BROCKPORT, N.Y. – Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) and Abby McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) each registered All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) as the Red Dragon women's indoor track and field team competed at the Winter Welcome Back to Brockport Meet, hosted by SUNY Brockport.
 
Pittman finished second out of 27 competitors in the 60-meter dash with her regional qualifying time of 8.07 seconds, close to the 8.06 mark she recorded last week at Utica. McDowell finished third in the triple jump with a distance of 10.83 meters (35' 6.5") that currently ranks 10th in the AARTFC.
 
Three Red Dragons scored in the 400 meters, led by Elizabeth Liriano's (New York/Manhattan Center for Science and Math) third-place time of 1:03.05. Sam Becker (Narrowsburg/Sullivan West) was fourth (1:03.35), Katherine McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) finished eighth (1:05.85), and Amanda Mannino (Southampton) just missed the scoring chart with a ninth-place effort (1:06.12).
 
Cat Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees) scored in two events. She was eight of 18 in the 800 meters (2:37.98) and eighth of 25 in the mile (5:36.03). Matteson Donnelly (Pearl River) placed eighth in the triple jump (10.04 meters/32' 11.25"), Malana Booker (Cortland) was eighth in the high jump (1.46 meters/4' 9.5"), and Sarah Parr (Cooperstown) was eighth of 21 in the weight throw (12.71 meters/41' 8.5").
 
Liz Spencer (Somers) finished just behind Parr in the weight throw in ninth place (12.59 meters/41' 3.75") and Devin Griffin (Medina) was ninth of 19 in the 60-meter hurdles (10.16). Pittman placed 12th out of 39 sprinters in the 200-meter dash (27.40).
 
Geneseo finished first in the final team standings with 151 points, followed by Rochester (134), Brockport (124), St. John Fisher (87), Nazareth (55) and Cortland (31).
 
Cortland heads back to the Rochester area next weekend for the Nazareth Conference Challenge Cup and Multi.

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

It's really nice to be able to see tangible progress being made! The winter session training has been long and strenuous, and even though most of the team is pretty 'flat' after all the hard work, we saw some excellent performances today. We're definitely excited to see what happens over the next couple of weeks as we recovery from winter session and see some significant increases in physical capabilities.
 
We had a number of folks that were held out of competing for a number of reasons, so we aren't close to representing our program at full strength yet.
 
A very unusual thing happened with this meet – all of our event groups performed well! Usually one or two groups don't have a stellar day, for a wide range of reasons, but that wasn't the case today. I'm probably most impressed with individuals that hit collegiate personal bests today across a range of events! For the women, the following individuals all performed 'better than ever':

Samantha Becker (in the 400), Kat Burgess (in the 400), Matteson Donnelly (in the 60), Devin Griffin (in the 60 high hurdles), Avery Hebert (in the 200), Amanada Mannino (in both the 200 and the 400), Abigail McDowell (in the 60 and the triple jump), Katherine McDowell (in the 400), Faith Nelson (in the 60), Sarah Parr (in both shot put and weight throw), Maris Seabury (in the 400), and Liz Spencer (in the weight throw).

For the men, the list of those with PRs is: Ryan Cory (in the 800), Craig Denton (for a flat-track 200), Sam Haaland (in the pole vault), Amarian Hughes (in the triple jump), Aaron Jones (in the 200), Doug Knapp (in both the 200 and 400), Mitch Makowski (in the weight throw), Brett Morse (in the 200), Justin Schrom (in both the 200 and 400), Hagie Sesay (for a flat-track 200), Malachi Williams (in the 60), and Roland Zanger (in the high jump).

That's quite a list – probably a little too long for you, our reader – and I may have missed somebody. But I really want to emphasize what excellent work this team is doing, and it isn't always tied to qualification standards for the championship meets. I will point out that our throwers went 3-for-3 in the weight throw today, as all three Red Dragons set new personal bests in the event.
 
The 'Conference Cup' on the 29th hosted by Nazareth College should be a really fun experience for us. It's a great facility, and strong competition in a format of two teams that are scored 'together' against other conferences. The inaugural event in 2020 was a wonderful success.