ITHACA, N.Y. – Cortland won the 4x200-meter relay and earned seven other top-four finishes at the non-team scoring Ithaca College Bomber Invitational and Multi women's indoor track and field meet Saturday and Sunday.
 
Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter), Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Ctr. for Science and Math), Sam Becker (Narrowsburg/Sullivan West) and Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) comprised the Red Dragons' 4x200 relay that won in 1:49.14. Cortland also took third in the event as Katherine McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee), Faith Nelson (Rensselaer/Columbia), Alyssa LaBelle (Poughquag/Arlington) and Avery Hebert (Stillwater) combined for a time of 1:51.29.
 
Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) finished second in the high jump. Her height of 1.61 meters (5' 3.25") is ranked 33rd nationally in Division III, is an All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifier, and ranks second in the Division III Niagara region.
 
Two other Red Dragons notched AARTFC marks. Abby McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) was second of 17 in the triple jump at 10.83 meters (35' 6.5"), and Cat Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees) was fourth of 47 in the 800 meters in 2:22.82, which is currently sixth in the Niagara region.
 
Matteson Donnelly (Pearl River) was fourth in the triple jump with a distance of 10.56 meters (34' 7.75"), while Kitty Tang (Staten Island/CSI H.S. for International Studies) was eighth at 10.20 meters (33' 5.75"). Laura Suppa (Canastota) finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles (9.72, 9.53 prelims), with her prelim time good for seventh in the Niagara region, and the 4x400-meter relay team of Becker, Katherine McDowell, Hebert and Liriano finished fourth of 16 in 4:14.82 that ranks eighth in the Niagara region.
 
Five Red Dragons placed in the top 20 out of 73 competitors in the 200-meter dash. Liriano was fifth (27.33) and Hunter finished seventh (27.37). Pittman placed 10th (27.47), Becker was 12th (27.59), and Abby McDowell finished 17th (27.84). Other Cortland highlights included Kimmy Arena (West Islip) placing 10th in the pole vault at 3.06 meters (10' 0.5"), Vanessa Burkard (Newfane) and Khalifah Tracey (Greenville) finishing 15th (5:34.38) and 17th (5:37.45), respectively, in a field of 43 in the mile, and Amanda Mannino (Southampton) finishing 19th of 40 in the 400 meters (1:06.18).

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

This was a great weekend for Red Dragon Track and Field! Across almost every event, we had a lot of tremendous progress both individually and as a team.
 
We saw three updates to our all-time lists – Zach Nyhart in the pole vault improved upon his #3 all-time mark at Cortland with 4.85m/15'11", Aaron Jones tied for the 5th-best performance in the 60 High Hurdles (with 8.24 seconds), and the men's 4 x 200m relay of Brett Morse, Evan Jensen, Coltrane Goring, and Jones now owns the 4th-fastest time ever run by a relay at Cortland with 1:29.83 seconds.
 
Our women's jumps went quite well as a group, with Kimmy Arena (pole vault), Matteson Donnelly (triple jump), Danielle Fisk (high jump), Abby McDowell, and Kitty Tang (triple jump) all jumping either season or career best distances today. That was a tremendous indication that the things we have been working on in practice are translating into stronger performances during competitions!
 
One of the best things about the track we were on this weekend is how well it is set up to run a fast 200 or 400, and we showed up ready to perform today! Seven men ran season or career bests today; it's not a coincidence that they are all ranked in the top 16 of the conference right now – coincidentally, the top 16 entrants are who get to compete at the SUNYAC Championships, so that is a good spot to be in. For the women, fourteen (!) women ran a season or career best in the 200 today, which is great evidence that things are building up to a great point for us. We also showed some great efforts in the 4 x 400 relays today, as we showed off some depth – both our men's and women's 'B' squad ran faster than the best team from the school that is behind us in the conference.
 
The distance squad put in a number of strong performances on the day, as we saw a great trend on the day of the student-athletes choosing to go after strong performances. There's such a mental challenge in the sport of track and field, especially in the endurance events where a lot of your success is based around your willingness to take a chance on how much you can hurt or suffer. It's a difficult to achieve the balance between how hard you can push and how much is left in the race, and it is very challenging to learn how much you can ask of yourself. Today, we excelled in that as a group, and it was very exciting to be a part of!
 
To close, I'd like to recognize a few individuals that had performances that went above and beyond what I mentioned above. Firstyear Roland Zanger dropped a big chunk of time off his 60 high hurdles time to meet the conference standard, but had a great lifetime best in the high jump of 1.94m/6'4.25" to leap into the top spot in the conference (and yes, if you are wondering/groaning, that was intentional). Of course our heptathletes (Nik Knobloch and Ryan Serp), competing in seven events over two days and hitting the conference standard, should be commended. The overall 'race of the day' award should probably go to senior Cat Zamroz, who dropped 13 (!!) seconds off of her PR in the 800, in a fantastic effort and an incredibly well-run tactical race.
 
Two meets coming up – some of the team is headed to the Ocean Breeze Track and Field Complex on Staten Island this Friday, while another good part of the roster makes the trip down to Susquehanna University on Saturday.