bennett (Castleton/Maple Hill) finished ninth (1:01.75) and 12th (1:03.52), respectively, in the 400-meter dash. Stephanie Kiluba (Kingston) was 10th of 21 in the triple jump at 10.14 meters (33' 3.25") and 14th of 37 in the 60-meter hurdles (9.88). Malley Bowen (Tioga) also finished the 60-meter hurdles in 9.88 seconds and was officially 15th due to timing in the thousandths of a second.

Eliza Nichols (Smithtown/Smithtown West) registered a 12th-place finish out of 30 runners in the 3,000 meters (11:25.86). Athena Johnson (Port Washington/Paul D. Schrieber) was 14th of 33 in the weight throw (12.36 meters/40' 6.75") and Marlee Angus (Penfield) finished 16th of 38 in the mile (5:45.14).

Cortland will head to Utica College next Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 8-9, for the Utica Blue & Orange Invitational and Multi.

Complete Results:
Women
Men

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

Big day for the Red Dragons!  Between the first week of classes and a hard week of training, we definitely had some tired legs out there today, but you wouldn't know it based on some of the stellar performances and efforts that we saw.  We also had a number of really good things happen in some field events that didn't necessarily translate into further distances, but were crucial steps to take moving forward.  While we always have room for improvement, it is hard not to be really excited about what happened out there today!
 
For the women's team, Taylor Hunter and Kelly Gardner had really strong efforts in the 200, both running season's bests!  We had a lot of depth in that event, as four women were separated by less than a tenth of a second! Jesse Correale and McKenzie Dombroski had very strong efforts – also both season's bests – in the 400 and mile, respectively, as did Malley Bowen in the 60HH, Kitty Tang in the long jump, and Athena Johnson in the weight throw. 
 
But if we had to narrow down to one highlight, it may have been the women's 3000.  Eliza Nichols had a great day running a very assertive race for a big season's best that moves her in the right direction after missing the fall with an injury; in the fast heat Courtney Maurin and Madison Ciuffetelli were not set up by the race to run well as it went out very fast; both committed to running strong, worked together, and were able to run down other competitors in the field who paid the price for the early pace – Maddie ran an easy season's best, and Courtney had an 18-second personal best!
 
On the men's side, there were a number of highlights to be proud of.  Our men's 200 and 400 showed off a great deal of depth – three men were under the 23-second barrier (Peyton Lalone, Jaheim Dotson, and Brent DiVittorio), with another nine guys under 24 seconds!  The open 400 was pretty deep as well, led by Jaheim with 50.86 and Connor Lewis sooooo close with a 51.03.  The depth showed off nicely in the 4x400 relay as Connor and Jaheim were joined by Peyton (who led off under 51 seconds) and Rich Samuels to run a season's best of 3:23.52.
 
We're really thrilled with the progress we saw in the jumps – Dane Sorensen improved on his season's best in the pole vault, as did Wendell Brand in the long jump and Ezra Schutt in the triple jump.  In many ways the highlight for the jumps would have to be freshman Jean-Andre Sassine, who had some fantastic jumps and set a lifetime best in his second collegiate meet!  Tiernen Joseph put together a great day in the throws – he had a very solid weight throw, which is a brand new event for him, and a big personal best in the shot put, moving over the 13-meter mark!
 
To close out our highlights, the men's 60HH was quite strong – not only from Brent DiVittorio, which we almost take for granted is going to happen, but also from Brett Morse, Malik Hinds, and Aaron Jones, who were all under the 9-second mark.  Finally the mile was a very good day for us.  Nolan Vest broke 4:20 on a flat track, which is a very strong performance especially for it being so early in the year.  He raced wonderfully, making a strong move to the front as the leaders slowed to keep his pace honest.  While he was outkicked, we're extremely happy that he went after it to keep the race fast rather than just sitting on a pack that was slowing and trying to kick.  That's a very tough skill to learn, and it is great to have that in place already!  With Ryan Konotopskyj (4:24), Clayton Santiago (4:30), Cameron Szabo (4:31 in his college mile debut), and Josh Nogaret (4:34 in his college mile debut) all running quite well today, it's hard not to be very excited about the depth we are showing in that event right now!
 
We're looking forward to a good week of work, and getting back into competition next week at 'the Hutt' in Utica, NY!