ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Cortland women's indoor track and field team finished in fifth place out of nine schools at the Nazareth Conference Cup Challenge.
 
Geneseo won the title with 121.5 points, followed by Ithaca (110.5), Rochester (85), Nazareth (72) and Cortland (62.5) in the top five.
 
Kendall Sobczyk (Wheatfield/Niagara-Wheatfield) won the 60-meter dash with an AARTFC qualifying time of 7.80 seconds. She also scored points with her eighth-place time of 27.07 seconds in the 200-meter dash. Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) turned in two runner-up finishes with AARTFC times, clocking in at 7.82 seconds in the 60-meter dash and 26.16 seconds in the 200-meter dash.
 
Jennifer Ndukwu (Queens/Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School) finished third in weight throw with an AARTFC distance of 15.44 meters (50' 8"), and the 4x400-meter relay team of Avery Hebert (Stillwater), Maris Seabury (Old Chatham/Ichabod Crane), Matty Lucey (Freeville/Groton) and Yasmine Peralta (Monroe/Monroe-Woodbury) met the AARTFC standard with their third-place time of 4:08.92 in the 4x400-meter relay. Cortland's other AARTFC qualifier was Adrienne Martin, who finished sixth in the 5,000 meters in 18:47.74.
 
Hebert was fourth in the 400-meter dash (1:00.57) and Faith Hoyt (Pittsford/Pittsford Mendon) was fifth in the pole vault (3.01 meters/9' 10.5"). AnJalyna Talmadge (Pine Bush) placed sixth in the 60-meter hurdles (9.77, 9.73 prelims) and Reilly Quinn (Beekmantown) tied for sixth in the high jump (1.47 meters/4' 9.75").
 
Other scoring performances included seventh-place efforts from Gianna Motto (East Islip) in the 60-meter dash (8.19), Anika Parnell (Corinth) in the mile (5:35.38) and Sydney Smith (Greenville) in the 5,000 meters (19:07.57), along with an eighth-place showing from Devin Reilly (Irvington) in the 5,000 meters (19:14.00).
 
Additionally, Emma Trefzger (Horseheads) won the "B" section of the 5,000-meter run in 19:13.80.

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

Generally, this was a pleasing effort from the teams. While we didn't get all of the performances that we wanted out of the day, we had a pretty high percentage of people executing their plans for their events, and for the most part we had good efforts with working to be tough and competitive. A lot of the team is still feeling the effects of the winter session training, along with the first week of classes at the 6:30AM departure to get to the meet.
 
How we are feeling physically will come around, so to be successful with our focus and our toughness is a great spot to be in!
 
In terms of some specific highlights, the men's throws squad scored 42 points between the two events, with four guys scoring in each event. Those points outscored the team total from over half of the men's field! Individually while there were numerous strong performances, Nick Kaires hitting the regional standard in the weight throw with a big PR was awfully impressive!
 
Speaking of big weight throw PRs, Jen Ndukwu threw a massive PR to move into the #3 spot on the All-Time list at Cortland; teammates Hannah McMasters and Suzy Conners both had big PRs in the shot put event.
 
Tim Kayran shocked the field with a huge distance in the long jump, nearly breaking the 22 foot barrier. It was a pretty stellar result for the first-year decathlete. In the triple jump, Amarian Hughes improved significantly on his season's best, moving well up the NCAA qualifying list.
 
Our women's 60m was pretty darn strong, as both Autumn Pittman and Gianna Motto hit PRs; Kendall Sobczyk was just a slight bit off her all-time best to take the win on the day.
 
I'd like to finish with pointing out some results that didn't necessarily show up in the 'stat sheet.' In particular during the men's 5k, Brandon Mulholland, Adam Beach, and Adam Schreiber did a great job of staying connected to their pace, rolling through their field, and going 1-2-3 in the 'B' section to have big PRs. In the women's 'B' section, Emma Trefzger did the same in her first indoor 5k of her career (and only her second indoor race ever in four years). In the 'A' section, Devin Reilly produced a great race effort that led to a solid indoor PR. We also saw some really strong runs out of our relays today, especially in the 4x400 relays, where folks fought really hard and put down some season's best performances and very fast splits.
 
We're back at Ithaca College next weekend, and looking forward to continuing our progress!