COLLEGEVILLE, PA. - Reilly Quinn (Morrisonville/Beekmantown) and Cheyenne McPeek (Johnson City) won events to help the Cortland women's outdoor track and field finish in ninth place out of 65 schools at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Championships Wednesday and Thursday at Ursinus College.
 
Cortland finished with 28 team points, one behind TCNJ and one better than Colby, Scranton and Smith. Rochester was the team champion with 70 points, followed in the top five by Delhi (46), Ithaca and King's (39 each), and Geneseo (33).
 
Quinn placed first of 23 in the high jump with a height of 1.71 meters (5' 7.25"), pushing herself into the top 10 of the Division III national rankings. McPeek is now ranked in the top 22 nationally in the hammer throw after finishing first out of 36 competitors with a hurl of 53.25 meters (174' 8").
 
Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) finished third (17:32.72) and Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) placed eighth (17:54.52) out of 37 runners in the 5,000 meters. Georgia Spuches Jwaskiewicz (Syracuse/Liverpool) turned in an eighth place finish in the high jump at 1.60 meters (5' 3").
 
The top eight individual finishers and the top three relays earned All-AARTFC honors.
 
Gianna Boland (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) finished 13th in the triple jump at 11.16 meters (36' 7.5") and Kendall Sobczyk (Wheatfield/Niagara Wheatfield) was 19th of 43 in the 100-meter dash in 12.47 seconds. Jennifer Ndukwu (Queens/Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School) was 21st in the hammer (44.83 meters/147' 1") and Bri Ostheller (Penfield) finished 22nd in the 5,000 meters (18:24.19).
 
Cortland awaits the announcement of qualifiers for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships, which will be held in La Crosse, Wis., May 21-23. The final participant list will be posted on NCAA.com on Friday, May 15 by 8 p.m. Eastern. The top 22 declared individuals in each event and the top 16 declared relay teams in each relay (4x100 and 4x400) qualify for nationals.
 
As of Thursday evening, Cortland athletes ranking in the national qualifying spots are:
 
Quinn, tied 7th, High Jump
Ndukwu, 16th, Hammer Throw
McPeek, 21st, Hammer Throw

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

This was quite a successful couple of days for us! Faithful readers may recall the challenges I had identified in my comments regarding last week's 'last chance' at Williams College; all of those factors still apply. The exciting thing for the squad is the number of outstanding performances we saw over the past couple of days!
 
First from Wednesday evening, the men's 4x400 ran a spectacular time to not only move up to the 17th-best program in the country, but also to the #3 time in Cortland history. The guys ran great races, and are unfortunately sitting just outside of qualification as the top 16 entered teams are accepted into the meet. The squad is .28 seconds out of qualifying – which is tough to swallow – but also a great indication of how far they have  come over the year! Isaiah Brunache had a great hammer throw on Wednesday evening as well, while Cheyenne McPeek broke through with a season's best in the event that leaves her in the top 22 nationally – meaning she is safely into the NCAA Championships. Melissa Innocent closed her season with a wonderfully executed race in the 5k, setting a new PR in the process and setting the table nicely for the upcoming cross country campaign.

Thursday ended up a nearly impossibly strong day for us, as we had three new NCAA qualifying performances! For the Lady Red Dragons, Reilly Quinn not only tied her PR of 1.68 on a first-attempt clearance to lock ion her NCAA qualification, she then easily cleared 1.71 on her first attempt to move up the rankings nationally, move up to fourth all-time at Cortland, and earn the win at the meet! That's quite a strong day! Isaiah ripped an impressive discus throw – the farthest of his career – to jump up to national qualification. Between his win in the discus, runner-up in the shot, and placing in the hammer, Isaiah also earned the field event performer of the meet! And last but in now ways least, Manuel Sepulveda battled back from a series of setbacks to jump an outdoor personal best in the triple jump, solidifying his spot at the NCAA championships and to move up to fourth all-time at Cortland!
 
It's also worth noting that Gianna Boland continued her excellence in the triple jump from the conference meet with big jumps, and that firstyear Elliott Supley closed his rookie campaign with a huge throw that ranks his as the second firstyear in the country, and in the second spot on our all-time list. While we definitely didn't worry about the team scoring aspect of this meet, to be 2nd (for the men) and 9th (for the women) is a pretty great measure of the strength of our program!
 
We're excited for the upcoming NCAA Champions, with the knowledge that Isaiah (in shot and disc), Kyler Alston (in the 400 hurdles), Evan Collette (in the hammer throw), and Manuel (in the triple jump) are safely qualified for the men, while Reilly (in high jump), Cheyenne (in the hammer throw), and Jennifer Ndukwu (also in the hammer throw) are safely qualified for the women. With graduation happening on Saturday, we also want to thank our newest alumni for the time and effort they have put into the program. We'll miss them dearly!