ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Three Red Dragons turned in top-eight scoring performances at the Nazareth Conference Challenge Cup and Multi women's indoor track and field meet.
 
Laura Suppa (Canastota), in her first meet with the Red Dragons, finished fifth of 19 in the 60-meter hurdles. She had a time of 9.65 seconds in the prelims and 9.67 seconds in the finals. Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) tied for seventh place out of 22 in the high jump, clearing 1.51 meters (4' 11.5"), and Cat Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees) placed eighth of 26 in the 3,000-meter run (11:06.96).
 
Vanessa Burkard (Newfane) finished first of 16 in the "B" (non-scoring) section of the 5,000-meter run with a time of 19:29.95, followed in second by Khalifah Tracey (Greenville) at 19:44.37 and Sydney Smith (Greenville) in sixth at 20:11.91.
 
Sam Becker (Narrowsburg/Sullivan West) and Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Center for Science and Math) finished 10th (1:02.77) and 11th (1:02.92), respectively, in the 400 meters. Liriano was 13th of 60 in the 200 meters in 27.41 seconds, with Becker 15th in 27.81 seconds. Marlee Angus (Penfield) finished 10th in the 3,000 meters in 11:08.58.
 
Sarah Parr (Cooperstown) and Liz Spencer (Somers) finished in the top half of the field in both the weight throw and shot put. Parr was 11th (12.60 meters/41' 4.25") and Spencer 12th (12.56 meters/41' 2.5") in the weight throw, and Parr finished 13th (9.90 meters/32' 5.75") and Spencer was 16th (9.66 meters/31' 8.5") in the shot put. Abby McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) was 11th of 28 in the triple jump (10.37 meters/34' 0.25"), Malana Booker (Cortland) finished 12th in the high jump (1.46 meters/4' 9.5"), and Lauren Anderson (Saratoga Springs) was 12th in the 60-meter hurdles (10.67).
 
Cortland finished the meet with six points. Williams won the team title with 144 points, followed by Geneseo with 125 points.
 
Cortland will compete next weekend at the Ithaca Bomber Invitational and Multi.

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

For the women's program, today emphasized our depth in a lot of places. Across a number of events we showed improvement from not only our top performers, but through most of the individuals entered. Whenever this happens, it shows that we're significantly moving in the right direction as a program. It's good evidence that we are working hard, and buying into what we are trying to accomplish as a program.
 
Individuals that merit a 'shout out' here would include our throwers Sarah Parr and Liz Spencer. Both ladies were close to their PRs in the weight throw, which is excellent since they were both set last week; both put the shot season's best distances today, which is a good indicator that they are putting things together! Liz Liriano and Sam Becker each ran away with their heat in the 400. They were out pretty much exactly where we had hoped, but didn't have that competition on their shoulder to help push them through the final 150. That's OK, and it's a good indicator of things to come; as a wise coach once said to me, 'never underestimate the value of winning,' so I'm thrilled that both won their heats so easily. A great example of our depth was with Katherine McDowell and Avery Hebert running indoor bests in the 400 in strong races as well; both ran indoor bests in the 200 as well! Finally, our distance women put together a strong day. Vanessa Burkard (in the 5k) and Cat Zamroz (in the 3k) both led the majority of their heat, and kept the pace honest, helping pull teammates Khalifah Tracey and Marlee Angus respectively to strong performances as well. It's fun to lead, but very hard to keep grinding out consistent splits, and both Vanessa and Cat did that to run PRs; both Khalifah and Marlee were able to run indoor bests as well!
 
The men had a number of strong efforts, and obviously Dane Sorensen breaking the 16-foot barrier (4.90 in meters) in the pole vault, Aaron Jones in the 200, Brett Morse in the 60 hurdles, and Amarian Hughes in the triple jump all made improvements in our national positioning;  Mitch Makowski (weight throw) is now in the top 50, along with the 4x400 we ran today; as I write this Eli Craddock is tied for 50th in the triple jump to put him on the national list as well.  Aaron's run puts him into the #5 spot all-time at Cortland, Mitch's toss puts him up to 3rd on the list, and Dane's jump moves him up from 3rd to 2nd on our all-time list. Those are certainly strong accomplishments for so early in the season! As with the women's team, we showed a lot of strong depth on the day, especially in our long sprints, as we put 8 men in the top 15 of the meet. Malachi Williams just missed being a part of that group with his 16th place finish (only .01 seconds behind 15th) but dropped his time significantly in the 60m to earn the runner-up position!
 
Next up for the Red Dragon Track and Field Team is the short trip to Ithaca College on Saturday, with the second day of the heptathlon on Sunday. It's been great to be back into a more 'normal' routine this week as classes have begun.  Speaking of classes, I would be foolish if I didn't point out here that both the women's and men's cross country teams earned USTFCCCA All-Academic Recognition, and that five individuals (Hunter Brignall, Ryan Cory, and Mike Verde for the men, and Rachel Castello and Cat Zamroz for the women) earned individual All-Academic Team Honors for the fall semester.