STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The Cornell women' s track and field team competed very well on Friday and Saturday at the Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup at Penn State, earning a third place finish in the competitive fourteen team field. The women won two events and had two runner-up showings, produced 11 ECAC qualifiers and had four alterations to the all-time top-10 lists, including a freshman record. The Big Red tallied 78 points to finish only behind host Penn State (134) and SEC power Auburn (111).
The women got off to a great start on Friday with two event wins. Senior co-captain
Stephanie Pancoast won the 5000 in 16:58.49, the #10 time in school history and freshmen
Genna Hartung (3rd, 17:17.67) and
Katie Kellner (4th, 17:27.23) also qualified for the ECACs; senior
Erin Roberts (7th, 17:37.28) set a personal best to score as well. Sophomore
Melissa Hewitt bounced back from a stumble in the preliminary rounds to win a very competitive 60 dash final, running a remarkable 7.50 out of lane 8. Senior
Krystal Williams (9th, 6.79) and junior
Mecha Santos (13th, 7.76 and #7 all-time) also sprinted well and just missed out on the final. Also on Friday, the distance medley relay of freshman
Alyssa O'Connor, sophomore
Kelsey Reimnitz, junior Kim Standridge and senior
Kerri Lyons ran a seasonal best 11:52.48 to get fourth and qualify for the ECACs. Sophomore
Taylor Baird advanced to the finals of the 60 hurdles and ran 9.02 to place 8th. In the pole vault, sophomore Sam Brady continued her fine 2010 with a seventh place 11-9 3/4, the second straight week she's cleared the ECAC standard.
On Saturday, the Cornell women continued to pile up very good performances. Standridge came back to place second in the 800, running 2:09.82, the #7 time in school history. Sophomore
Molly Glantz joined her as an ECAC qualifier with a fine 2:11.56 for fifth. Junior
Lauren Bariexca (8th, 2:14.56) and senior
Lindsay Broyhill (9th, 2:14.69) ran well to place first and second in their heat. In the 3000, freshman
Kelsey Karys broke the over 26-year old school freshman record held by Cornell Hall of Famer Sara Day '87, running an outstanding 9:41.78 to place second overall. Karys' time is also the 10th best in school history. Sophomore
Meghan Brown (10th, 10:00.89), junior
Maura Carroll (14th, 10:16.86) and freshman
Cara Costich (16th, 10:20.99) all ran well in setting personal bests. Senior co-captain Jess Weyman had a good day, scoring with an 8th place 55.92 (and ECAC qualifier) in the 400 before coming back to place 13th in the 200 (25.38). Sophomore
Kelsey Reimnitz (10th, 57.20), senior co-captain
Megan Williams (11th, 57.23), senior Kate Backel (13th, 57.31) and freshman
Libby O'Brien (14th, 57.32) also fared well in the 400, while Santos was 12th in the 200 at 25.33. In the 600, sophomore
Bry Bonavita was fourth in 1:35.8 while freshman Mari Girustante was fifth in 1:37.05. Another solid run came from sophomore
Emma Clarke, who was 10th in the mile in 5:02.40. The 4X400 closed out the meet with a third place 3:45.51, another ECAC qualifier from Backel, Williams, O'Brien and Weyman.
Also placing in the top 15 for the women was junior Kim Lienhoop, who was 10th in the long jump at 17-11 3/4 and 14th in the triple jump at 37-6, junior Cassie Schweighofer in the weight (11th, 49-10), freshman
Savannah Johnson in the triple jump (13th, 37-7 1/4), freshman
Lindsey Patterson in the pole vault (11th, 11-3 3/4), freshman
Claire Dishong in the pole vault (13th, 10-10), and junior
Lauren Tanz in the 60 hurdles (12th, 9.18).
Complete results can be found at:
http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/psu/sports/c-track/auto_pdf/sykes-complete-results.pdf
Next up for Big Red women is the Robert J. Kane Invitational in Barton Hall on Friday and Saturday, February 12-13th.
