UTICA, N.Y. - The Cortland women's and men's outdoor track and field teams continued pushing toward upcoming regional and national meets during competition at the Utica College Pioneer Fast Chance Meet on Sunday.
 
Women's Recap:
 
The Cortland women registered seven All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying marks at the meet, led by Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) with a winning high jump of 1.63 meters (5' 4.25"). The Red Dragons earned two AARTFC marks in the 400-meter hurdles with Sam Becker (Narrowsburg/Sullivan West) placing second in 1:05.75 and Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Ctr. for Science and Math) finishing third in 1:06.08.
 
Sarah Parr (Cooperstown) was third of 25 in the hammer throw at 48.87 meters (160' 4") and Caitlin Maher (Hartsdale/Ardsley) was fourth in the triple jump at 10.98 meters (36' 0.25"), both with regional marks. Also hitting AARTFC standards were Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) in the 200-meter dash (fourth place, 25.70) and the 4x100-meter relay team of Kendall Sobczyk (Wheatfield/Niagara Wheatfield), Alyssa LaBelle (Poughquag/Arlington), Liriano and Pittman with a second-place time of 48.13 seconds.
 
Also for the Red Dragons, AnJalyna Talmadge (Pine Bush) tied for third in the high jump (1.53 meters/5' 0.25") and was third in the 100-meter hurdles (15.68), while LaBelle finished seventh in the 200-meter dash (26.30).
 
Men's Recap:
 
Cortland's men met AARTFC levels 12 times during the meet, three in victorious efforts. Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) won the 110-meter hurdles (14.36), Hagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) won the triple jump (14.50 meters/47' 7") and Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) was the winner in the long jump (6.78 meters/22' 3").
 
Five other AARTFC marks came during runner-up performances from Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) in the 110-meter hurdles (14.55), Jean-Andre Sassine (Queens Village/The Lawrenceville School (NJ)) in the triple jump (14.41 meters/47' 3.5"), Matthew Schaffert (Lockport) in the 100-meter dash (10.88), Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) in the shot put (16.22 meters/53' 2.75") and Austin Garske (Rocky Point) in the 400-meter hurdles (55.53).
 
Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) was third in the hammer throw with an AARTFC toss of 53.07 meters (174' 1"). Cortland's other three regional marks occurred in the 400-meter dash as Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) placed third (48.93), Douglas Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian) finished fourth (49.60) and Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) was fifth (49.63).
 
Other Red Dragon highlights included Brunache placing third in the discus (42.82 meters/140' 6"), Morse finishing fifth in the long jump (6.45 meters/21' 2") and Evan Jensen (Red Hook) finishing seventh in the 400-meter dash (50.03).
 
Cortland is scheduled to send a small group of athletes from the men's team to a meet at Widener University on Monday, and both teams will compete at the AARTFC Championships Wednesday and Thursday at Susquehanna University.


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

'Last Chance' meets are always a bit unusual, especially for outdoor track and field. Coming off the conference meet last weekend, along with a hectic week of finals and (for some) graduation, creates a bit of an unusual circumstance. There's also a lot more self-imposed pressure, in that it's very natural to shift your focus towards chasing a time or distance, but that is very rarely helpful.
 
Unfortunately while today was reasonable day in terms of the temperature, the wind tended to not be very favorable. We had a number of good learning experiences today, that we can use to make adjustments for the upcoming regional championship meet later this week. I will point out that all of the women's team had pretty positive efforts today, with tangible progress being made. For the men, we also had a lot of good learning experiences, but the highlights will most definitely be Hagie Sesay with a big PR in the triple jump, and Matt Schaffert with a big PR in the 100 meters. Both performed exceptionally well under less-than-ideal circumstances.
 
We're excited to see what we can put together this week at the AARTFC Championships Meet this Wednesday and Thursday!