IRVINE, Calif. -- The Cornell women's track team embarked on their 2011 spring trip to California with a very successful first meet at UC Irvine on Saturday as the Big Red picked up where they left off at the end of the indoor part of the year with impressive performances across the board. The Big Red won eight events, produced a remarkable 16 ECAC qualifiers and had 9 alterations to the all-time top 10 lists, including a new school record from sophomore Victoria Imbesi in the javelin.  

A pair of impressive throwing performances were amongst the early efforts that got the ball rolling for the Big Red. Junior Erin Rossi had a 13 foot personal best to easily better the ECAC standard in placing third in the hammer at 171-7, #6 all-time at Cornell. And in her second throw of the day, Imbesi broke her own school record in the javelin, reaching 153-6. She then came back to place second in the shot put in an outdoor personal best of 45-3, another ECAC qualifier and good enough for #6 all-time at Cornell. Also getting off to a good start outdoors was junior Sam Brady, who cleared 12-1 1/2 to place second in the vault, a clearance the equalled the ECAC standard and moved her to #2 all-time at Cornell. Sophomore Claire Dishong also looked good, clearing 11-7 3/4. Dishong then came back to get seventh in the discus at 136-7. In the high jump, sophomore Ailish Hanly cleared 5-4 1/4 for third while senior co-captain Kim Lienhoop was fifth at 5-2 1/4.

The Big Red women were terrific on the track as well. First up was the 3000 steeplechase, and senior Maura Carroll had a four second PR to win the event as she led wire-to-wire and crossed the line in 10:45.37, #6 all-time. And in her first ever attempt at the event, sophomore Genna Hartung was second in 10:52.42, #8 all-time. The 4X100 of freshman Ebolutalese Airewele, junior Melissa Hewitt, senior Mecha Santos and junior Dani Silas ran 46.18 to win and claim the #6 time in school history. Cornell continued its win streak in the 1500 as sophomore Alyssa O'Connor surged to the front at the mid-way point of the race for an impressive 10 second personal best, winning the event in 4:25.83. Senior co-captain Kim Standridge also bettered the ECAC standard with a third place run of 4:29.28 and junior Janel Parker had a five second personal best to place fifth in 4:32.02. Junior Molly Glantz was very impressive in taking the 400 hurdles: she ran the #3 time in school history to win in 59.36 and freshman Ryan Woolley had a good debut with a time of 63.98 for fifth. Cornell also picked up a win in the 100 as Hewitt ran 11.82 to win easily (and qualify for the ECACs) and another win and ECAC qualifier in the 800 as freshman Lauren Lloyd set a personal best of 2:10.64 while junior Bry Bonavita ran 2:12.72 for second. Junior Dani Silas set a PR to move up to #4 all-time in the 100 hurdles with an ECAC-qualifying 14.20, good enough for fourth pace; senior Lauren Tanz was seventh at 14.85 and junior Taylor Baird eighth at 15.29. And in the 400, junior Kelsey Reimnitz continued to compete well, placing second in 56.33 for second while sophomore Libby O'Brien was fifth in 57.80. Santos was fourth in the 200 at 25.34 while Airewele was fifth in 25.43. In the 3000, the Big Red had five personal bests and three ECAC qualifiers as sophomore Katie Kellner ran 9:40.27 for third, classmate Kelsey Karys was fourth in 9:43.10, junior Meghan Brown was fifth in 9:54.39, sophomore Kate Rosettie was seventh in 9:58.72 and senior Kristin Sellers was tenth in 10:05.84. And Cornell placed first and second in the 4X400 (with both teams going under the ECAC standard) as the “A” team of Airewele, Reimnitz, Glantz and Standridge ran 3:47.93 while the “B” team of Woolley, O'Brien, Bonavita and Lloyd ran 3:48.53.

A pair of alumni competed as well. Toni-Lynn Salucci '07 claimed first in the 3000, leading wire-to-wire in running 9:30.45 and Stephanie Pancoast '10 set a 1500 PR in placing seventh in 4:37.47.  

Complete results can be found here:
http://www.flashwest.com/results/2011track/11SpringBreak.pdf

A great week of training at the UC Irvine track awaits the Cornell teams and then they will compete again on Friday, March 25th at Cal State Fullerton's Titan Twilight meet.