UTICA, N.Y. – Bridget Bennett (Castleton/Maple Hill) won the 400-meter dash and three other Red Dragons earned runner-up finishes to help the Cortland women's indoor track and field team place second out of 12 schools at the Utica College Holiday Classic. 
 
Brockport won the team title with 164 points, followed by Cortland with 98.5, RPI with 88.5 and Utica with 80 in the top four. 
 
Bennett won the 400-meter dash in a field of 23 runners in 1:01.67, which as of Saturday evening ranks 17th nationally in Division III. The Red Dragons earned 21 team points in the event as Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Center for Science and Math) was third (1:02.33), Avery Hebert (Stillwater) finished fifth (1:06.33) and Amanda Mannino (Southampton) was eighth (1:07.44).
 
Cortland's second-highest scoring event was the 5,000 meters with four finishers in the top seven for 18 points. Vanessa Burkard (Newfane) placed second in 19:43.94, moving up from fourth to second over the final 800 meters. Rachel Castello (Cheektowaga/West Seneca East) finished fifth (19:55.31), Sydney Smith (Greenville) was sixth (20:35.63) and Devin Reilly (Irvington) finished seventh (20:37.15). 
 
Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) was the runner-up in a field of 25 sprinters in the 60-meter dash in 8.06 seconds. Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter) advanced out of the preliminaries with a fourth-place time of 8.23 seconds but didn't compete in the finals. Cat Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees) was second of 20 in the mile run (5:31.38) and finished sixth in the 800 meters (2:35.89). 
 
Bennett, in addition to her win in the 400, finished third out of 50 runners in the 200-meter dash in 27.16 seconds. Liriano was fourth in 27.23 seconds, followed by Pittman in fifth (27.33) and Sam Becker (Narrowsburg/Sullivan West) in sixth (27.69). Bennett, Mannino, Hebert and Becker finished third in the 4x400-meter relay in 4:16.72. 
 
Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) tied for third place in the high jump. She was one of five competitors to clear 1.51 meters (4' 11.5"), and was one of two of those who cleared it on her first attempt. 
 
Abby McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) finished fifth in triple jump at 10.51 meters (34' 5.75"), followed by Matteson Donnelly (Pearl River) in sixth at 10.24 meters (33' 7.25"). McDowell also placed sixth in the long jump at 4.90 meters (16' 1"), with Kitty Tang (Staten Island/Coll. of Staten Island H.S. for Int'l Studies) in eighth place at 4.87 meters (15' 11.75"). Liz Spencer (Somers) also reached the scoring column with her eighth-place weight throw of 12.35 meters (40' 6.25"). 
 
McDowell just finished outside of the scoring top eight with her ninth-place time of 28.08 seconds in the 200-meter dash. Devin Griffin (Medina) placed ninth in the long jump (4.86 meters/15' 11.5") and Tang was 10th in the triple jump (9.93 meters/32' 7"). 
 
In addition, Cortland assistant coach Jordyn Naylon, as an unattached entry, finished second out of nine runners in the 3,000 meters in 10:06.75. 
 
Cortland's next competition will be on Jan. 15 when the Red Dragons return to Utica for the Utica Winter Opener.

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

We're very thankful to be able to end the fall semester with a second meet, but also understand that not everybody is in a position to have great performances. A number of folks are a bit worn down with the academic workload at the end of the semester, and weren't necessarily ready to perform at their best today.
 
We also certainly had a number of strong highlights today! Both Aaron Jones and Bridget Bennett put together stellar days competing in three different events. Obviously Aaron's performances were stellar to earn the victory and move put him in a great spot on the national rankings, but we are thrilled with Bridget, who was away from the sport since the indoor season of 2020 since she had a season-ending injury last spring and was unable to compete. She ran her second-best indoor time ever in the 400 for the victory, and was over a second faster than she had ever been on a flat indoor track before!
 
We had a tremendous number of strong performances today, and a number of these might not get notice to those who are taking a quick perusal of the results. In the pole vault, while neither had the performances they were looking for, both Sam Haaland and Kimmy Arena had great days. They both competed well, and are dealing with the transition to new poles because of what they are doing correctly. It's frustrating for Sam jumping a lot lower than last weekend, and for Kimmy not clearing her opening height, but evidence of great progress. Danielle Fisk – who was playing in the NCAA tournament with the women's volleyball team just a few weeks ago – made a tremendous breakthrough in the high jump with her approach, even if the results don't show it. Multi-event athlete Devin Griffin had a PR in the long jump by a foot, which was overshadowed by fellow multi Ryan Serp who had PRs in the 60, LJ, and Shot Put during the first day of the heptathlon. We had planned to not return for day 2, but now I'm regretting it a bit! Liz Spencer and Tommy Burek both had great PRs in the weight throw, and we showed tremendous depth in the long sprints for both teams. The results won't strongly point out how well Liz Liriano, Samantha Becker, Mike Eubanks, or Justin Schrom did today – all made tremendous progress that we're really excited about!
 
There's a lot more that should get mentioned (like the strong mile from Cat Zamroz, the great double in the mile and 800 by Hunter Brignall, the stellar open 400 by Coltrane Goring, our strong day in triple jump, or the great men's 4 x 200 relay), but this is starting to be a little self-indulgent. The squad has a very low-key week of training this upcoming week with the focus on final exams, but are already looking forward to returning to practice on January 2nd, 2022.