ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cortland women's indoor track and field team opened its 2021-22 season Saturday at the Cornell University Greg Page Relays.
 
The meet primarily featured athletes from Division I schools Cornell, Binghamton and Syracuse, Division III schools Cortland, Ithaca and Oneonta, and some unattached competitors. There was no team scoring.
 
The Red Dragons earned five of the top 10 spots in the 3,000 meters. Rachel Castello (Cheektowaga/West Seneca East) was fifth overall, and the third collegiate finisher, in the 22-runner field at 11:10.83 – one spot behind Cortland's former NCAA Indoor 5K champion Heather Swarts Webster. Vanessa Burkard (Newfane) finished sixth in 11:13.15, followed by Cat Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees) in seventh (11:19.67), Marlee Angus (Penfield) in eighth (11:20.13) and Sophie Steger (Montgomery/Valley Central) in 10th (11:28.42).
 
Five Red Dragons placed in the top half of the 56 competitors in the 60-meter dash. Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) finished 15th in 8.12 seconds, Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter) was 17th in 8.14 seconds, and Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Center for Science and Math) placed 20th (8.19). Bridget Bennett finished 24th (8.29) and Sam Becker tied for 26th (8.34).
 
Liriano led a group of four runners in the top half of the 300-meter run. She finished 17th out of 62 entrants in 43.66 seconds. Becker was 21st (44.36), followed by Bennett in 22nd (44.40) and Hunter in 24th (44.57). Also for the Red Dragons, Kitty Tang (Staten Island/CSI H.S. for International Studies) finished 15th out of 30 competitors in the long jump at 4.92 meters (16' 1.75").
 
Cortland returns to action next Saturday in a meet hosted by Utica College.

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

What a long strange day it was!
 
It was great to be back at an indoor track and field competition – for most, this was the first indoor meet in at least 21 months! The first meet of the year is always a challenge, and the first meet in nearly two years was that much more of a struggle! We certainly showed a lot of nerves today, which is quite understandable. Today was much more of a positive day than a negative day. If we can learn from the mistakes that we made today, then it will be a really strong springboard for improvement across the program!
 
For the women's team, some highlights that stood out for us from looking over the results would include Kimmy Arena in the pole vault, Sam Becker in the 60 and the 300, Bridget Bennett in the 60 and the 300, Liz Liriano in the 60 and the 300, Autumn Pittman in the 60, Abby McDowell in the triple jump, Kitty Tang in the long jump, and a quintet of distance runners in the 3000 of Rachel Castello, Vanessa Burkard, Cat Zamroz, Marlee Angus, and Sophie Steger. A couple of athletes that I would like to give a 'shout out' to would be Katherine McDowell, competing in more or less brand new events than in previous years who had a very strong 300, and Courtney Schoepflin who made a great move and sacrifice in the 3000 to help her teammates – especially Marlee and Sophie -  stay on pace in the middle of the race.
 
On the men's side, obviously Zach Nyhart with a 4.81m vault – which puts him 4th in our all-time list and makes a great statement on the national level – had a great start his career at Cortland. Fellow vaulter Sam Haaland broke the 14' barrier setting a new PR, and was really quite strong in his efforts on the day. Amarian Hughes led the way for the horizontal jumps, opening his season only slightly behind his lifetime best in triple jump, which is certainly exciting! Hunter Brignall ran a really tough race in the 3k to break the 9-minute barrier; he raced smart and strong early, and was able to keep pace when the top finishers dropped the pace during the last 1k. Tom Adamescu (in the 3k) and Adam Schreiber (in the 5k) both had great efforts and race execution to run personal bests. We had a positive showing in the throws from Tommy Burek and Mitch Makowski; both started off the season in good fashion. Where we had a lot of depth on the day was in our sprints and high hurdles. Overall the 60, 300, and 60 meter high hurdles were filled with good performances for us, but nearly all had some mistakes as well. Since nearly all of those mistakes are easily fixed, it is exciting to see what is coming next for those groups.
 
We're excited to have the chance to travel to Utica to compete next weekend, before shutting things down for final exam week.