CORTLAND, N.Y. – Cortland earned six victories during the two-day Cortland Classic women's outdoor track and field meet, held Friday and Saturday at the SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex.
 
Jennifer Ndukwu (Queens/Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School) won the invitational division of the hammer throw in a field of 21 competitors with a toss of 52.78 meters (173' 2"). Cheyenne McPeek (Johnson City) finished fourth at 49.58 meters (162' 8"), while Molly McMasters (Homer) won the open division of the hammer at 43.38 meters (142' 4"). Ndukwu was third of 34 in the shot put (12.47 meters/40' 11"), followed by McPeek in sixth place (11.75 meters/38' 6.75"), while in the discus McPeek finished third of 34 at 38.60 meters (126' 8"), with Kayla Tretola (Levittown/Island Trees) fourth (36.52 meters/119' 10") and Jess Neubert (Buffalo/Kenmore East) fifth (35.90 meters/117' 9").
 
Reilly Quinn (Morrisonville/Beekmantown) won the high jump by clearing 1.61 meters (5' 3.25"). Georgia Spuches Jwaskiewicz (Syracuse/Liverpool) finished third at 1.51 meters (4' 11.5"). Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) was the 5,000-meter champion in 18:07.63 and Alexa Wolcott (Wyoming/Pavilion) finished third in 18:33.09.
Faith Hoyt (Pittsford/Pittsford Mendon) claimed top honors in the pole vault with a height of 3.20 meters (10' 6"). Lillian Swyers (Peru) finished first of 22 in the long jump after covering 5.28 meters (17' 4"). Quinn finished third (5.21 meters/17' 1.25"), Gabriella Raymond (Sayville) finished fifth (5.02 meters/16' 5.75") and Leah Schleicher (East Meadow) was sixth (4.96 meters/16' 3.25").
 
Bri Ostheller (Penfield) finished second (39:08.38) and Jade Hornick (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South) placed fourth (40:00.87) in the 10,000 meters. In the 100-meter dash, Kendall Sobczyk (Wheatfield/Niagara Wheatfield) was second of 53 in a wind-aided 12.05 seconds (she finished in 12.28 seconds in the prelims). Brianna Gabbidon (Islip) finished third in the 100-meter dash (12.17) and third out of 45 competitors in the 200-meter dash (24.84).
 
Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) was third of 27 in the 800 meters in 2:18.05 and Kelly Newman (Harrison) placed fifth (2:23.07). In a wind-aided 100-meter hurdles final, Eilise Marino (West Sayville/Sayville) finished fourth of 20 in 15.10 seconds (15.43 prelims), Swyers was fifth in 15.32 seconds and Gianna Boland (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) finished sixth in 15.74 seconds. In the triple jump, Swyers finished third (10.87 meters/35' 8"), Boland was fourth (10.86 meters/35' 7.75"), Raymond placed fifth (10.85 meters/35' 7.25") and Marino was sixth (10.55 meters/34' 7.5").
 
Katie Ball (Smithtown/Smithtown East) finished sixth of 17 in the heptathlon with a score of 3,503 points. Annabelle Schuck (Saratoga Springs) was eighth with 3,200 points, highlighted by a long jump of 5.47 meters (17' 11.5").
 
The combination of Marino, Gabbidon, Sophia Hotaling (Cooperstown) and Sobczyk placed third in the 4x100-meter relay (49.31), and the quartet of Hotaling, Newman, Innocent and Gabbidon finished third in the 4x400-meter relay (4:05.45).
 
Dahiana Martinez (Bronx/Bronx School of Law, Govt. & Justice) finished third (1:06.49) and Amelia Konstanty (Lockport/Royalton Hartland) was fourth (1:14.34) in the 400-meter hurdles. Hannah Nolan (Montour Falls/Odessa-Montour) was fifth in the javelin (25.20 meters/82' 8") and Anne Barney (Oakland, NJ/Indian Hills) placed sixth of 31 in the 1,500 meters (5:06.34).
 
Cortland's performances that met All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying standards were: Ndukwu (hammer, shot put), McPeek (hammer, discus), Quinn (high jump), Peer (5,000 meters), Wolcott (5,000 meters), Ostheller (10,000 meters), Hornick (10,000 meters), Sobczyk (100-meter dash), Gabbidon (200-meter dash), Innocent (800 meters), Marino (100-meter hurdles), Ball (heptathlon), Schuck (long jump, during the heptathlon), the 4x100-meter relay (Marino, Gabbidon, Hotaling, Sobczyk), and the 4x400-meter relay (Hotaling, Newman, Innocent, Gabbidon). Some of Cortland's performances appeared to be qualifiers but weren't due to wind beyond acceptable levels.

