CORTLAND, N.Y - The Cortland women's outdoor track and field team captured its second straight State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) championship and 19th overall at the 12-team conference championship meet Friday and Saturday. Cortland hosted the event.
 
Cortland finished with 250 points, followed by Oneonta with 167 and Fredonia with 98. Delhi (87), Buffalo State (44) and Penn St. Behrend (42) rounded out the top six. The field included eight SUNYAC core member schools along with four associate members - Penn St. Behrend, Delhi, Alfred State and Cobleskill.
 
Cortland claimed four conference titles at the meet. Melissa Innocent (Elmont/Valley Stream North) won the 5,000 meters in 17:43.89 and Bri Ostheller (Penfield) was the 10,000-meter run champion in 37:18.05. Gianna Boland (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) won the triple jump with a distance of 11.33 meters (37' 2.25"), and the foursome of Eilise Marino (West Sayville/Sayville), Brianna Gabbidon (Islip), Sophia Hotaling (Cooperstown) and Kendall Sobczyk (Wheatfield/Niagara Wheatfield) won the 4x100-meter relay in 48.30 seconds. Sobczyk also finished third in the 100-meter dash (12.21) and Gabbidon was third in the 200-meter dash (25.42, 25.28 prelims).
 
The 4x400-meter relay team of Abby Hardy (Johnson City), Gabbidon, Dahiana Martinez (Bronx/Bronx School of Law, Govt. & Justice) and Hotaling placed second in 4:04.99. Martinez was the runner-up in the 400-meter hurdles (1:05.36, 1:05.28 prelims), Marino finished second in the 100-meter hurdles (15.22), and Innocent finished third in the 1,500 meters (4:39.82).
 
Kayla Tretola (Levittown/Island Trees) finished second in the shot put (12.01 meters/39' 5") and placed third in the discus (38.00 meters/124' 8"), and Cheyenne McPeek (Johnson City) was second in the hammer throw (51.95 meters/170' 5") and third in the shot put (11.92 meters/39' 1.25").
 
Phoebe Peer (Saranac Lake) claimed runner-up honors in the 5,000 meters (17:51.19), Alexa Wolcott (Wyoming/Pavilion) finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (11:36.20), and Faith Hoyt (Pittsford/Pittsford Mendon) was second in the pole vault (3.35 meters/10' 11.75"). Reilly Quinn (Morrisonville/Beekmantown) placed second in the high jump (1.57 meters/5' 1.75") and Lillian Swyers (Peru) finished second in the long jump (5.24 meters/17' 2.25").
 
Jennifer Ndukwu (Queens/Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School) was the third-place finisher in the hammer throw (49.10 meters/161' 1"0 and Katie Ball (Smithtown/Smithtown East) finished second in the heptathlon (3,325 points). Georgia Spuches-Jwaskiewicz (Syracuse/Liverpool) finished in a three-way tie for third place in the high jump (1.52 meters/4' 11.75").
 
The top three finishers in each event earn All-SUNYAC honors – winners are first team, runners-up are second team and third-place finishers are third team, with their official all-league designation from the conference based on their best placement.
 
Also at the meet, graduate student thrower Colleen Patrie (Syracuse/Westhill) was named one of three winners of the SUNYAC Women's Outdoor Track and Field Elite 20 award. The honor goes to the student-athlete at the finals site of each league championship with the highest overall GPA. Patrie earned her undergraduate degree in inclusive childhood education major with a 4.0 GPA this past December and is currently a graduate student in special education.

Numerous Cortland performances in addition to those above ranked in the top eight to score points at the meet. Those performances included:
 
4th place:
Gabbidon, 100-meter dash, 12.48
Jade Hornick (Valley Stream/Valley Stream South), 10,000 meters, 39:43.35
Hotaling, 400-meter dash, 1:00.22
McPeek, Discus, 37.75 meters (123' 10")
Ndukwu, Shot Put, 11.89 meters (39' 0.25")
Kelly Newman (Harrison), 800 meters, 2:22.60 (2:21.91 prelims)
Swyers, 100-meter hurdles, 15.77 (15.40 prelims)
Molly Van Etten (Woodbourne/Tri-Valley Secondary), Heptathlon, 3,321 points
 
5th place:
Boland, 100-meter hurdles, 15.80
Jess Neubert (Buffalo/Kenmore East), Discus, 37.75 meters (123' 10")
Sobczyk, 200-meter dash, 25.86 (25.72 prelims)
Swyers, Triple Jump, 10.59 meters (34' 9")
Cassidy Wendt (Seaford), 1,500 meters, 4:53.28
 
6th place:
Amelia Konstanty (Lockort/Royalton Hartland), 400-meter hurdles, 1:10.47 (1:09.88 prelims)
Quinn, Long Jump, 5.08 meters (16' 8")
Leah Schleicher (East Meadow), Triple Jump, 10.58 meters (34' 8.5")
 
7th place:
Hardy, 400-meter dash, 1:01.48
Neubert, Hammer Throw, 42.55 meters (139' 7")
Hannah Nolan (Montour Falls/Odessa-Montour), Javelin, 26.01 meters (85' 4")
Annabelle Schuck (Saratoga Springs), Long Jump, 5.06 meters (16' 7.25")
Abigail Tessier (Delhi/Delaware Academy), 10,000 meters, 41:54.08
 
