ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cortland women's indoor track and field team tuned up for next weekend's SUNYAC Championships with competition at the Cornell University Marc Deneault Invitational.
 
Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) finished second in the high jump with a height of 1.68 meters (5' 6") that is currently tied for seventh nationally in Division III and is an All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifier. She also placed fifth of 22 in the long jump at 5.00 meters (16' 5").
 
Kendall Sobczyk (Wheatfield/Niagara Wheatfield) finished second of 25 in the 60-meter dash in 7.99 seconds (7.97 prelims), reaching an AARTFC standard in the process. Becca Bready (Rochester/Gates Chili) placed sixth in the pole vault with an AARTFC height of 3.38 meters (11' 1"), which ranks her fifth on Cortland's all-time performers list in the event.
 
Sarah Parr (Cooperstown) finished sixth in the weight throw with an AARTFC distance of 14.35 meters (47' 1"). Megan Spencer (Somers) was seventh at 13.84 meters (45' 5"). Avery Hebert (Stillwater) finished second of 24 in the 400-meter dash in 1:01.85, while Yasmine Peralta (Monroe/Monroe-Woodbury) placed fifth in 1:02.19. Peralta, Maris Seabury (Old Chatham/Ichabod Crane), Helena Trackey (Glens Falls) and Hebert finished second in the 4x400-meter relay in 4:14.63.
 
Mariah Saggese (Oneonta/Milford) and AnJalyna Talmadge (Pine Bush) tied for fifth in the high jump, each clearing 1.55 meters (5' 1"). Talmadge also finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles (9.78), while Abbie Gregory (Guilderland) was fifth in 10.09 seconds.
 
Abby McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) finished seventh (4.88 meters/16' 0.25") and Alyssa LaBelle was ninth (4.82 meters/15' 9.75") in the long jump. Sydney Smith (Greenville) and Kristin Ieva (North Babylon) placed sixth (5:33.60) and seventh (5:33.71), respectively, out of 30 runners in the mile, Julia Ross (Sloatsburg/Suffern) was sixth in the 60-meter dash (8.29), and Caitlin Maher (Hartsdale/Ardsley) was sixth of 17 in the triple jump (10.33 meters/33' 10.75").
 
The SUNYAC Championships will be held Friday and Saturday at SUNY Brockport.

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

We had quite a number of strong performances today that help set up the team for next weekend's SUNYAC Championships!
 
For the women, some individual highlights would have to start with Becca Bready setting a PR and grabbing the #5 All-Time spot at Cortland, and the SUNYAC lead with her jump in the pole vault. Abbie Gregory in the 60m high hurdles, Hannah McMasters in the weight throw, and Julia Ross in the 60m dash all secured their spot in next weekend's  championships with PRs in their respective events, which is certainly something we are excited about.  Kendall Sobczyk broke the 8-second barrier in the 60m dash twice today, setting a big PR in the process! We also saw strong depth in the long sprints as all four ladies in the women's 400 (Avery Hebert, Yasmine Peralta, Maris Seabury, and Helena Trackey) ran PRs, while four ladies in the 200 (Annabel Jacobs, Faith Nelson, Ross, and Sobcyzk) ran PRs in the 200. Faith broke the 28-second barrier for the first time indoors, which is a great step in the right direction! Finally, all three high jumpers (Danielle Fisk, Mariah Saggese, and AnJalyna Talmadge) either cleared or went out at PRs; more importantly, all three had a significant breakthrough in their understanding of the event today during competition!
 
For the men, two of our strongest performances come in non-conference events, as Nate Wilsoncroft won the 600 with a time of 1:23.49, and Cameron Szabo was the runner-up in the 1000 with 2:32.32. For both of those guys, we were working on some specific preparation for the championship races and we are quite pleased with how things came out. Fellow middle-distance specialist Clayton Santiago put together an excellent mile race to slice a couple more seconds off his PR, and secure his spot in that event for next weekend. In a number of other event areas – long jump, the throws, and the pole vault come to mind – we made a lot of positive progress today that isn't necessarily reflected in the distances or heights, although Tommy Burek (shot put), Michael Iavaroni (weight throw), and Zach Nyhart (pole vault) all had season best efforts today; our 4x4 relay despite some less-than-ideal handoffs still ran a season's best time, so we have a lot of confidence as we move into the championship season.
 
We head to Brockport on Friday to compete in the conference championships and are looking forward to what has historically been a great opportunity to compete and showcase our program!