CORTLAND, N.Y. – Autumn Pittman (Spring Valley/Ramapo) and Hannah McMasters (Homer) each set school records during the two-day Cortland Classic women's outdoor track and field meet Friday and Saturday at the SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex. Pittman broke the fully automated timing (FAT) record in the 200-meter dash and McMasters set a new record in the hammer throw.
 
Pittman finished second out of 50 competitors in the 200 meters in 24.46 seconds, breaking the previous FAT school record of 24.81 seconds set by Tracey Armstead in 1983. Pittman ranks 18th nationally in Division III as of late Saturday night. Pittman also finished second of 45 in the 100-meter dash in 12.06 seconds (11.90 prelims).
 
McMasters finished third in the hammer throw with a toss of 51.26 meters (168' 2"). She broke the previous record of 50.48 meters that she held a share of, along with teammate Cheyenne McPeek (Johnson City), from meets earlier this season. McMasters ranks 23rd nationally in Division III with her effort.
 
Cortland claimed six of the top eight spots in the 5,000 meters. Deirdre Sullivan (Tappan/Tappan Zee) placed second in 18:30.35, just ahead of Alexa Wolcott (Wyoming/Pavilion) in third place at 18:30.42. Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) was fifth (18:44.08), Julia Benton (Addison) was sixth (18:46.17), Jewel Jones (Long Beach) finished seventh (18:53.96) and Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) was eighth (19:05.91).
 
The combination of Innocent, Jones, Sullivan and Wolcott won the 4x800-meter relay in 10:02.74. Abby Hardy (Johnson City), Izzie Bosko (Hillsdale/Taconic HIlls), Yasmine Peralta (Monroe/Monroe-Woodbury) and Faith Nelson (Rensselaer/Columbia) placed second in the 4x400-meter relay (4:09.25), while Gianna Motto (East Islip), Peralta, Nelson and Kendall Sobczyk (Wheatfield/Niagara Wheatfield) finished third in the 4x100-meter relay (50.41).
 
Ryan Stark (Schuylerville) was the pole vault runner-up, clearing 3.25 meters (10' 8"). Reilly Quinn (Morrisonville/Beekmantown) placed third (1.55 meters/5' 1") and Regan Kaiser (Queensbury/Glens Falls) was fifth (1.42 meters/4' 7.75") in the high jump, and Hannah Nolan (Montour Falls/Odessa-Montour) placed fourth (4.58 meters/15' 0.5") and Lexi Clark (Chazy/Chazy Central Rural School) was fifth (4.53 meters/14' 10.5") in the long jump.
 
AnJalyna Talmadge (Pine Bush) finished fourth in the heptathlon with a score of 3,715 points and Katie Ball (Smithtown/Smithtown East) was fifth with 3,289 points. Lillian Swyers (Peru) turned in a pair of fifth-place finishes with a time of 15.73 seconds (15.40 prelims) in the 100-meter hurdles and a triple jump of 10.49 meters (34' 5"). Caitlin Maher (Hartsdale/Ardsley) was eighth in the triple jump (10.19 meters/33' 5.25").
 
Jennifer Ndukwu (Queens/Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School) finished fifth in the shot put (12.20 meters/40' 0.5"0 and sixth in the hammer throw (49.33 meters/161' 10"). Alexia Prince (Spring Valley/Clement Howell) placed sixth in the 100-meter dash (12.57, 12.52 prelims) and eighth in the 200-meter dash (25.28), and McPeek was sixth in the shot put (12.00 meters/39' 4.5").
 
In the 400-meter hurdles, Jones finished in sixth place (1:11.97), Amelia Konstanty (Lockport/Royalton-Hartland) was seventh (1:12.67) and Sullivan finished eighth (1:15.11). Kayla Tretola (Levittown/Island Trees) placed seventh in the discus (36.30 meters/119' 1"), Nolan was eighth in the javelin (24.71 meters/81' 1"), and Sammie Salisbury (Poughkeepsie/Arlington) finished eighth in both the 800 meters (2:31.88) and 1,500 meters (5:10.67).
 