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

We were blessed with a warm and mostly sunny couple of days, with winds that were generally cooperative. Those are big positives for track and field! Weirdly today (Saturday) we saw a few races where the wind exceeded what is 'legal' for qualification or records, but the competition is still a pretty invaluable experience; the wind was a bit of a dampener on performance in the 400, 400 hurdles, and 800s as well.
 
For the women's squad, Brianna Gabbidon had a stellar 200 – moving into the #3 all-time spot at Cortland. The top 5 is all under 25 seconds now, which is quite a benchmark of quality! Kendall Sobczyk and Sophia Hotaling also dropped quite wonderful times as well!
 
Melissa Innocent ran a solid PR in the 800, ably assisted by a great pacing job from Mia Hannan, who herself set a new PR in the 1500! In the longest event of the weekend – the 10k, we had four strong efforts from Bri Ostheller, Jade Hornick, Abi Tessier and Lizzie Young; Bri led the way with an exceptional 2nd half of the race, running her final 5k in a time that would have been a 5k PR just a month ago.
 
In the field, triple jump excelled as the top three women (Lily Swyers, Gianna Boland, and Gabby Raymond) all jumped to new season bests – with only 1cm separating each! There's a lot of depth in that group, and they are doing a great job of putting things together!
 
Women's shot put had a wonderful meet for the squad, with strong performances particularly from Jen Ndukwu (who now owns the #3 all-time throw at Cortland), Cheyenne McPeek, Kayla Tretola, and Grace Boland; Cheyenne, Kayla, Grace, and Jess Neubert all had similar strong performances in the discus. Jess and Molly McMasters were leaders with new PRs in the hammer throw as well!
 
And finally, the heptathlon…Katie Ball not only led the way with her score, but also set a pretty significant PR (led by a new PR in the high hurdles); a trio of firstyears all had strong days, with Annabelle Schuck and Kellee Knuschke competing in their first combined-event competition ever! There's a lot to learn in the combined event, and both have really caught on quickly over a short period of time.
 
While the men's 100 finals featured some really fast times, the wind was a bit too much; Friday's preliminaries led to five Cortland men under the 11-second barrier, which is always a big one to break! Marcello Mastrocco obviously deserves kudos for his win in the 100; firstyear Daaron Harrell posted a blazing time in the 200 as well, taking over the #5 all-time spot at Cortland! Zion Cheatham also bested the old #5 mark with his 200 performance.
 
There's a lot to be happy about how Carter Naginey raced the 800 for the win (a wise coach once told me to never underestimate the value of winning your event); as well as Jordan Wingert in the 1500. The men's 5k was a pretty good overall effort for us, especially with Landon Fracasse running a big PR, Kyle Friedel breaking the 16-minute barrier, and Anthony Rizzo just narrowly missing dipping under that mark. The men's distance squad finished off Friday with strong efforts in the 10k led by Brandon Mulholland and Christian Wissa.
 
Andrew Farnsworth had a tremendous day in high jump, as did Kam Martinichio in his first competition of the outdoor season. Having two men over the 7-meter mark in long jump (LeBron Richardson and Manuel Sepulveda) is a great accomplishment for the season, let alone one night.; Brady Melious responded with surpassing the 14-meter barrier in the triple jump to lead the squad.
 
Luke Chamberlain and Quinn Jennings were big positives in the men's shot put; Elliott Supley, Cabe Hogue and Jason Zaita all led the way with the discus. John Genova had a double PR weekend, with new bests in both discus and the javelin! Elliott and Cabe probably earn the medal for the strongest hammer throws of the weekend as well.
 
And while the sun and heat probably hurt the stamina for the decathletes, they all put together a good weekend, overcoming some setbacks along the way. There were a number of strong performances across the events that make things pretty exciting!
 
We also get to have senior recognition on this weekend, which is of course great (while being somewhat sad)! While some of these folks have only been with us for a couple of years, it has been wonderful to have them as a part of our family. It's been incredibly exciting as they are able to talk about their future plans as they move on to bigger and better things!

We're split next weekend again, with the squad heading on the road to either Shippensburg University or St. John Fisher University for competition on Saturday, April 25th.