CHESTER, PA. and CLINTON, N.Y. – Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) won the high jump and was one of numerous Cortland women's outdoor track and field top-five finishers at the Widener University Danny Curran Invitational Friday and Saturday. The Red Dragons also posted three runner-up finishes and three other top-five showings at Saturday's Hamilton College Invitational.
 
Widener Highlights:
 
Fisk finished first in a field of 27 competitors in the high jump with a height of 1.64 meters (5' 4.5") that currently ranks 13th nationally in Division III and fourth in the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC).
 
Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) and Taylor Hunter (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter) each recorded AARTFC-qualifying efforts in the 100-meter dash. Pittman finished second of 38 in 12.61 seconds, which ranks 12th in the AARTFC, and Hunter was third in 12.65 seconds and ranks 15th. Cortland's other AARTFC qualifier was Cat Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees), who finished third of 54 in the 1,500 meters in 4:47.68. She ranks sixth in the AARTFC with that performance.
 
Hunter finished third (26.21) and Pittman was fourth (26.32) of 56 sprinters, respectively, in the 200-meter dash. Lauren Anderson (Saratoga Springs) placed third of 20 in the 100-meter hurdles (16.50) and fifth of 36 in the long jump (5.04 meters/16' 6.5") and Kimmy Arena (West Islip) was third of 19 in the pole vault (2.90 meters/9' 6.25"). Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Ctr. for Science and Math) was fourth of 24 in the 400-meter hurdles (1:09.20) and Vanessa Burkard (Newfane) finished fifth of 19 in the 10,000 meters (40:53.03).
 
Malana Booker (Cortland) tied for sixth in the high jump (1.45 meters/4' 9") and Abby McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) was sixth in the long jump (5.00 meters/16' 5"). Laura Suppa finished seventh in the 100-meter hurdles (17.21), 11th in the long jump (4.66 meters/15' 3.5") and 17th in the 200-meter dash (27.35), Kat Burgess (West Hempstead) was seventh in the 400-meter hurdles (1:11.34), and Khalifa Tracey (Greenville) placed eighth in the 10,000 meters (40:56.37).
 
Alyssa LaBelle (Poughquag/Arlington) turned in an 10th-place finish in the 100-meter dash (13.07) and a 11th-place effort in the 200-meter dash (27.08). Marlee Angus (Penfield) was 13th in the 1,500 meters (5:01.94) and 19th of 66 in the 800 meters (2:30.04), and Katherine McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) finished 12th of 37 in the 400-meter dash (1:03.32).
 
Hamilton Highlights:
 
Catie Lally (Binghamton/Chenango Forks), Matteson Donnelly (Pearl River) and Sam Becker (Narrowsburg/Sullivan West) were Cortland's runner-up finishers at Hamilton - Lally in the discus (34.73 meters/113' 11"), Donnelly in the long jump (4.85 meters/15' 11") and Becker in the 400-meter hurdles (1:09.94).
 
Morgan Sharer (Wyckoff, NJ/Ramapo) placed third of 27 in the javelin throw at 25.29 meters (82' 11"). Liz Spencer (Somers) notched three top-six showings. She was fifth in the shot put (10.54 meters/34' 7") and sixth in both the discus (30.35 meters/99' 7") and javelin throw (24.15 meters/79' 2"). Spencer also finished ninth in the hammer throw (33.83 meters/111' 0"). Sarah Parr (Cooperstown) was fifth in the hammer (37.20 meters/122' 0") and 13th in both the discus (27.58 meters/90' 6") and shot put (9.67 meters/31' 8.75").
 
Rebecca Salim was ninth of 23 in the 100-meter dash (13.64). Savannah Adami (Guilderland) won her heat of the 1,500 meters and finished 10th overall out of 30 runners in 5:26.65. Devin Reilly (Irvington) placed 13th in the event at 5:33.70.

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

There's a lot to process here! What a great weekend for Red Dragon Track and Field!
 
To begin with, we're very fortunate to have the ability to split the squad between two meets. That level of support allows us to be in a good situation in terms of making sure that those who are ready to compete get the opportunity to.

Overall, the distance squad seemed to excel at both meets. At Widener and at Hamilton, we went in with specific race plans and objectives to achieve, and did a very nice job of hitting them! For the most part the 5ks at Hamilton were ahead of the plan (which is pretty awesome), and being able to see Savannah Adami open her collegiate career with a solid performance in the 1500 while Clay Santiago took home the win in the men's 1500 was pretty fantastic!

The weather wasn't ideal at Hamilton today, so seeing a strong high hurdles from Nik Knobloch along with a great 400 hurdles from both Sam Becker and Christopher Blake (who earned the win over the men's field) was certainly a wonderful thing to see! We had a number of other strong performances at Hamilton today, notably Matteson Donnelly's great long jump (tying her lifetime best of 4.85/15'11"), and some really good hammer throwing as Nick Kaires, Nick LaRocque, Nick, uh, I mean Sarah Parr and Nick – seriously, why do I keep doing this? – Morgan Sharer (!) all had lifetime bests in the event! My apologies, it's been a long couple of days! We also saw nice PRs from Catie Lally in discus and Liz Spencer in shot put!
 
We were fortunate to have better weather at Widener, and we certainly took advantage of it! Our women's track races all went quite well – I'm even pleased with the 4x1 that missed an exchange because what they were doing was good, and it is so early in the season. We can learn from mistakes, and it is better to make them now then when it counts!

For our highlights on the day, I'd have to highlight Autumn Pittman, with two PRs in the 100 and 200, Lauren Anderson in the high hurdles, Katherine McDowell with a strong run in the 400 and 200, Kat Burgess in the 400 hurdles, Cat Zamroz with a huge PR and a very well-run race in the 1500, and Vanessa Burkard and Khalifah Tracey in their first-ever 10,000.

The men had a similar great weekend on the track; I'd like highlight Ryan Serp in the high hurdles with a new lifetime PR, Coltrane Goring for opening the season sub-50 in the 400, David Soto, Cameron Szabo and Hunter Braun for running strong in both the 1500 and 800, where we worked on a number of things to benefit us later in the season, and our men's 10k group of Hunter Brignall, Mike Verde, Harry Tomasi, RJ Davis, and Rob Davidson. As a group, only one of these guys had ever even run a 10k before, and they went out, executed their race plan quite well, and all ran under the Regional Championship Qualifying time. Hunter, Mike, and Harry handled the pacing chores over the first 6000 meters; both Hunter and Mike ran the final 4000-meters under 5-minute mile pace, and Harry ran the final 2000 meters nearly under 5-minute mile pace!

But the breakthrough performance of the weekend had to go to Brandon Root, who broke the 57-second barrier in the 400 hurdles in his second collegiate effort in the event. He ran a tough race where he really had a strong step pattern that minimized stutters, and it paid off for him!
 
We are excited to open up the Stadium Complex for the 2022 season next Saturday and Sunday, as we host the Red Dragon Open and Multi.