ROCHESTER, N.Y. and ITHACA, N.Y. – Laura Suppa (Canastota) and Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) each turned in All-Atlantic Region Track and Field (AARTFC) qualifying performances at a pair of weekend meets for the Cortland women's indoor track and field team.
 
Suppa finished fourth out of 27 competitors in the 60-meter hurdles at Saturday's Cornell University Marc Deneault Invitational with a time of 9.39 seconds. She qualified for the finals with a preliminary time of 9.26 seconds. Fisk finished first out of 23 high jumpers at Friday's Nazareth College Conference Tune-up meet with a height of 1.61 meters (5' 3.25").
 
Most of Cortland's competitors for the weekend were at Cornell. In addition to Suppa, Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Ctr. for Science and Math) finished second in the 500 meters (1:21.60) and Katherine McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) was fifth in the 300 meters (44.74). McDowell, Avery Hebert (Stillwater), Cat Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees) and Liriano finished fourth in the 4x400-meter relay (4:18.83).
 
Hebert finished 10th (1:04.90) and Kat Burgess (West Hempstead) was 13th (1:05.61) out of 26 runners in the 400 meters. Kayla Pucci (Goshen) ended in eighth place (2:31.16) and Zamroz was 11th (2:34.67) of 28 in the 800 meters, and Alyssa LaBelle (Poughquag/Arlington) finished eighth (27.73) and Faith Nelson (Rensselaer/Columbia) finished 11th (28.10) of 34 in the 200-meter dash.
 
Three Red Dragons placed in the top half of the field in the 3,000 meters at Cornell. Rachel Castello (Cheektowaga/West Seneca East) was seventh of 20 (11:06.20), Marlee Angus (Penfield) was eighth (11:07.46) and Sydney Smith (Greenville) finished 10th (11:26.21). Vanessa Burkard (Newfane) finished 13th of 32 in the mile (5:30.41), while Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) was 13th (8.18) and Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter) 14th (8.19) out of 39 in the 60-meter dash.
 
Also at Cornell, Abby McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) finished seventh of 17 in the triple jump (10.54 meters/34' 7") and ninth of 35 in the long jump (4.97 meters/16' 3.75"). Matteson Donnelly (Pearl River) finished eighth in the triple jump (10.52 meters/34' 6.25") and Lauren Anderson (Saratoga Springs) was 12th in the long jump (4.90 meters/16' 1").
 
In addition to Fisk's high jump win at Nazareth, Kimmy Arena (West Islip) was sixth of 17 in the pole vault with a height of 3.06 meters (10 0.5"), Sarah Parr (Cooperstown) finished 12th of 33 in the weight throw (12.45 meters/40' 10.25"), and Liz Spencer (Somers) finished 14th in the weight throw (12.27 meters/40' 3.25") and 15th of 30 in the shot put (10.34 meters/33' 11.25").

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

Obviously, a new school record is really exciting! Ryan ran a great race (and we would like to thank the event winner, Ryan Mahalsky of the Philadelphia Runner Track Club for making it a fast race), and really put it out there. It was great to be there for it today! There are a couple of important points that Ryan's performance raised that I don't want to be missed: First, Brett Morse's hurdle time from last Friday put him in the all-time top 5 at Cortland! Secondly, Sarah Parr's weight throw from last Saturday put her in the all-time top 5 at Cortland! I regret that I missed both of those from last weekend's meets. Third, Coltrane Goring led a strong trio in then 300 today; he now takes over the #5 spot all-time at Cortland! On a personal note, I had posted a screenshot of the new record at the meet, and by the time I had gotten back to the office, Seth DuBois – the former record-holder – had already reached out to congratulate Ryan on social media. That was quite a classy gesture, and is greatly appreciated!
 
We took a small group to Nazareth College on Friday, since it afforded those athletes a better chance to compete. We had a lot of great progress with the process, which is exciting! Sometimes we can lose sight of the process because we are so focused on the outcome (much in the same way one can 'lose the forest for the trees'). I would like to point out how well the throws squad did at Nazareth both in terms of the outcome (we had a number of season best or lifetime best throws), as well as the means by which they went about achieving those performances.
 
The bulk of the team was at Cornell today, and the results were quite strong! To start off the day, our guys in the 5k were aggressive, and they needed to be to make a run at getting into the conference meet. Rob Davidson nearly broke the 16-minute barrier, but in a race that was well run. Fellow firstyear RJ Davis also showed an improvement on the season and he met the conference standard, which is a nice measure of progress. We saw some strong performances as well from the men in the 1k and mile – especially Hunter Brignall in the men's mile to race quite intelligently and with a great deal of toughness to set a new PR of 4:22! Hunter has shown off great range this season, as he has hit the qualifying standard for every distance event at the conference level this year.
 
The long sprints for both teams performed quite well, with a number of season or lifetime bests, and numerous very strong efforts. It was quite a good day for that event group! On the women's side, Abby McDowell improved on her season's best for the long jump, in a manner that moved her into the conference meet for that event! Kayla Pucci ran tough and smart to qualify herself for the conference meet in the 800, which was very nice to see as she is develops in the mid-distance events. Rebecca Salim, Faith Nelson, and Alyssa LaBelle all ran season's bests in their sprint events on the day, and Vanessa Burkard ran a tough mile to run her fastest time ever. Firstyear Laura Suppa really put some of the technical changes we have been working on together to have quite an impressive PR in the 60 high hurdles, and junior Lauren Anderson did the same – both are rounding into form at the right time!
 
With all that success, the highlight of the day was probably Sam Haaland who jumped new personal bests twice in the pole vault, finishing over the 15' barrier! Sam has now 'vaulted' up to be ranked 36th in the country! It's been a tremendous amount of progress for Sam over the past three semesters since he has been able to practice with us.