CORTLAND, N.Y. – Three Red Dragons won league titles, including a "repeat" performance by junior Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter) in the 100-meter dash, to help Cortland finish in third place at the 2021 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The meet was conducted Friday and Saturday at the SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex.
 
Geneseo won the league title with 320 points, followed by Brockport (159), Cortland (63), Plattsburgh (40), Oneonta (36), Buffalo State (14), Fredonia (9) and Oswego (2). Potsdam did not have any competitors at the meet. Due to a temporary 25 percent reduction in the championship field size this spring, scoring was limited to the top six places in events with a 10-8-6-4-2-1 point system.
 
Hunter won the 100-meter dash in 12.47 seconds, which ranks fourth regionally. She was also the league champion in the event in 2019 in 12.49 seconds. There was no championship held in 2020. Hunter was second in the 200-meter dash prelims in 26.18 seconds, but did not compete in the finals.
 
Freshman Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) won the high jump at 1.65 meters (5' 5"), a season-best height that ranks 23rd nationally in Division III. Sophomore Kimmy Arena (West Islip) won the pole vault by clearing 3.20 meters (10' 6"), matching her season-best mark that ranks 12th regionally.
 
Nicole Van Pelt (Montgomery/Valley Central) was the second-place finisher behind Fisk in the high jump and graduate student Aubrianna Lantrip (Phelps/Midlakes) finished third. Both cleared 1.62 meters (5' 3.75"), with Van Pelt earning the higher placement due to fewer misses. Rachel Castello (Cheektowaga/West Seneca East) finished third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 12:12.99. Lantrip was fifth in the 100-meter hurdles prelims in 15.76 seconds but did not compete in the finals.
 
The top three finishers in each event earned All-SUNYAC honors, with winners being named first team, runners-up second team and third-place finishers third team.
 
Other scoring performances for the Red Dragons included:
 
* The 4x400-meter relay team of Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Center for Science and Math), Cat Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees), Katherine McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) and Shannon Imbornoni (Bethpage/Our Lady of Mercy Academy) in fourth place at 4:14.58
 
* Imbornoni in fifth place in the 800 meters (2:21.74)
 
* Lauren Anderson (Saratoga Springs) in fifth place in the 100-meter hurdles (16.50)
 
* Aliesha Howard (Marathon) in fifth place in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (12:48.58)
 
* Becca Gresens (Webster/Webster Thomas) in fifth place in the pole vault (2.75 meters/9' 0.75")
 
* Liriano in sixth place in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:08.46 (1:07.74 in prelims)
 
* Abby McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) in sixth place in the triple jump (10.76 meters/35' 3.75")
 
Also of note, Alyssa LaBelle (Poughquag/Arlington) qualified for the finals in the 100-meter dash at 13.03 seconds and finished eighth in the finals at 13.35 seconds, and she also qualified for the finals in the 200-meter dash at 27.46 seconds and finished seventh in the finals at 28.05 seconds.
 
Cortland is scheduled to send competitors to the Roberts Wesleyan Redhawks Capstone Meet on Friday.


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

We're obviously proud of our conference champions (Kimmy, Dane, Isaiah, Taylor, Danielle, Aaron, and Zach); we had a lot of very strong efforts over the course of the weekend that were really exciting and encouraging signs for the future! On Friday, freshman Sydney Smith ran a great 10k – her second ever – to have a huge personal best. It was easily her best effort of the season, and a great building block for the future. Alyssa LaBelle, returning from an injury, was able to qualify for the finals in both the 100 and the 200; Coltrane Goring was able to fight to earn a spot in the 400 finals even after not being cleared to train for a number of weeks. 
 
Steeplechase was a strong event for the Red Dragons to open the day on Saturday; in addition to our two all-conference performances, the run by Aliesha Howard to be a 'scorer' in the women's race was fantastic! She made a bold move in the last third of the race that paid of wonderfully! Abby McDowell picked the right day to have a collegiate best to earn a scoring position in the triple jump. Lauren Anderson's high hurdle race was a great way to finish her season as a 'scorer' at the conference level, also closing the year with a collegiate best!
 
The one athletic performance through the weekend that I would like to highlight a bit more was from freshman Amarian Hughes. On Friday Amarian earned a third place finish in the javelin, an event he started just a few weeks ago! On Saturday, he earned his second all-conference honors with third in the triple jump, breaking the 14-meter barrier (which is more or less the 46-foot barrier). That's certainly an impressive weekend!
 
One final note of congratulations goes to Dan Gross, who earned the 'Elite 20' award from the conference for academic excellence in men's track and field. We only got to spend 5 semesters with Dan as he transferred in after the fall of his freshman year and he is graduating an entire year early and has accepted a graduate assistant position at Binghamton University for next fall!
 
It's a pretty bittersweet day, in that for so many of the team, it's the end of the season. It's a lot of work to host, but we we're certainly happy to have had the opportunity to compete under somewhat 'normal' circumstances through this spring, and to have the opportunity to have a conference championship meet. We had a lot of help to make this season as well as the conference meet a success, and especially want to thank those that, like Dan, are moving on to bigger and better things as they finish their academic career at Cortland: Giuseppe Battista, Ryan Behre, Wendell Brand, Isaiah Brooks, Becca Gresens, Shannon Imbornoni, Zach Kashmer, Kendall Kennedy, Aubrianna Lantrip, Cabel McCandless, and Avery Tompkins. We appreciate how they have contributed to our program in their time here, and wish them the best in their future endeavors!