SELINSGROVE, PA. - The Cortland women's outdoor track and field team finished in 24th place out of 59 schools at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Championships, hosted by Susquehanna University Wednesday and Thursday. 
 
Cortland finished with 12 points in the final team standings. Geneseo won the title with 88 points, followed by Rochester with 67. 
 
Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) set a Doug Arthur Stadium facility record in the 100-meter dash with her preliminary time of 12.13 seconds. She placed fifth in the finals in 12.20 seconds. Also in the 36-competitor field in the event, Kendall Sobczyk (Wheatfield/Niagara Wheatfield) was 17th in 12.72 seconds and Alyssa LaBelle (Poughquag/Arlington) was 21st in 12.87 seconds. 
 
Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) finished sixth of 19 in the high jump by clearing 1.60 meters (5' 3"). AnJalyna Talmadge (Pine Bush) was sixth of 16 in the heptathlon with 3,939 points. Her score included 745 points in the 100-meter hurdles (15.75), 644 points in the high jump (1.52 meters/4' 11.75") and 636 points in the 200-meter dash (27.94). 
 
Sam Becker (Narrowsburg/Sullivan West) and Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Center for Science and Math) finished seventh (1:04.77) and ninth (1:04.99), respectively, in the 400-meter hurdles. Pittman was ninth of 32 in the 200-meter dash (25.57), Sarah Parr (Cooperstown) finished 11th of 29 in the hammer throw (46.78 meters/153' 6") and Caitlin Maher (Hartsdale/Ardsley) was 20th of 34 in the triple jump (10.71 meters/35' 1.75"). 
 
The top eight individual finishers and the top three relays earn All-AARTFC honors. 
 
Cortland awaits the announcement of qualifiers for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships, which be held May 25-27 at St. John Fisher College in Pittsford. The final participant list will be posted on NCAA.com on Friday, May 19, by 8 p.m. Eastern time. The top 22 declared individuals in each event and the top 16 declared relay teams in each relay (4x100 and 4x400) qualify for nationals. As of late Thursday night, Fisk is in an eight-way tie for 11th place nationally in the high jump with a height of 1.68 meters (5' 6") from the Cortland Red Dragon Open in early April. 

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

There's a lot to unpack from this meet. You could see the pressure that was evident – not just for our team, but across all the teams competing. The conference meet has pressure, but it's very different in that there's pressure to compete. At this meet, especially because of its nature as a 'last chance' to extend your season, there's a very different experience that can be more challenging.
 
As excited as I am for our men's 4x400 relay – where we made some changes to the lineup and the order, so there's a lot of credit to those guys for performing so well – my heart breaks for the women's 4x100! They didn't make an obvious mistake in the baton pass – the timing was great, and a coaching peer even commented to me on how good the spacing was. It's the first time that pair had an issue all year (including all of our practices), and just came at a really inopportune time.
 
Perspective is hard at meets like this, but we really should be proud of where we are as a program, even if we didn't have everything line up as well as we had hoped today. Nearly every one of our athletes, if you had asked them in August, would have been pretty ecstatic to have the performances that got them to this meet and/or the performances at this meet, so it is good to keep that level of perspective in mind. As we improve, we re-set our goals and expectations (as we should), but we also need to celebrate our progress!
 
I will also make special mention of Nick Kaires, as he actually finished his season with a lifetime best in the discus throw, which is a pretty cool way to go!
 
We're looking forward to the short trip to Rochester to compete at the NCAA Division III Championships next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday!