CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Cortland women's outdoor track and field team hosted the CNY College Challenge on Tuesday. The meet featured mainly competitors from Cortland and Ithaca along with some athletes from Utica and Onondaga Community College and some unattached entrants.
 
Cortland's event winners, plus non-winners who met AARTFC standards, included:
 
Event Winners:
 
Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) - 100-meter dash (12.06) (AARTFC)
Alexia Prince (Spring Valley/Clement Howell) - 200-meter dash (25.45) (AARTFC)
Jennifer Ndukwu (Queens/Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School) - Shot Put (12.19 meters/40' 0") (AARTFC)
Sydney Smith (Greenville) - 800 meters (2:26.13)
Mia Hanna (Lynbrook/Sacred Heart Academy) - 1,500 meters (5:26.46)
Yasmine Peralta (Monroe/Monroe-Woodbury) - 400-meter hurdles (1:08.59)
Reilly Quinn (Beekmantown) - High Jump (1.48 meters/4' 10.25")
Caitlin Maher (Hartsdale/Ardsley) - Triple Jump (10.83 meters/35' 6.5")
AnJalyna Talmadge (Pine Bush) - Javelin (27.69 meters/90' 10")
 
Others who met AARTFC standards:
 
Hannah McMasters (Homer), 2nd place, Hammer (48.74 meters/159' 11")
Ndukwu, 3rd place, Hammer (48.68 meters/159' 8")

Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick
 
We certainly had some folks come out and take advantage of the opportunity that today provided for them! It's great when you see the squad making good choices to really capitalize as we are moving into our championships season!
 
The sprint squad on both sides put together a great day, taking advantage of the conditions to put down some blazing times. Faith Nelson continued her streak of big PRs, breaking the 13-second barrier for the first time ever; Maris Seabury surpassed that same milestone in pretty exceptional fashion as well. Alexia Prince and Matty Lucey did similar damage to their personal records later in the day for their 200s, which was great to see!
 
The men showed great depth in both the 100 and 200, with big PRs from the first four men in the 100, and big PRs from the first five men in the 200! Both Harrison Gavalas and Brandon Levin join a pretty elite club of having run sub-11 in the 100, sub-22 in the 200, and sub-50 in the 400. Evan Cruz and Roland Zanger – only racing each other, which can be a challenge to get excited for – both set new PRs in the 110 high hurdles.
 
Our men's jump squad took pretty good advantage of the day as well, with big PRs coming from Hayden Erick in the triple jump, Gavin Franco in both the long and triple jump, and Mitch Diamond, Camden Buchanan, and Roland Zanger in the long jump.  Credit to Roland in particular for having the big day in both of his events! Caitlin Maher jumped season bests in both the long jump and triple jump, which Abbie Gregory posted a huge PR in the long jump.
 
While we didn't have many big goals for the longer races on the track as we kept most of the distance squad away from racing, both Matthew Mullen and Sydney Smith ran very strong efforts in the 800, and I'd really like to commend Mia Hannan on a great run in the 1500 – she was both tough and assertive, which is a pretty great combination to have when you are out racing!
 
Down at the throwing pits, we saw some really strong performance. Every single Red Dragon in the women's shot put threw a season's best – we went 5 for 5 – with Jennifer Ndukwu unleashing a bomb to take the 4th spot on the all-time list for outdoor track and field. We also had 5 men with season's best; Mitchell Makowski broke the 14-meter barrier, and firstyear Lucas Chamberlain posted a huge PR. Jen returned for PRs in both the hammer throw (moving her back into the top-5 list at 4th), as well as in the discus; teammates Hannah McMasters also PR'ed in the hammer throw (to keep her hold on the #3 spot on the all-time list) while Jess Neubert and Sydney Mihalchik hit new bests in the discus throw. Finally, firstyears Evan Collette and Logan Darling both hit new PRs for the hammer throw.
 
We are splitting the squad this weekend: a number will head down to Shippensburg, PA for the Paul Kaiser Classic on Saturday, while the rest will be at Cornell for the Big Red Open on Sunday.