Cortland Women Win SUNYAC Outdoor Championship
Geneseo, NY - Four event titles, four runner-up finishes and four third places helped the Cortland women's track and field team to its first Outdoor SUNYAC Championship since 2007 on the campus of SUNY Geneseo May 6-7, 2011. Cortland finished with 164 points while runner up Oneonta totaled 135 and Geneseo finished with 127.
Saturday's winners included Erica Johnson of Buffalo State in the 100 meters with an NCAA provisional time of 12.09, Plattsburgh's Amy McCasland won the 400 meters in 57.65, Liz Maziejka of Oneonta won the 400 hurdles in 1:04.21, Cortland's Amber Stephens won the triple jump in 11.32 meters, Nicole Jones of Brockport won the shot put with a 12.41 meter toss, Sarah Timmons of Oneonta claimed the discus with an NCAA provisional distance of 42.63 meters and Cortland's Nicole Schafer won the heptathlon with an NCAA provisional score of 4,313.
On Friday, sophomore Kacy Boburka was the lone winner for Oneonta as she posted a 5.20 meter long jump. The Golden Eagles of Brockport saw two champions crowned as senior Stephanie Powell won the hammer throw with an NCAA provisional distance of 49.44 meters and junior Becky Fabbiano cleared a height of 3.40 meters in the pole vault. Junior Stefanie Brown of Plattsburgh won the final event of the evening with an NCAA provisional time of 37:17.43 in the 10,000 meters.
Senior Maria Barbaglia finished second in the hammer for Geneseo with a distance of 44.83 meters, sophomore Brigid Heenan placed fourth in the 10,000 meters with a time of 38:25.55 and sophomore Rachel Serpe (Gates-Chili) cleared a fourth-place height of 3.10 meters in the pole vault.
Event by Event Recap
100-meter hurdles: Buffalo State had two of the top three finishers, led by freshman Jazmin Dunham in a provisional qualifying time of 14.65. Defending champion Kate Brett of Fredonia finished as the runner-up (15.43) and the Bengals’ Jessica Walker completed the top three (15.86).
100-meter dash: The Bengals swept the 100-meter dash led by junior Erica Johnson with a provisional time of 12.09. Taniqua Hollingsworth and Nate’ya Lassic posted times of 12.34 and 12.48, respectively.
200-meter dash: Buffalo State one upped their 100 meter dash performance by taking the top four spots on the podium in the 200 meters. Jazmin Dunham won her second event of the day, previously winning the 100 hurdles, as she led the Bengal quartet in 25.14. Taniqua Hollingsworth (25.30), Lakeisha Nicholas (25.39) and Erica Johnson (25.62) continued the Bengals dominance in the sprints.
400-meter dash: Plattsburgh junior Amy McCasland continued her dominance in the 400 distance winning her third straight outdoor title to go along with her 2011 indoor title. McCasland ran a 57.65 as all eight finalists in the event were sub one-minute. Cortland’s Abby Vanderveen clocked a 58.33 and Plattsburgh’s Mahalia Ewers finished third (58.54).
400-meter hurdles: Defending champion Fredonia’s Kate Brett ran a great race but was over taken in the final stretch by Oneonta senior Liz Maziejka in a winning time of 1:04.21. Maziejka missed the NCAA provisional time by one-hundredth of a second as Brett posted a final time of 1:04.52.
800-meter run: Geneseo junior Alyssa Smith finished held of defending champion Oneonta’s Lauren Brunetto by two seconds in the two lap race. Smith set a new meet record in a provisional-qualifying time of 2:13.73, while Brunetto finished in 2:15.89. Geneseo’s Kelly Brunscheen finished third in 2:18.16.
1,500–meter run: Junior Alyssa Smith posted a winning time of 4:37.58, just missing an NCAA provisional time. Cortland sophomore Jordyn Naylon was six seconds behind at 4:43.77, edging out Plattsburgh’s Amanda Schermerhorn (4:44.59). The win for Smith was her first individual title of her career and she later won the 800 on the same day.
3,000-meter Steeplechase: Defending champion Marissa Liberti led a field of 16 runners on her way to setting a new meet record in a NCAA provisional time of 11:02.54. Liberati lapped most of her competitors but it was Plattsburgh Colleen Cotey who crossed second in 11:25.94 and Geneseo’s Ashley Jones was third in a time of 11:41.91.
5,000-meter run: Sophomore Marissa Liberati cruised to 17:14.42 victory in the 5,000 meters, winning the event for Geneseo for the first time since 2006 when the Knights had won the title from 2003-2006. Plattsburgh’s Stefanie Braun trailed Cortland’s Alyson Dalton for most of the race but made a late move in the race to take second in 17:50.99, while Dalton finished third (17:58.08). Danae Polsin and Brigid Heenan joined Libarti in the top five for the Knights.
