SHIPPENSBURG, PA. – Three athletes posted regional qualifying marks as the Cortland women's outdoor track and field team competed at Saturday's Shippensburg University Paul Kaiser Invitational. The meet was Cortland's final tune-up for next week's SUNYAC Championships in Brockport.
 
Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Ctr. for Science and Math) finished fourth out of 31 competitors in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:05.06. The time ranks 40th nationally in Division III and ninth in the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC). Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) was 10th of 57 in the 100-meter dash with an AARTFC time of 12.65 seconds, and Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) was fourth of 35 in the high jump with an AARTFC height of 1.61 meters (5' 3.25"). Fisk was actually tied with four other competitors for the best height, but officially finished fourth due to tiebreakers based on number of misses.
 
The quartet of Katherine McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee), Cat Zamroz (Levittown/Island Trees), Kat Burgess (West Hempstead) and Liriano finished third out of 12 teams in the 4x400-meter relay in 4:14.07. Zamroz was seventh of 40 in the 1,500 meters (4:57.93), followed by Marlee Angus (Penfield) in 10th (4:59.77), while Burgess was 11th in the 400-meter hurdles (1:10.71).
 
Pittman, in addition to her 100-meter dash performance, was seventh of 69 in the 200-meter dash in 26.05 seconds. Alyssa LaBelle (Poughquag/Arlington) finished 21st in 26.92 seconds. Lauren Anderson (Saratoga Springs) was 11th of 37 in the 100-meter hurdles (16.10), McDowell finished 14th of 39 in the 400-meter dash (1:02.23), and Angus was 17th of 58 in the 800 meters (2:27.04).
 
Sarah Parr (Cooperstown) turned in a seventh-place finish in a field of 39 competitors in the hammer throw with a toss of 42.97 meters (141' 0"). Liz Spencer (Somers) finished 20th at 35.55 meters (116' 7"). Kimmy Arena (West Islip) was 10th of 35 in the pole vault (3.08 meters/10' 1.25").
 
Abby McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) placed 10th of 30 in the triple jump at 10.78 meters (35' 4.5"), with Matteson Donnelly (Pearl River) in 16th place at 10.42 meters (34' 2.25"). LaBelle finished 19th of 46 in the long jump with a leap of 4.87 meters (15' 11.75").

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

It was a treat to have great weather to close out our regular season (and the month of April) in Shippensburg Pennsylvania! We saw a lot of sun and warm temperatures, and I have to commend our team on making good decisions throughout the day to be ready to compete. It's tempting to spend the whole day soaking up the sun, but we were responsible in an effort to try and get peak performances.
 
We certainly had some strong performances to celebrate! Matteson Donnelly had an outdoor PR in the triple jump, Kimmy Arena had a season's best in the pole vault, Autumn Pittman had a big PR in the 200, Katherine McDowell had  PR in the 400, Elizabeth Liriano had a huge PR in the 400 hurdles, Catie Lally had a PR in shot put, Liz Spencer had a PR in discus throw, Sarah Parr had a PR in the hammer throw, and Morgan Sharer had a strong PR in the javelin throw. Where we didn't PR, I feel pretty confident that we made progress in our events, which sets us up quite nicely for next weekend at Brockport for the SUNYAC Championships.
 
The men had a similar trend with numerous personal bests: both Coltrane Goring and Justin Schrom hit new PRs in the 400, David Soto in the 1500,  Brett Morse in the high hurdles, Jean-Andre Sassine in the triple jump, and Ryan Joule in the javelin throw, while Hagie Sesay hit a season's best in the long jump and  Dane Sorensen vaulted his season's best as well. Both of our relays ran exceptionally well – the men's 4x400 of Doug Knapp, Rich Samuels, Brandon Root and Justin Schrom dipped under 3:20, which is always a nice barrier to break (and the second quartet to do that this spring, showcasing some real depth); the men's 4x100 (Zashon Abrams, Brett Morse, Coltrane Goring and Aaron Jones) went under the 42-second barrier for the first time this season, in only the first time this combination of athletes competed in a race. That puts them as the 4th-fastest relay to have ever run at Cortland, which is quite an accomplishment.
 
SUNYACs is always an exciting meet that we are very much looking forward to! It's a great experience to be in a scored team competition (and frankly, it's pretty unusual in track and field), and a great way to enter our championships season.