Cortland athletes who met All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying marks included Pittman (100-meter dash and 200-meter dash), Prince (200-meter dash), Sullivan (5,000 meters), Wolcott (5,000 meters), McMasters (Hammer), Ndukwu (Hammer and Shot Put), Talmadge (Heptathlon and 100-meter hurdles (15.61 during heptathlon), Swyers (100-meter hurdles in prelims) and McPeek (Shot Put).

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

It's hard not to start by acknowledging five new school records, two of which broke conference records from 1983! Those are pretty tremendous achievements!
 
The program had so many exceptional performances over the weekend that it is hard to decide which ones to focus on. So instead for this week I'd like to first comment on a few things that don't show up in the results at all, even if you were to go through them with a fine tooth comb.
 
The first thing I'd like to mention is thrower Ryan Joule. Ryan is out with a minor injury right now, but it's incredibly frustrating for him (and the coaches), in that he is really putting things together and ready to put a huge throw out there in his final season. Ryan's job for us over the weekend was to act as a "marshall" to help keep the pace of competition for the hammer throw in particular moving quickly enough so that we didn't have to stop due to darkness. This requires a lot of attention to the order, and a gentle but firm touch to have the competitors ready to go. Ryan did this for 5 hours on Friday! And it was magnificent – to the point where other coaches commented to me on how well things were moving. There's a level of self-sacrifice to do that for the program as well as for the other competitors along with taking pride in how we host these events. We're at our best when we have people that are focused on how to do their best but also more than willing to help for the greater good, and Ryan certainly exemplified that today.

SUNY Cortland President Dr. Erik Bitterbaum and his wife Ellen Howard Burton were popular figures at the meet this weekend; I can't express how special that is. I don't have a recollection of seeing any other college presidents that regularly attend home track meets; our President and First Lady are on the field, often right at the finish line, shaking hands, high-fiving, talking with parents, alumni, coaches from other institutions, officials - you name it, they probably spoke to them! We'll often talk about what a special place Cortland is, and this is one of those tangible examples of who unusual we are in all the right ways!
 
On to the performances:
 
With the men's 10km Brandon Mulholland and Robby Davidson did an excellent job of working together and grinding it out – they alternated leading each 2k (or 5 laps), and kept rolling off a very consistent pace that was beneficial for both. That's a hard task, and they executed it wonderfully!
 
For the women's 5k, having 5 women under the 19-minute mark (Deirdre Sullivan, Alexa Wolcott, Melissa Innocent, Julia Benton, and Jewel Jones) is a nice showcase of our depth; three more ladies were under the 20-minute mark (Phoebe Peer, Rowan Leddy, and Anne Barney) just adds to it. Jewel put together a really exceptional weekend as she came back on Saturday to do a workout which resulted in her leading the team in the 400 hurdles, and running a 2:25 split on the 4x800!
 
Travis Iwuagwu, battling back from injuries that have kept him out since the indoor SUNYAC meet, showed himself to be in strong form with his first race of the season being under 16 seconds to qualify for finals, he came back with a strong showing under the 16-second barrier on Saturday as well.
 
In women's shot put, Jennifer Ndukwu posted a slight PR, while Cheyenne McPeek moved into the #5 position on Cortland's all-time list just one spot behind Jen. Evan Collette jumped up the SUNY Cortland leaderboard in the hammer throw, just one centimeter behind the school record, while the men's 4x100 relay squad of LeBron Richardson, Harrison Gavalas, Zion Cheatham, and Matt Schaffert ran the #2 all-time performance at Cortland. Josh Jeffes (now #3) and Evan Jensen (now #5) posted some great 200m times, while Evan joined Josh on the 400 meter list, taking over 3rd place.
 
I'd like to close with highlighting a few other performers – in the women's 100 and 200, Alexia Prince, Yasmine Peralta, and Faith Nelson all set new personal bests in both events, which is certainly a strong achievement! Firstyears Carter Naginey, and Zachary Arria both had strong Saturdays with collegiate bests in the open 800 to go along with strong legs on the 4x800, and junior Aidan Garafola broke through the 50-second barrier as a leadoff on a 4x400 relay on Friday night and then officially in the open 400 on Saturday.
 
We're fortunate to have two different opportunities next weekend between heading to St. John Fisher and to Shippensburg University for competitions next weekend. The teams are moving along in the right direction, and we're excited to keep things rolling!