PLATTSBURGH, N.Y. – The Cortland women's cross country team, led by four top-six finishes, placed first out of three schools at the SUNYAC Preview Meet, hosted by SUNY Plattsburgh. The event was held on the same course that will be used for the SUNYAC championship meet in early November.
Cortland won with a score of 29 points. Oneonta was second with 48 and Plattsburgh third with 55.
Jewel Jones (Long Beach) finished third out of 46 runners over 6,000 meters in 23 minutes, 54.8 seconds, less than three seconds behind the winner Grace Estus of Plattsburgh (23:52.0).
Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) finished fourth in 23:55.2, followed by
Alexa Wolcott (Wyoming/Pavilion) in fifth (23:56.3) and
Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) in sixth (23:57.0). Rounding out Cortland's top seven were
Anne Barney (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) in 11th (25:16.8),
MaryJane Politi (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) in 12th (25:17.1) and
Rowan Leddy (Norwood, NJ/Northern Valley-Old Tappan) in 13th (25:21.9).
Cortland returns to action next Saturday at the Rochester Yellowjacket Invitational.
Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:
We had a tremendous first 'full-distance' pair of races earlier today!
For both squads we strongly emphasized pack running. For the men it was through 4 miles; for the women it was through 3. The teams executed this plan pretty flawlessly, and it was just beautiful to watch.
We then had very tough efforts over the final mile (for the men) or 1200 meters (for the women). It was great not only in terms of how the teams worked together and chose to be tough when it counted, but also because it provides us with a good benchmark of where we are at and what the next steps are.
Overall a pretty good day, and we were definitely living it up!
We're pleased with efforts across the whole team today, so it is really hard to single anybody out as the 'good dogs' for this week. That's a great position to be in!
Of course we, like most of the greater running community, want to respectfully acknowledge the
passing of the legendary Cortland coach, professor, and researcher Dr. Jack Daniels; we send our support to his wife Nancy (also a former Cortland coach) along with their daughters Audra and Sarah.
