BROCKPORT, N.Y - Sophomore Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter) won league titles in both the 60-meter and 200-meter dashes to help the Red Dragons finish in third place out at the SUNYAC Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Geneseo won the team title with 258.5 points, followed by Brockport, the host school, with 158.5. Cortland finished third with 61 points, followed by Plattsburgh (54), Buffalo St. (41), Oneonta (36), Oswego (35) and Fredonia (19). Potsdam did not have any competitors at the meet.

Hunter won the 60-meter dash in 7.87 seconds and the 200-meter dash in 25.74 seconds (25.73 prelims). She's currently ranked 20th nationally in Division III in the 200 meters.

Shannon Imbornoni (Bethpage/Our Lady of Mercy Academy) finished second in the 800 meters in 2:19.70, and the Distance Medley Relay of Marlee Angus (Penfield), Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Center for Science and Math), Kayla Pucci (Goshen) and Sera King (Oceanside) finished second in 13:19.04.

Cortland earned a total of seven All-SUNYAC honors (three individual and four relay runners). All-league 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.

Kelly Gardner (Lake Ronkonkoma/Sachem North) turned in a fourth-place distance of 11.23 meters (36' 10.25") in the triple jump, and the 4x400-meter relay quartet of Bridget Bennett (Castleton/Maple Hill), Imbornoni, Liriano and Jesse Correale (Staten Island/Notre Dame Academy) finished fourth in 4:04.30.

Nicole Van Pelt (Montgomery/Valley Central) recorded a fifth-place height of 1.57 meters (5' 1.75") in the high jump. The Red Dragons received sixth-place finishes from Stephanie Kiluba (Kingston) in the 60-meter hurdles (9.55, 9.39 prelims), Emily Russell (Southold) in the pentathlon (2,676 points), and Kimmy Arena (West Islip) in the pole vault (three-way tie at 3.05 meters/10' 0").

Rounding out Cortland's scorers were Courtney Maurin (Pine Bush) in seventh place in the 3,000 meters (11:01.96) and Lauren Anderson (Saratoga Springs) in eighth place in the pentathlon (2,556 points).

Cortland will compete at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Indoor Championships Friday and Saturday, March 6-7, at Nazareth College. Cortland's AARTFC qualifiers during the SUNYAC Championships were:

Gardner, Triple Jump
Hunter, 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash
Imbornoni, 800 meters
Kiluba, 60-meter hurdles
Russell, Pentathlon
Van Pelt, High Jump
4x400-meter relay (Bennett, Imbornoni, Liriano, Correale)

(NOTE: Pentathlon at the AARTFC Championships is limited to top 12 qualifiers. As of Saturday night, Russell is ranked 18th based on her performance at the SUNYAC Championships.)

Final Team Scores:
1) Geneseo – 258.5
2) Brockport – 158.5
3) Cortland – 61
4) Plattsburgh – 54
5) Buffalo St. – 41
6) Oneonta – 36
7) Oswego – 35
8) Fredonia – 19
(Potsdam – no competitors)

Complete Results:
Women
Men

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

What a weekend!  A lot of time in this space I'm granted I like to highlight some of our best performances, but I don't think I'm capable of doing that today.  We just had too many!

With 62 athletes making the trip, there were well over 200 competitive opportunities over the weekend, and only a handful that didn't match our expectations.  This was a great weekend for Red Dragon Track and Field!

Normally I like to use this space to highlight some of our top performers, but with our champions and our all-conference performers, those folks are pretty apparent to our fans and families who look at the results.  I'd rather use this space to point out a few other areas where some great things happened!

Htat Myat Lwin was a big source of pride for the program this weekend. He ran his way into the meet with a big PR last Friday at Nazareth, and dropped another .2 seconds off his 60HH time on Friday.  That was tremendous!

Kelly Gardner had a great series of jumps in the triple on Friday, but also had season's bests in the 200 and long jump, where she entered the competition as one of the worst-ranked jumpers, but finished 10th!

Both of our distance medley relays ran so tough on Friday, as did both of our 4 x 400 relays on Saturday.  Marlee Angus in particular had a great meet, leading off the women's DMR and running a great open mile to be our top finisher!

Looking at the field events, seeing Micah Assibey-Bonsu succeed in triple jump is almost an expectation at this point.  To see him PR in long jump and place was incredible!  In the men's weight, Mitch Makowski had a rough preliminaries, but was still good enough to advance to finals where he threw a lifetime best to score well for the program!  Pole vaulters Becca Gresens and Kimmy Arena both had career bests on Friday night; Kimmy started off our scoring with her podium finish.

We spend a lot of time talking about how we need to be responsible for our thoughts and actions as competitors.  As a coaching staff we're pretty thrilled at how well we accomplished that over the weekend!  It was a really proud moment for us, especially as we moved up in placing as a team compared to last year!

While most of the program is moving into preparation for the outdoor season, we do have a select group competing at the regional championship this next weekend; we have a few individuals that are almost definitively qualified for the NCAA championships in two weeks, and a large number very close!