10,000-meter run: Plattsburgh’s Stefanie Braun defended her title in the 10,000 meter run Friday night as she a led a trio of Cardinals to a 1-2-3 finish. Braun finished the 25 laps in an NCAA provisional time of 37:17.43, almost a full minute ahead of Julia Warren (38:08.56). Sophomore Colleen Coon crossed the finish line in 38:21.90, edging out Geneseo’s Bridid Heenan of Geneseo (38.25.55). Closing out the top five was Cardinal runner Kelley Driscoll (38.29.59).
4x100-meter relay: The Buffalo State Bengals won their fifth straight 400 meter relay behind the quartet of Erica Johnson, Taniqua Hollingsworth, Nate’ya Lassic and Lakeisha Nichols (all four runners were top four in the 200-meters) in a time of 48.16. Cortland took second in 48.35 and Oneonta finished third in 49.80.
4x400-meter relay: The Plattsburgh Cardinals posted the top time of 3:53.32 in a NCAA provisional and new SUNYAC meet record as Amy McCasland, individual 400 meter winner, teamed up with Jennifer Risler, Joanne TeRiele and Mahalia Ewers. The same quartet won the indoor title a few months ago but the outdoor title for Plattsburgh is the first for the Cardinals since 1999. Cortland, defending champion, was one second behind at 3:54.18 and Oneonta took third in 3:56.89.
Hammer: Brockport senior Stephanie Powell defended her hammer title with a toss of 49.44 meters, throwing 4.6 meters farther than the next competitor as the Golden Eagles claimed four of the top eight spots. Geneseo’s Maria Barbaglia threw 44.83 for second place and Brockport’s Stacey Gibbins was third (43.93).
Shot put: Sophomore Nicole Jones became the first Golden Eagle thrower to win the shot put since 1999 as the Golden Eagles posted a 1-2-3 finish. Jones threw 12.41 meters and teammates Kristine Hoover threw 11.81 meters and Stacey Gibbins was third (11.20). Maggie Needham completed the top eight for Brockport as the Golden Eagles finished with 25 points in the event.
Discus: Oneonta junior Sarah Timmons won back-to-back titles in the discus with a winning throw of 42.63 meters. Brockport Golden Eagles Nicole Jones and Stacey Gibbins finished second and third, respectively with distances of 37.25 and 36.72 meters.
Javelin: Cortland had not won the javelin event since 1998, but all of that changed on Friday May 6th when senior Kristen Serikstad had a winning toss of 35.34 meters. Serikstad finished ahead of an Oneonta trio that claimed 2-3-4 led by junior Sarah Timmons with a throw of 34.51. Sophomore Kacy Boburka and freshman Natalia Poljak completed the top four.
High jump: Cortland’s Kristen Serikstad cleared the NCAA provisional height of 1.65 meters to take the top spot on the award podium. Oneonta sophomore Kacy Boburka and Geneseo senior Julie Cook each cleared 1.60m but it was Boburka who won the tiebreaker to earn second place. Serikstad previously won the event in 2009.
Pole vault: Brockport junior Becky Fabbiano cleared a height of 3.40 meters to win the pole vault as the Golden Eagles also finished sixth and eighth in the event. Indoor champion Chelsea Caruso of Fredonia and Cortland’s Kelly Hugo each cleared the height of 3.25 meters but Caruso won the tie-break.
Long jump: Three freshmen from around the conference finished in the top four in the long jump but it was Oneonta sophomore who won the event with a leap of 5.20 meters. Indoor champion Jasmine Poles of Buffalo State took second (5.17) while Cortland’s Sarah Bonnell was close behind with a distance of 5.15 meters to edge out Oneonta’s Michelle Chartrand who leapt 5.14 meters.
Triple jump: Cortland sophomore Amber Stephens won her first individual conference title with a jump of 11.32 meters in the triple jump as four schools finished in the top four. Buffalo State’s Jasmine Poles finished second (11.22), Oneonta’s Kacy Boburka was third (11.21) and Fredonia’s Emily Cummiskey was fourth (11.15).
Heptathlon: Cortland sophomore Nicole Schafer won the SUNYAC heptathlon title for the second straight year with an NCAA provisional qualifying score of 4,313 points. Schafer won three of seven events. Fredonia freshman Erin Parker was second with 4,102 points.
Team Standings
| Cortland | 164 |
| Oneonta | 135 |
| Geneseo | 127 |
| Buffalo State | 117 |
| Brockport | 107.5 |
| Plattsburgh | 98.5 |
| Fredonia | 55 |
| Oswego | 14 |
