SHIPPENSBURG, PA. and CORTLAND, N.Y. – In its final tune-up meets before the SUNYAC Championships, the Cortland women's outdoor track and field teams sent competitors to the Shippensburg University Paul Kaiser Classic on Saturday and hosted the Cortland Qualifier meet on Sunday.
 
Shippensburg Highlights:
 
Three Cortland athletes posted a total of four All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) performances at the meet. Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) earned two of those with a third-place finish out of 53 sprinters in the 100-meter dash (12.11 seconds) and a fourth-place showing out of 82 athletes in the 200-meter dash (25.61).
 
Sam Becker (Narrowsburg/Sullivan West) and Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Ctr. for Science and Math) picked up Cortland's other two AARTFC marks, both in the 400-meter hurdles. Becker was second out of 35 athletes in 1:04.21 and Liriano placed seventh in 1:05.78.
 
Kendall Sobczyk (Wheatfield/Niagara-Wheatfield) finished 10th (12.84) and Alyssa LaBelle (Poughquag/Arlington) was 14th (12.93) in the 100-meter dash. Savannah Adami (Guilderland) placed 10th (2:22.88) and Marlee Angus (Penfield) was 11th (2:22.90) out of 74 runners in the 800 meters, while in the 400-meter dash Avery Hebert (Stillwater) finished 11th (1:00.19) and Maris Seabury (Old Chatham/Ichabod Crane) placed 15th (1:01.01) out of 43 runners.
 
Jennifer Ndukwu (Queens/Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School) finished 11th out of 53 in the hammer throw with a distance of 41.74 meters (136' 11"). Yasmine Peralta (Monroe/Monroe-Woodbury) ended 14th in the 400-meter hurdles (1:07.62) and Caitlin Maher (Hartsdale/Ardsley) was 15th of 38 in the triple jump (10.49 meters/34' 5").
 
Cortland Highlights:
 
Two AARTFC-qualifying efforts highlighted Cortland's performances at its Sunday home meet. Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) won the high jump at 1.62 meters (5' 3.75") and Becca Bready (Rochester/Gates Chili) was the winner in the pole vault at 3.25 meters (10' 8").
 
Four other Red Dragons won events. AnJalyna Talmadge (Pine Bush) was the long jump champion at 5.09 meters (16' 8.5") and the 100-meter hurdles winner (15.78). Anika Parnell (Corinth) won the 1,500 meters (5:22.62) and Hannah Preble (Blauvelt/Tappan Zee) captured the javelin title (25.28 meters/82' 11").
 
Julia Ross (Sloatsburg/Suffern) finished second in the 200-meter dash (28.27) and was third in the 100-meter dash (13.28). Kimmy Arena (West Islip) placed second in the pole vault (3.15 meters/10' 4") and Emma Trefzger (Horseheads) was second in the 1,500 meters (5:22.85). In addition, Deirdre Sullivan (Tappan/Tappan Zee) placed third in the 1,500 meters (5:24.32), Khaleah Ollivierre-Ryner (Brooklyn/South Shore) finished third in the 200-meter dash (28.73), Lauren Anderson (Saratoga Springs) was fourth in the 100-meter hurdles (17.01) and Gianna Motto (East Islip) placed fourth in the 200 meters (28.74).

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

It was another exciting weekend for Cortland Track and Field, as we were able to both travel to Shippensburg to chase good weather and good competition, and still have strong opportunities to compete at home on Sunday. It's great to have that balance to provide good chances for a program of our size to be able to compete.
 
The meet at Shippensburg provided some good learning opportunities, and a chance to see some competition we don't normally get to. That can be quite helpful in a number of ways, and certainly Autumn Pittman took advantage of that with stellar performances in both the 100 and 200; in the 100 she is now up to the #3 spot all-time at Cortland! The women's 800 crew of Savannah Adami, Marlee Angus, and Kristin Ieva had a great day of racing, especially from Savannah who posted a big PR that puts her into the conference meet. Both ladies in the 400 (Avery Hebert and Maris Seabury) posted strong PRs today in a very exciting fashion, as did Yasmine Peralta in the 400 hurdles. Last but not least Megan Spencer's PR in the shot put also moved her up to be a conference competitor this upcoming weekend.
 
We had a number of strong performances on the men's side at Shippensburg, but the men's distance crew probable shined brightest. Eleven men (Muiz Bayewu, Hunter Brignall, RJ Davis, Jakob Getchell, Marc Lucasey, Matthew Mullen, Rich Samuels, Clayton Santiago, Adam Schreiber, Cameron Szabo, and Harry Tomasi) ran, and eleven men set new college PRs. That's a pretty good feat to have at a meet, especially as we move towards the SUNYAC conference. The strongest aspect on the day was the way those guys competed and responded to what they needed to do during their races. I don't want to forget that Deontae Bennett posted a nice season's best in the 100 to move into the conference meet, and that Douglas Knapp ran a great PR in the open 400!
 
The Cortland Qualifier on Sunday was pretty rainy, and not the warmest meet I've ever been to. It wasn't the coldest, but at the end of the day, it felt pretty close. While I will often use the coach's corner to point out the performances that won't always show up in the 'box score' I think on a day when the weather is uncooperative I definitely want to highlight people that showed a great deal of toughness and determination when competing, even if it seems obvious through an event win. To that end on the track we had definite highlights from Zaire Higgins and Julia Ross in the 100, AnJalyna Talmadge in both the 100HH and the long jump, Alex Daniel in the triple jump, Nate Wilsoncroft in the 400, Josh Koeppe in the steeplechase, Rob Davidson in the 10k, Nick LaRocque, Travis Firkins, and Suzy Conners in the hammer throw, Tommy Burek in the discus throw, Hannah Preble in the javelin, and our pole vault squad (in particular Kimmy Arena, Faith Hoyt, and Zach Nyhart), although they did get to enjoy the benefit of 'hiding' in our indoor facility. I'd also like to make special mention of Tom Adamescu for the role he played in the 10,000 today. After not feeling great last weekend, we decided to take a shot this Sunday to see if he could hit a time to get into the conference meet, as well as to help lead his team through a time for others to have a shot. Well it didn't work out perfectly for Tom, the work he did pacing the race was tremendous, and created the opportunity for Robby to put down the time he did to gain entrance to the meet. Track isn't often a sport where a teammate can assist another in this way, and it was a pretty fantastic thing to be a part of!
 
As our regular season ends, we are looking forward to the short trip over to Oneonta this weekend for the 2023 SUNYAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships.