ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Big Red honored the memory of the late Marc Deneault on Saturday in Barton Hall, hosting 20 teams and over 900 athletes at the Deneault Invitational.  With twin brother Richard and his sister and parents on hand, the Big Red had 17 event wins and the meet produced a number of outstanding performances. Meet MVP honors on the men's side went to Durell Cull of Oneonta, who won the 60 dash in an impressive 6.89 seconds. On the women's side, there were co-meet MVPs: Shanekia Hall of Essex won the 60 hurdles in 8.54 after breaking the Barton Hall record in the prelims with a time of 8.52 (Hall was also second in the 60 in 7.76) and Alyssa Pirinelli of St. Lawrence won both the shot put (48-2 1/2) and weight throw (56-11 1/2) in NCAA Division III qualifying efforts.

The Cornell women had a very good meet and were led by very strong efforts from seniors competing in their final competition in Barton Hall, as the Big Red amassed ten event wins and four ECAC qualifiers.  Senior co-captain Stephanie Pancoast got the meet off to a good start for Cornell with a win, in a personal best 5:02.28, in the mile. And soon after, in the pole vault, classmate Natalie Gengel won the pole vault in an ECAC-qualifying 12-5 1/2; she was followed closely by sophomore Sam Brady who cleared the ECAC-qualifying height of 11-9 3/4 for the fourth straight week. Back on the track, senior Krystal Williams won the 60 for the second straight week, in an ECAC qualifying 7.66. Up next, senior Kate Backel won the 300 in 39.90, #4 all-time at Cornell while senior co-captain Megan Williams also set a PR in running the #8 time in school history, 40.51, to place second. Freshman Libby O'Brien (3rd, 40.61) and sophomore Kelsey Reimnitz (4th, 41.03) also ran well. In the 800, senior Lindsay Broyhill led a 1-2-3 Big Red sweep of the 800, running 2:15.81, as sophomore Bry Bonavita (2:18.11) and junior Alana Levy (2:18.68) were close behind. And yet another Cornell senior ran to victory in the 3000, as senior Erin Roberts closed out the Big Red's effort on the track, with an impressive personal best of 10:00.53 in which she led wire to wire; junior Maura Carroll was second in 10:17.54 and freshman Kate Rosettie was third in 10:19.99 as Cornell took the top six places. Cornell also took the top six places in the 1000 as junior Anna Scull led throughout in running 2;57.50; senior Caroline Heidt was second in 2:58.37 and sophomore Emma Clarke was third in 2:58.65, with freshmen Kelsey Karys (2:59.48) and Alyssa O'Connor (3:00.14) also running well. And in the 600, the Big Red took the top three places, with junior Kim Standridge running a personal best 1:33.37 as sophomore Molly Glantz (1:34.44) and junior Lauren Bariexca (1:36.57) also set PRs. Other top three showings on the track came from sophomores Taylor Baird (2nd, 8.93) and Dani Silas (3rd, 9.03) in the 60 hurdles, junior Mecha Santos in the 60 (3rd, 7.78) and the 200 (2nd, 25.66) and freshman Cara Costich in the mile (3rd, 5:15.46.

The Big Red had excellent showings in the field throughout the day. Sophomore Melissa Hewitt moved to #5 all-time in the long jump at Cornell, reaching 19-4, an ECAC qualifier, to place first. Freshman Savannah Johnson won the triple jump at 37-6, classmate Ailish Hanly was second in the high jump at 5-5 and in the throws, freshman Victoria Imbesi was second in the shot put at 41-11 1/4 while junior Cassie Schweighofer was third at 40-10 1/2 and placed second in the weight at 50-6 1/4; senior Kristen Rhinehardt was third at 49-7.

The Big Red men had a solid meet in their final tune-up for the Heps, with seven event wins and five IC4A qualifiers overall.  The meet got off to a very good start early on Saturday, as the senior duo of Dale Taylor and Brad Bogdan dipped under the IC4A standard to go 1-2 in the 5000.  Taylor ran an indoor personal best of 14:41.14 to win the race while Bogdan ran well, crossing the line in second 14:47.19.  Freshman Kevin Johnson was third in 14:49.36 (and came back later in the day to place second in the 3K at 8:42.59).  Cornell also looked good in the 800 as the Big Red swept the top five places:  freshman Will McFall ran 1:54.91 for the win and was followed closely by junior Aaron Anderson (1:55.38), junior Adrien Dannemiller (1:55.70), freshman Andy Arnold (1:56.06) and sophomore Chris Jakobson (1:56.18).  In the 60 hurdles, freshman Ben Moody ran a seasonal best 8.36 to place second while junior Andrew Corridore was third at 8.53.  Also placing in the top three was junior Andy Ahart in the 60 (3rd, 7.07), junior Rick Semenick in the 200 (3rd, 22.72), sophomore Dan Thomas in the 400 (2nd, 50.03) and sophomore Karl Delaroche in the 500 (2nd, 1:08.37).  

Cornell looked sharp in the field events as well.  Senior Jay Pierce claimed first in the high jump with a clearance of 6-6 1/4, while classmate Scott Gorski cleared the same height to place second.  Senior Rick Zamora placed first in the pole vault, clearing 15-3, junior Julian Remouns won the triple jump at 45-11 3/4 and sophomore Vince Formica was first in the long jump at 22-8.  Sophomore Bob Belden continued his fine throwing, winning the shot put with a heave of 55-1 1/4 and garnered another IC4A qualifier with a fifth-place 56-5 1/4 in the weight throw.  Not to be out-done, senior Damian Silverstrim threw a personal best 58-6 3/4 in the weight throw to place third, also qualifying for the IC4As.  

Complete results of the Deneault Invitational can be found at:
http://cornellbigred.com/documents/2010/2/20/2010_Deneault_Results.pdf?id=2680

Next up for the Big Red is the Indoor Heps at Dartmouth, on February 27-28.  The following week, Cornell will return to New England, competing at the ECAC/IC4A Championships in Boston on March 6-7.