AMHERST, N.Y. – The Cortland women's track and field team finished in fifth place out of 14 schools, including six Division I programs, at the University at Buffalo Invitational. The Red Dragons scored 34.5 points. The top four finishers were all Division I schools, with the host Bulls winning with 245 points, followed by Kent State (196), Akron (66) and Niagara (64). Utica finished sixth behind Cortland with 22.5 points.
 
Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) and Bri Lantrip (Phelps/Midlakes) each scored points for the Red Dragons after clearing 1.57 meters (5' 1.75") in the high jump. Fisk was officially fourth and Lantrip was fifth based on misses at that height. Lantrip moved into sixth place in the Atlantic region standings with her effort, giving Cortland three of the top six regionally in that event.
 
Morgan Jipson (Oneonta) and Abby McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) placed fifth and sixth, respectively, in the long jump. Jipson covered 4.72 meters (15' 6") and McDowell's best effort was 4.68 meters (15' 4.25"). Matteson Donnelly (Pearl River) finished sixth in the 100-meter hurdles (18.00) and seventh in the triple jump (10.03 meters/32' 11"). She currently ranks 20th regionally in the triple jump.
 
Lauren Anderson (Saratoga Springs) scored in two events with a seventh-place time of 18.02 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles and an eighth-place long jump of 4.63 meters (15' 2.25"). Shannon Imbornoni (Bethpage/Our Lady of Mercy Academy) was seventh out of 38 runners in the 800 meters in 2:27.18 and finished 14th in the 1,500 meters in 5:06.37.
 
Marlee Angus (Penfield) was seventh of 30 in the 5,000 meters (19:24.92), followed by Khalifah Tracey (Greenville) in eighth (19:28.90). Catie Lally (Binghamton/Chenango Forks) was seventh in the discus (30.66 meters/100' 7"), Kimmy Arena (West Islip) placed eighth in the pole vault (2.80 meters/9' 2.25"), and Morgan Sharer (Wyckoff, NJ/Ramapo) finished eighth in the javelin (24.10 meters/79' 1").
 
A few Red Dragons just missed out on scoring placements. Liz Spencer (Somers) was ninth in the hammer throw (33.27 meters/109' 2"), 10th in the shot put (8.98 meters/29' 5.5") and 11th in the discus (27.66 meters/90' 9"). Cat Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees) placed 10th of 39 in the 1,500 meters in 4:59.25, which ranks 17th regionally, and was 11th in the 800 meters (2:30.67). Rachel Castello (Cheektowaga/West Seneca East) finished 10th in the 5,000 meters (19:31.11) and Kendall Kennedy (Fort Plain) ended 11th in the hammer (31.65 meters/103' 10").
 
Cortland will host the Cortland Classic on Saturday at noon, with the men's portion of the meet the following day.


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

We appreciate UB Director of Track & Field and C-Club Hall of Fame Member Vicki Mitchell '91 extending the invitation and hosting us on a brisk and windy day! While our goal was to focus on individual performances as compared to a strong team score, we have to feel good about what both teams were able to do in the final standings!
 
The conditions were not great for strong performances in most events, as it was a very cold wind, and frequently in your face for the sprints. With the exception of the men's and women's 5ks – which went exceptionally well for both genders – we had to focus on the process and be less concerned about the process. From that perspective, we had a lot of good efforts, and team members competed quite well! The women's long jump is a perfect example, in that we had three individuals make the finals (Morgan Jipson, Abby McDowell, and Lauren Anderson) – not with their best jumps, but they were competing well and working on specific things to make them better jumpers in the future, which is all we can ask for on days like today! Alhagie Sesay had a similar experience in the 200 today – we really worked on executed our 'race model,' and ran away with the overall win. It wasn't his fastest time, but it was a great effort into a strong, cold headwind.
 
I definitely want to make mention of folks that had PRs or season's best today – especially Dane Sorensen in the pole vault, Ryan Serp in the 400, Cat Zamroz in the 1500, David Soto in the 1500, Matteson Donnelly in the triple jump, the men's 4x100m relay (Alhagie Sesay, Brett Morse, Craig Denton, and Aaron Jones), and nearly the entire 5k crew (Marlee Angus, Khalifah Tracey, Rachel Castello, Sydney Smith, Sophie Steger, and Aliesha Howard for the women, and Mike Verde, Cabel McCandless, and Dan Gross).
 
We return to hosting again this weekend, with the Cortland Classic on Saturday 4/24 and Sunday 4/25.