ONEONTA, N.Y - Cortland sophomore Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) was named the SUNYAC Women's Outdoor Track and Field Championship Co-Most Valuable Performer after winning two league titles and anchoring a school record-setting relay team at the conference championship meet, hosted by SUNY Oneonta Friday and Saturday. 
 
Cortland finished third out of nine schools in the final team standings with 132 points, an improvement of 56.5 points from last year. Geneseo won the league title with 291 points, followed by Brockport (166), Cortland, Oneonta (64), Buffalo State (63.5), Plattsburgh (54.5), Fredonia (17), Potsdam (15) and Oswego (11). 
 
Pittman won the 100-meter dash in 12.07 seconds and the 200-meter dash in 25.36 seconds. The 4x100-meter relay team of Kendall Sobczyk (Wheatfield/Niagara Wheatfield), Alyssa LaBelle (Poughquag/Arlington), Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Ctr. for Science and Math) and Pittman won in 47.53 seconds, breaking the previous school record of 47.59 seconds set by Kelly Gardner, Maya Campbell, Steffany Batista and Taylor Hunter in 2019. 
 
The Most Valuable Performer Award goes to the athlete who scores the most team points at the championship meet. Pittman scored 22.5 points (10 points for each title, 2.5 points for her role in the winning relay), matching the total scored by Buffalo State's Nat Sawyer. 
 
Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) won the high jump title with a leap of 1.65 meters (5' 5") and finished third in the long jump at 5.46 meters (17' 11"). Sobczyk was second in the 100-meter dash (12.47) and Becca Bready (Rochester/Gates Chili) was second in the pole vault (3.20 meters/10' 6"). LaBelle placed third in the 100-meter dash (12.55) and AnJalyna Talmadge (Pine Bush) was third in the heptathlon (3,910 points). Talmadge's point total included 741 points in the 100-meter hurdles (15.78) and 621 points in the high jump (1.50 meters/4' 11"). 
 
The top three finishers in each event earn All-SUNYAC honors – winners are first team, runners-up are second team and third-place finishers are third team, with their official all-league designation from the conference based on their best placement.

Numerous Cortland performances in addition those above ranked in the top eight to score points at the meet. Those performances included: 
 
4th place: 
Sam Becker (Narrowsburg/Sullivan West), 400-meter hurdles, 1:03.20 
4x400-meter relay (Becker, Maris Seabury (Old Chatham/Ichabod Crane), Yasmine Peralta (Monroe/Monroe-Woodbury), Liriano), 4:03.92 
 
5th place: 
Khalifah Tracey (Greenville), 10,000 meters, 39:28.16 
Rachel Castello (Cheektowaga/West Seneca East), 3,000-meter steeplechase, 11:31.17 
Regan Kaiser (Glens Falls), High Jump, 1.52 meters (4' 11.75") 
Caitlin Maher (Hartsdale/Ardsley), Triple Jump, 10.86 meters (35' 7.75") 
Sarah Parr (Cooperstown), Hammer Throw, 45.65 meters (149' 9") 
 
6th place: 
LaBelle, 200-meter dash, 26.07, 26.04 prelims 
Lauren Anderson (Saratoga Springs), 100-meter hurdles, 16.24 
Liriano, 400-meter hurdles, 1:07.06, 1:03.60 prelims 
Mariah Saggese (Oneonta/Milford), High Jump, 1.52 meters (4' 11.75") 
 
7th place: 
Avery Hebert (Stillwater), 400-meter dash, 1:01.86, 1:00.93 prelims 
Savannah Adami (Guilderland), 800 meters, 2:28.00, 2:23.27 prelims 
Marlee Angus (Penfield), 1,500 meters, 4:53.35 
Peralta, 400m hurdles, 1:07.68, 1:07.61 prelims 
Adrienne Martin (Cincinnatus/Norwich), 3,000-meter steeplechase, 11:54.03 
Kimmy Arena (West Islip), Pole Vault, 3.05 meters (10' 0") 
Matteson Donnelly (Pearl River), Triple Jump, 10.12 meters (33' 2.5") 
 
8th place: 
Emma Trefzger (Horseheads), 3,000-meter steeplechase, 12:17.38 
Faith Hoyt (Pittsford/Pittsford Mendon), Pole Vault, 2.90 meters (9' 6.25")
 
