ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell track teams rang in 2011 with the Southern Tier Collegiate Open at Barton Hall on Friday evening, hosting athletes from Colgate, Mansfield and Nazareth, as well as several club and unattached competitors. The Big Red men and women combined for 25 event wins and six ECAC/IC4A qualifiers as the teams returned from winter break showing good form.
The Big Red women won every event in which they competed, placing first 15 times, with a trio of ECAC qualifiers. Senior co-captain Kim Standridge was a double winner, claiming the mile in an Eastern-qualifying and meet record 5:00.58 before coming back to win the 500 in 1:21.14. Sophomore
Kelsey Karys finished just behind Standridge in the mile, missing the ECAC standard by only .03 in setting a new personal best of 5:00.97 before coming back to cross the line first in the 1000 in 3:05.20. Junior
Melissa Hewitt also had a great start to the new year, reaching 19-7 in the long jump to win and easily best the ECAC standard and later finished second in her first-ever attempt at the triple jump, reaching 37-5; junior
Kristin Brandt again jumped well to win the event at 38-0 3/4. Sophomore
Claire Dishong was the Big Red's first ECAC qualifier of the day in the meet's first event, moving up to #4 all-time at Cornell in the pole vault with a clearance of 11-9 3/4.
Elsewhere in the field, sophomore
Victoria Imbesi had a seasonal best 43-9 3/4 in the shot put to place first and senior Cassie Scweighofer won the weight throw at 48-3 1/4. Sophomore
Ailish Hanly won the high jump, clearing 5-3, as freshman
Sarah Udelhofen, freshman Rebecca Parascandola and senior co-captain Kim Lienhoop also all cleared the height. Junior
Molly Glantz impressed, winning the 800 in 2:16.07, just ahead of classmate
Bry Bonavita, who ran 2:17.60. In the 3K, sophomore
Kate Rosettie led a good series of efforts by a large contingent of Big Red runners, placing first in 10:22.57. Freshman
Ebolutalese Airewele impressed in winning the 200 in 25.73, just ahead of junior
Kelsey Reimnitz, who ran 26.03. Elsewhere on the track, junior Jess Wilson won her debut at 400 meters, crossing the line in 61.61, freshman
Shannon Daniels won the 60 in 8.24 and Parascandola won the 60 hurdles at 9.30.
The men, with 10 event wins and three IC4A qualifiers, were led once again by junior
Bob Belden, who was a double winner, bettering the IC4A standard in both throwing events. He claimed first in the shot put with a heave of 53-10 1/4 and came back to take the weight throw with a mark of 57-6 1/2. Freshman Steve Bell was also a double winner, as he came out on top in both the long jump and the triple jump, reaching 22-9 3/4 and 46-9. Classmate John Schilkowski won the mile, running 4:21.43, with junior Chris Jakobsen in second in 4:27.32. Sophomore
Jedidiah Adarquah-Yiadom picked up where he left off in December, running 6.93 to win the 60 and bettered the IC4A standard for the second straight meet. In the 3K, senior
Matt De Silva edged classmate Nate Edelman by .01 to place first in 8:54.00.
A pair of juniors won the 400 and 800 as
Tom Randall crossed the line first in 52.22 for the 400 while
Brian Freitas claimed first in the 800 in 1:59.29. The Big Red won the final event of the meet as Cornell took the first two spots in the 4X400, with the “A” team running 3:26.74. Cornell also had several second place finishes: freshman
Andre Anderson in the 60 hurdles (8.77), junior
Vince Formica in the long jump (21-1 1/2), freshman
Dan Scott in the triple jump (46-7 1/4), freshman
Hercules Stancil in the high jump (6-4 1/4), sophomore
Mike Murphy in the shot put (46-4), and sophomore Rob Fiedler in the weight throw (48-7 1/4).
Complete results can be found here:
The Big Red will return to competition at Penn State on January 15, competing in the Nittany Lion Challenge.