BROCKPORT, N.Y. - Cortland's Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) and Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) won league titles, with Pittman breaking her own school record in the 60-meter dash, to help the Red Dragons finish third out of nine teams at the 2024 SUNYAC Women's Indoor Track and Field Championships, hosted by Brockport.
 
Geneseo won the team title with 270 points, followed by Brockport with 117.5 and Cortland with 89. Oneonta (66), Buffalo State (58), Oswego (23), Fredonia (18.5), Plattsburgh (18) and Potsdam (3) rounded out the field.
 
Pittman broke her school record in the 60 meters in the prelims with a time of 7.68 seconds, then broke it again in the finals with her winning time of 7.66 seconds. Her previous school record was 7.73 seconds. Pittman also was the runner-up in the 200-meter dash in 25.60 seconds.
 
Fisk won the high jump by clearing 1.62 meters (5' 3.75") and placed third in the pentathlon with 3,347 points. She cleared 1.63 meters (5' 4.25") as part of the pentathlon.
 
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) finished second in 4:05.76 and the distance medley relay unit of Anika Parnell (Corinth), Abby Hardy (Johnson City), Anne Barney (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) and Sydney Smith (Greenville) placed third in 12:53.25. Kendall Sobczyk (Wheatfield/Niagara Wheatfield) finished third in the 60-meter dash (7.76), while Regan Kaiser (Queensbury/Glens Falls) and Reilly Quinn (Beekmantown) tied for third in the high jump, each clearing 1.52 meters (4' 11.75").
 
Cortland earned a total of 15 All-SUNYAC honors (seven individuals and eight relay runners). All-league honors go to the top three places in each event. Winners are first team, runners-up are second team, and third-place finishers are third team.
 
Other Red Dragon scorers with top-eight finishes included:
 
Hebert, 5th place, 400-meter dash (59.42)
AnJalyna Talmadge (Pine Bush), 6th place, Pentathlon (2,768 points)
Sobczyk, 6th place, 200-meter dash (26.42)
Lucey, 6th place, 400-meter dash (1:00.92)
Smith, 6th place, Mile (5:25.24)
Hannah McMasters (Homer), 6th place, Weight Throw (14.93 meters/48' 11.75")
Alexa Wolcott (Wyoming/Pavilion), 7th place, 3,000 meters (10:32.85)
Seabury, 8th place, 400-meter dash (1:01.58, 1:01.49 prelims)
Faith Hoyt (Pittsford/Pittsford Mendon), 8th place, Pole Vault (3.05 meters/10' 0")
Quinn, 8th place, Triple Jump (10.42 meters/34' 2.25")

Cortland will compete at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Indoor Championships Friday and Saturday, March 1-2, at Nazareth. Cortland athletes who met AARTFC qualifying levels at the SUNYAC Championships were:
 
4x400-meter relay (Hebert, Seabury, Lucey, Peralta)
DMR (Parnell, Hardy, Barney, Smith)
Fisk, High Jump, Pentathlon, 60-meter hurdles (during pentathlon)
Hebert, 400-meter dash
McMasters, Weight Throw
Pittman, 60-meter dash, 200-meter dash
Sobczyk, 60-meter dash
Talmadge, Pentathlon, 60-meter hurdles (during pentathlon)
Wolcott, 3,000 meters
(NOTE: Heptathlon at the AARTFC Championships is limited to top 12 qualifiers. As of Saturday night, Fisk is ranked 4th and Talmadge is ranked 27th.)
 
Final Team Scores:
1) Geneseo - 270
2) Brockport - 117.5
3) Cortland - 89
4) Oneonta - 66
5) Buffalo State - 58
6) Oswego - 23
7) Fredonia - 18.5
8) Plattsburgh - 18
9) Potsdam - 3

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

The biggest thing I'd like to share is how proud the coaching staff and I are with the way in which the team chose to compete over the weekend. We had a few setbacks of course, but we really excelled in our approach to competing. When we are doing the right things along the way, the results we want will happen naturally.
 
Obviously there are some pretty exceptional highlights in terms of improving on national seeds/ranking, event champions, All-Conference performers, folks placing in the top eight to score points, and AARTFC qualifiers. I'd like to point out a few things that might not show up in 'stat sheet' but that I think are pretty telling about some real positive progress from our program.
 
For the women's program, seeing the gap between 2nd and our team versus the last two years is a real measure of progress. We believe in what we've been doing and getting that sort of result is great tangible evidence for us! Obviously Autumn's weekend was pretty exceptional, but I don't want to lose sight of the fact that Kendall lowered her personal best in the 60 this weekend; in fact every single one of our women in the sprints (Izzie Bosko, Abby Hardy, Avery Hebert, Matty Lucey, Gianna Motto, Faith Nelson, Yasmine Peralta, Alexia Prince, and Maris Seabury ran a PR in at least one of their events this weekend! We also saw PRs from Reilly Quinn (TJ), Sydney Smith and Anika Parnell (both in the mile), Alexa Wolcott (3000), Devin Reilly (5000), Hannah McMasters (weight throw), and AnJalyna Talmadge (both the pentathlon and the 60 high hurdles).
 
On the men's side, the depth in our throws group showed again, as they scored a total of 44 points, and earned 2/3 of the all-conference honors. While there was a bit more strength in the weight throw (pun definitely intended), the PRs were rolling in the shot put, as Nick LaRocque, Evan Collette, and Cabe Hogue all threw further than ever before! I'd also like to point out the strength of the triple jump squad today, as that group scored 21 points off of first (Amarian Hughes), third (Camden Buchanan), and fourth (Mitch Diamond). Logan Buchanan's win in the high jump came after a hard-fought jump-off that required 7 attempts – giving him a total of 15 jumps on the day, which is pretty crazy! Jack Bisbee had an exceptional weekend both by handing off the baton in the lead in the 1200 leg of the DMR, and a big PR in the 800. It was pretty gool that both Lenny Diaz and Hector Ramos came through with PRs in the 800 as well. Matthew Mullen also pulled double duty first with a very strong anchor in the DMR followed up the next day by a big PR to score in the mile; Adam Beach dropped a huge PR in a very well-run race to earn points in the 3k. But the biggest breakthrough on the men's team was probably John Anderson who set PRs in 6 of the 7 events in the heptathlon – and nearly tied his PR in the pole vault – to have a big overall PR in the heptathlon while earning 6th in the event.
 
We're in a transitional time of year, as some of the squad is pretty well set for NCAA qualification, a number of folks will be competing this upcoming weekend at the All-Atlantic Region Track & Field Championships hosted by Nazareth, and the bulk of the team is transitioned into outdoor track and field training.