LEWISBURG, PA. and ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cortland women's outdoor track and field team posted 10 All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying performances at the Bucknell Bison Outdoor Classic and another three at the Cornell Big Red Invitational during a split-meet weekend for the team.
 
Bucknell Highlights:
 
Georgia Spuches Jwaskiewicz (Syracuse/Liverpool) and Reilly Quinn (Morrisonville/Beekmantown) each cleared 1.60 meters (5' 3"). Spuches Jwaskiewicz officially finished in 10th place and Quinn finished 11th.
 
In the 100-meter dash, Kendall Sobczyk (Wheatfield/Niagara Wheatfield) placed 20th out of 76 sprinters in 12.34 seconds and Brianna Gabbidon (Islip) finished 38th in 12.54 seconds. Gabbidon finished 35th of 92 in the 200-meter dash in 25.57 seconds, and the combo of Eilise Marino (West Sayville/Sayville), Gabbidon, Sophia Hotaling (Cooperstown) and Sobczyk placed 12th in the 4x100-meter relay in 49.33 seconds.
 
Marino recorded a 32nd-place finish in the 100-meter hurdles (15.47) and Alexa Wolcott (Wyoming/Pavilion) was 30th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (11:36.09). Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) finished 44th in the invitational division of the 1,500 meters in 4:35.55, and Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) was 24th of 83 in the unseeded division of the 1,500 meters in 4:46.44.
 
All of the mentioned performances above at Bucknell were AARTFC qualifiers.
 
Cornell Highlights:
 
At Cornell, Faith Hoyt (Pittsford/Pittsford Mendon) cleared 3.36 meters (11' 0.25") in the pole vault for a ninth-place finish, while in the invitational division of the hammer throw Cheyenne McPeek (Johnson City) was fourth with a toss of 49.17 meters (161' 4") and Jennifer Ndukwu (Queens/Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School) was fifth at 46.02 meters (151' 0"). Those three performances were AARTFC qualifiers.
 
In the discus, McPeek finished fourth out of 21 competitors at 33.92 meters (111' 3") and Kayla Tretola (Levittown/Island Trees) was sixth at 32.92 meters (108' 0"). Also in that event, Jess Neubert (Buffalo/Kenmore East) finished eighth (31.04 meters/101' 10"), Molly McMasters (Homer) was ninth (29.77 meters/97' 8"), and Colleen Patrie (Syracuse/Westhill) finished 10th (28.77 meters/94' 5").
 
Tretola placed sixth in the invitational division of the shot put with a distance of 11.39 meters (37' 4.5"), followed by Ndukwu in seventh (11.35 meters/37' 3") and McPeek in eighth (10.99 meters/36' 0.75"). In the open division of the shot put, McMasters was third (10.51 meters/34' 5.75") and Patrie placed fifth (9.81 meters/32' 2.25"), and in the open division of the hammer throw Neubert was first (38.60 meters/126' 8"), Patrie finished fourth (33.69 meters/110' 6"), and Grace Boland finished fifth (32.01 meters/105' 0").
 
In the triple jump, Gianna Boland (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) finished seventh at 10.53 meters (34' 6.75") and Gabriella Raymond (Sayville) finished eighth at 10.51 meters (34' 5.75"). Kelly Newman (Harrison) placed eighth in the 800 meters (2:22.31), Cassidy Wendt (Seaford) was 12th of 34 in the 1,500 meters (4:56.73), and Dahiana Martinez (Bronx/Bronx School of Law, Govt. & Justice) finished third in the 400-meter hurdles (1:07.87).

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

It was quite a busy weekend as we split the squad between the "Nells" with trips to Bucknell and Cornell! Having the flexibility to do things like this is incredibly important – and on the eve of giving day, we want to thank all the folks that have supported the program in the past as it helps to allow us to do things like this!
 
Bucknell mostly offered us the trifecta of great conditions, a great facility, and great competition, and we had a number of folks take advantage of it; I'm pretty confident that those that may have stumbled a bit will learn from the experience. Some obvious highlights would be Kyler Alston with the new PR to take the victory, strong 100s from Marcello Mastrocco and LeBron Richardson, a speedy 200 from Zion Cheatham, and a big PR from Carter Naginey in the 800. Marcello, LeBron and Zion teamed up with firstyear Joshua Bishop to run the #3 all-time 4x100 at Cortland, with some definite growing pains present as they haven't raced as a quartet yet this year. Daniel Kahler had a very nice run in the 400 to break the 50-second barrier for the first time ever, which is certainly exciting!
 
Speaking of the 400, Sophia Hotaling ran an excellent race to set a new PR, while both 1500 runners Melissa Innocent and Phoebe Peer did as well; Melissa moved into the all-time top 5 at Cortland with her effort on Saturday evening. Eilise Marino, after a strong lead-off leg in the 4x100 relay (that set a season's best), came back with a big new PR in the high hurdles as well!
 
The squad at Cornell had to fight against some challenging weather – it wasn't particularly warm, and it was quite windy, which can really play havoc especially in longer races and the jumps. On an already cool day, it can make it pretty long and chilly! So while not all of the performances were personal bests, we had a very large majority of folks that competed quite well! Tyler Italiano had a nice 100 early in the day, but I'm more impressed with the PR in the 200 at the end of the day where he received almost no help from the wind. Similarly both Anna Miller and Emily Pierro impressed in their open 400s – always a challenge on a cold and breezy day; Anna's twin Drew Miller led the way in the men's 400 hurdles, while Aidan Aguirre had a strong day running his best time in quite a while in the same event! Moving back to the women's side, Dahiana Martinez opened up her season with a good effort in the IH as well, and Amelia Konstanty ran her season's best in the same race!
 
The mid distance races went quite well at Cornell; I'll especially commend Kyle Friedel and Declan Butler for tough efforts in the men's 1500, Zachary Arria and Jacob Sandak in the men's 800, and Mia Hannan (800) and Bri Ostheller (1500) – both of whom had to lead nearly from the gun, and both of whom hit big PRs,. It's always tough to lead the whole race to a fast time, and it is doubly tough on a less than ideal day, so kudos to both for those big efforts!
 
The throws squad had a decent amount of positive movement up the conference rankings list through the weekend, which is of course nice to see! Hannah Nolan not only had a strong day in long jump, but also improved on her best in the javelin; John Genova had double season's best in both the javelin and the discus. Grace Boland came up big with double college PRs in the shot put and discus; Quinn Jennings did the same in discus and the hammer throw!
 
We had a lot of good progress with both High Hurdle squads, which was nice to see, along with some positive results out of both triple jump squads. Gusty winds can play havoc in those events over the course of the day, and as the day went on the team did a better job of handling the challenge. But the most challenging event has to be pole vault – Joffre Proano had a nice effort to clear a high opening bar (raising his best of the year, and nearly touching is lifetime best); Faith Hoyt handled the challenge with aplomb, setting a new personal best cracking the 11' barrier for the first time. That's quite an impressive achievement under the best of conditions; to do it on a cold windy day is something special!
 
We're of course excited for the upcoming Challenge Day (Wednesday, April 15th) as we know that we will see a great amount of support from alumni, friends, and family; this upcoming weekend we host the Cortland Classic over Friday and Saturday!