Cortland will potentially compete at "Last Chance" meets next Saturday as well as at Swarthmore on Monday, May 15, and the Red Dragons will be at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Outdoor Championships May 18-19 at Susquehanna University. Cortland's AARTFC qualifiers during the SUNYAC Championships were: 
 
Angus, 1,500 meters 
Becker, 400-meter hurdles 
Castello, 3,000-meter steeplechase 
Fisk, High Jump, Long Jump 
LaBelle, 100-meter dash 
Liriano, 400-meter hurdles 
Maher, Triple Jump 
Martin, 3,000-meter steeplechase 
Parr, Hammer Throw 
Pittman, 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash 
Sydney Smith (Greenville), 9th place, 10,000 meters (40:21.06) 
Sobczyk, 100-meter dash 
Talmadge, Heptathlon 
Tracey, 10,000 meters
4x100-meter relay 
4x400-meter relay

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

This is always a bittersweet weekend for me as a coach, since it is the end of the season for so many on the team, as well as the end of a collegiate career for many of our seniors! To think that the folks who are at the end of the fourth year didn't have an outdoor track and field season during their first year makes their accomplishments all the more remarkable.
 
While we want to celebrate our event winners, two new school records, and a co-performer of the meet (Autumn Pittman) as well as a co-Elite 20 winner (Ryan Joule), we also want to make sure to celebrate all of the 'unsung heros' that had tremendous performances today.
 
For the Lady Red Dragons, the 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 (by Autumn Pittman, Kendall Sobczyk, and Alyssa LaBelle) was a pretty cool sight to see! You don't get a lot of results like that over a coaching career, so that will be a pretty fun memory! The distance squad on the women's side did incredibly well – nearly everybody ran a PR over the weekend, or at least a season's best. Only one runner didn't, and she ran a gutsy race to get herself into scoring position, which is certainly a strong move.
 
The women's 400 hurdle squad certainly ran well, as all four ladies posted PRs over the weekend; three of that squad came back to pair with Maris Seabury (who had a huge 200 PR on Friday) to run a strong season's best in the 4x400 relay. In the throws, firstyears Jennifer Ndukwu and Megan Spencer had big PRs in shot put, while classmate Hannah McMasters finished her season with a new PR in the hammer throw.
 
The tangible progress that we saw across the team – across all the events – is really encouraging for us! A year ago we were over 100 points behind 2nd place; today we narrowed the margin to only 34 points. Today we earned conference championships in four different events; a year ago we had none. This team has put in a great deal of work, and they've earned the successes so far. It's very exciting to think about what our future holds moving forward!
 
On the men's side, there are also so many positives to identify! Hagie Sesay had a great weekend in both the long jump and also the triple jump, where he has moved himself up into contention on the national list with a huge jump! Aaron Jones put together a great weekend with strong runs in the 200, the high hurdles, and anchoring our 4x100 relay to victory. Coltrane Goring dipped under the 48-second mark in the finals of the 400, which is quite an accomplishment; in the steeplechase Jakob Getchell and Josh Koeppe certainly ran well, but I'd like to highlight Matthew Mullen, who got up after a pretty horrific fall over a barrier to run incredibly tough and nearly score! It was an incredibly tough race!
 
Speaking of tough, Andrew Farnsworth – who was a 'wildcard' entry into the meet – set 2 PRs today to earn 4th overall in the high jump. That took a lot of focus to get to that point! A similar situation was seen with Dane Sorensen, returning from injury, who was tremendous in his third competition since December to earn third overall.
 
Just as with the women's program, while the place was the same as last year, the tangible measures of progress are pretty remarkable – only 23.5 points out of the victory as a team, compared to well over 100 points away last year. Seven conference titles – a third of what is contested – were earned over the weekend by Cortland student-athletes, which is certainly something to be proud of!
 
We will have some 'last chance' opportunities next weekend (which the weather will dictate somewhat); as well as the AARTFC Regional championships next on May 17th and 18th before closing out our year with the NCAA Championships the final weekend of the month. Before 'signing off' we had a tremendous amount of support from family, friends, team members that didn't qualify, and alumni over the course of the weekend, and we thank everybody who supported in person and virtually.