8th place:
Mia Hannan (Lynbrook/Sacred Heart Academy), 800 meters, 2:39.78 (2:29.69 prelims)
Molly McMasters (Homer), Hammer Throw, 42.45 meters (139' 3")
Nolan, Long Jump, 5.04 meters (16' 6.5")
Nolan, Triple Jump, 10.44 meters (34' 3")

Cortland will potentially compete at "Last Chance" meets over the next week, and the Red Dragons will compete at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Outdoor Championships May 13-14 at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania. Cortland's AARTFC qualifiers during the SUNYAC Championships were:
 
Ball, Heptathlon (if in top 16; currently 34th)
Boland, Triple Jump
Gabbidon, 200-meter dash and 100-meter dash
Hoyt, Pole Vault
Hornick, 10,000 meters
Innocent, 5,000 meters and 1,500 meters
Marino, 100-meter hurdles
Martinez, 400-meter hurdles
McPeek, Hammer Throw
Ndukwu, Hammer Throw
Ostheller, 10,000 meters
Peer, 5,000 meters
Swyers, 100-meter hurdles
Sobczyk, 100-meter dash
Tretola, Shot Put and Discus
Van Etten, Heptathlon (if in top 16; currently 39th)
Wolcott, 3,000-meter steeplechase
4x100-meter relay (Marino, Gabbidon, Hotaling, Sobczyk)
4x400-meter relay (Hardy, Gabbidon, Martinex, Hotaling)


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

Quite a weekend by both squads!

The men's team overall had a very businesslike approach to the weekend. We wanted to make sure that we were well disciplined in our approach and execution, and certainly achieved that for the most part! The objective highlight has to be the new school record in the men's Hammer Throw by Evan Collette – the first Cortland athlete to break the 60-meter mark!
 
Obviously the event winners, all-conference performers, and point scorers all deserve a good measure of recognition. Knowing how well our sports information staff will do in the recap of the weekend, I'd like to note a few performances or performers that really achieved as well.
 
LeBron Richardson had quite a weekend, splitting duty between the long jump, the 100, and the 200. His performance in any individual event would have been noteworthy; the effort and production across all three is quite impressive! While John Anderson continued his streak of conference titles in the combined event between indoor and outdoor, firstyear Nick Malette chose to compete despite a quad strain that developed on Monday; to be over 5000 points while dealing with that is quite a tough and admirable effort!
 
Having a 1-2-3 sweep in the 400 hurdles is quite a fun thing; the 3rd-place finisher Drew Miller was only competing in the 5th 400 hurdle race of his career! We were pretty excited when he opened his career just over 60 seconds; that he dropped nearly 4 seconds is 5 weeks is something pretty special!
 
Aspiring 400 hurdle Luke Chamberlain really held his own in the throws, with PRs in both shot and discus to go along with nearly his furthest in the hammer. Scoring in all three events is quite a challenge – he was the only Red Dragon on the men's side to achieve that in the throws!
 
For the women's squad, the team really brought it over the weekend! We had a few missteps here and there, but the team effort was pretty incredible! We always talk about scoring 10 points as a team per event; we averaged well over that mark, and in fact scored more than 10 points in 15 of the 21 events! Even in events where we weren't 'scheduled' to score well, we scored!
 
As a senior, Kendall Sobczyk very much led the way today with big runs in the 100, 200, and as the anchor of the 400 relay – overtaking first place early in her leg and holding on! It's pretty telling to me that her other relay team members – Brianna Gabbidon, Sophia Hotaling, and Eilise Marino all scored in at least one individual event as well! Bri was a workhouse – running the 100 and 200 as well, and requesting to run the 4x400! In fact when you include the other members of the 4x400, those 6 women accounted for 62 points!
 
Gianna Boland put together a great weekend – not only with her triple jump victory (with a mark that is now #4 all-time at Cortland), but also with a big PR in the hurdles to score 5th! Lilly Swyers was a valuable contributor with valuable points across long jump, triple jump, and the high hurdles; Cheyenne McPeek led a strong contingent in the throws scoring in the discus, hammer, and shot! Hannah Nolan should get a shout out at as well – she entered the meet not ranked in scoring position for a single event, and ending up scoring in all three – a great way to cap her career with us!
 
I'd be remiss to not shout out our distance squad, especially in the longer races. In the 10k, Bri Ostheller ran a masterful race to set a huge new PR and earn the title, both Jade Hornick and Abi Tessier were tough in relatively solo efforts to set new PRs and score – bringing in 17 points on the first night really went a long ways to set the tone for the team! Melissa Innocent and Phoebe Peer closed out the individual track events with a 1-2 finish, taking control at around the 3k mark; Melissa finished strong with her second-best performance ever; Phoebe set a new PR and dipped under the 18-minute mark which is stellar!
 
With the conclusion of SUNYACs, the season has concluded for most of the squad. This is a sad time of year from that standpoint. A select folks will be participating in last chance meets next weekend; some will also attend the AARTFC Championships on May 13th and 14th as a last-chance opportunity.