STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. and ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Cortland women's indoor track and field team sent competitors to two meets on Friday, with some going to the Fasttrack National Invitational at Ocean Breeze in Staten Island and others at the RIT Friday Meet #2.
 
Cortland returns to action next Saturday, Feb. 18, at the Cornell Deneault Invitational.
 
Fasttrack National Invitational recap:
 
Cortland registered six All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) performances at the meet in Staten Island. Two of those came from Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Ctr. for Science and Math), who finished 12th of 106 in the 200-meter dash (25.83) and 21st of 86 in the 400-meter dash (59.46). Her 200-meter time ranks fifth on Cortland's all-time performers list.
 
Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) placed seventh overall and was the top Division III finisher in the high jump with an AARTFC height of 1.65 meters (5' 5"). Cortland's other AARTFC performers included Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) with a 21st place finish in the 60-meter dash (8.05), Marlee Angus (Penfield) with a 22nd place showing out of 76 runners in the mile (5:14.91), and Becca Bready (Rochester/Gates Chili) with a fifth-place finish in the collegiate section of the pole vault (3.20 meters/10' 6").
 
Megan Spencer (Somers) moved into fifth place on Cortland's performers list in the weight throw. She finished 17th out of 63 competitors at 13.98 meters (45' 10.5"). Rachel Castello (Cheektowaga/West Seneca East) finished 15th (10:43.01) and Khalifah Tracey (Greenville) was 20th (10:50.56), out of 46 runners, in the 3,000-meter run. Pittman placed 28th (26.74) and Alyssa LaBelle (Poughquag/Arlington) was 31st (26.89) in the 200-meter dash.
 
RIT recap:
 
AnJalyna Talmadge (Pine Bush) won the 60-meter hurdles at RIT in a field of 19 with a time of 9.70 seconds (9.65 prelims). Lauren Anderson (Saratoga Springs) finished seventh (10.22, 10.12 prelims) and Abbie Gregory (Guilderland) was ninth (10.44).
 
Five Red Dragons earned top-20 finishes in a 40-runner field in the 200-meter dash. Annabel Jacobs (Nyack/Scarsdale) was fifth in 28.27 seconds, Faith Nelson (Rensselaer/Columbia) finished seventh (28.39) and Gianna Motto (East Islip) finished eighth (28.43). Helena Trackey (Glens Falls) placed 11th (28.60) and Gregory was 19th (29.33). Trackey was fourth (1:04.6) and Nelson finished eighth (1:07.12) out of 16 in the 400-meter dash. Motto was 16th of 46 (8.49) and Jacobs placed 20th (8.57) in the 60-meter dash.
 
Caitlin Maher (Hartsdale/Ardsley) was sixth of 22 in the triple jump (10.61 meters/34' 9.75"), while Anderson placed 10th (4.94 meters/16' 2.5") and Matteson Donnelly (Pearl River) was 11th (4.93 meters/16' 2.25") out of 34 in the long jump. Andie Rice (Louisville, KY/Kentucky Country Day) finished in 13th place out of 35 in the mile run in 5:44.73 and Savannah Adami (Guilderland) was 15th of 31 in the 800 meters in 2:40.42.

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

There's a lot to talk about!
 
To start with the Fasttrack National Invite at Ocean Breeze, we had a number of good competitive opportunities. I won't say that we took advantage of them all as fully as we could have, but we did show up to compete and make the effort to do the right thing. Sometimes that's a part of the learning process, and why it is important for us to get to these 'bigger' meets like this.
 
Some highlights from the Ocean Breeze meet would have to be the women's pole, as we saw strong performances especially in terms of taking good attempts from Kimmy Arena and Becca Bready, but Faith Hoyt was the real standout! Faith started the meet at a height higher than she has ever cleared in competition – which was a chance to bring her but both myself and Coach Peter McGinnis thought was the right decision – and she ended up clearing it fairly easily for new PR! Also in the field, Megan Spencer had a PR in the weight throw – not only rising the the occasion of the meet, but also taking the #5 All-Time spot at Cortland in the process!  "Big" Nick LaRocque had his 4th PR in as many weeks in the shot put, improving around three feet over that time, while "Little" Nick Kaires matched his PR in the weight throw, and looks ready to push out a big throw sometime soon.
 
On the track, Harry Tomasi completed his first 5k of the season in strong fashion, with a big indoor PR and nearly a lifetime best, while fellow long-distance runner RJ Davis nearly matched his indoor PR in the same event. The Lady Red Dragons in the 3000 came through in pretty stellar fashion, as all five ladies (Rachel Castello, Khalifah Tracey, Adrienne Martin, Sydney Smith, and Devin Reilly) raced very tough to post new PRs! Travis Iwuagwu had a great day, with a PR and a victory in the 'collegiate' section of the 60HH, as well as returning to the track hours later to win his heat of the 200 in a new PR. Last, but certainly not least, Liz Liriano returned off last weekend's great efforts with a new PR in the 200 – taking the #5 All-Time spot at Cortland – but also with a new PR in the 400, cracking the 60-second barrier.
 
The meet at RIT had some wonderful performances as well – and it was a long day, as the meet didn't actually end until after midnight! On the track, Ryan Serp came off his heptathlon last weekend to run a new PR (and take the win) in the 60HH. Both Gianna Motto (60/200) and Helena Trackey (200/400) had earned new PRs in both of their events, which is certainly a nice achievement. Distance runner Deirdre Sullivan had a very strong performance in the 5k, to drop her PR by a significant amount, in what was a very tough effort. In the field events, seven Red Dragon men and four Red Dragon women had season bests (with some PRs out of this group as well), but the real place where the team excelled was in the triple jump. Firstyear Caitlin Maher improved on her team-leading best jump, and did it in the very last event of the day. Alex Daniel had one of his furthest jumps ever, including his second-longest indoors ever. Hagie Sesay posted a significant PR. Jean Sassine posted a big indoor PR to move him well up the national rankings, in what was the second-longest jump of his career. Four of his jumps were over the `4-meter mark, which is a good benchmark for high performance in the event. But Amarian Hughes clearly stole the show posting a big PR that moves him up into 5th in the country right now, along with 4th All-Time at Cortland! What's great here is that like Jean, he did it more than once, as his first jump was nearly as long, and had that been his best on the day, he would be in the same spot on the list.

For the men at Boston University, we started off the meet right in the 400! Seven of the guys ran a lifetime beat in the 400. Not just for indoor track, but for the distance. Considering how much slower the event is indoors with the tight turns, it was a great! Having Coltrane Goring earn the #2 All-Time spot at Cortland with Evan Jensen taking over the #3 spot was certainly pretty special. We also closed out the night in pretty stellar fashion as Hunter Brignall ran a tough 3k that was not only a big PR but also a 2nd best performance ever at Cortland!