STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Competing against national powers Penn State and Florida as well defending America East champion Albany and Maryland from the ACC at the Nittany Lion Challenge on Saturday at Penn State, the Cornell women's track and field team performed well.  Indeed, the Cornell women had an outstanding day, finishing with nine ECAC qualifiers, ten top three event finishes and a new school and Ivy League record.

Senior co-captain Kim Standridge led the way, breaking the school and Ivy record of Morgan Uceny '07 in the 1000.  In a great dual with Penn State standout Caitlin Lane (who also broke the Nittany Lion school record), Standridge placed second in 2:46.48.  Freshman Lauren Lloyd also impressed, crossing the line in sixth in 2:53.23, three seconds under the ECAC standard.  Sophomore Alyssa O'Connor also set a personal best, placing seventh in 2:58.20, as did senior Alana Levy, who ran 3:01.21 for ninth.  

Junior Melissa Hewitt had another great day, placing third in the 60.  She qualified for the finals with a dash of 7.56 before improving to 7.53 as both times were well under the Eastern standard.  Hewitt then came back to get fourth in the 200, crossing the line in 24.68, tied with Hannah Garrity '04 as the third best in school history.  In the 400, junior Kelsey Reimnitz had a big breakthrough to set a PR of 56.61 to place fifth and qualify for ECACs.  Although there is no ECAC qualifying standard for the 600, the efforts of juniors Molly Glantz and Bry Bonavita were excellent.  Glantz was the top collegiate finisher and was second overall, setting a two second personal best of 1:31.78 while Bonavita was fifth in 1:34.82, also a personal best.  

And in the 3000, sophomore Kelsey Karys ran a very good race to place third in 9:45.09 to better the ECAC standard by an impressive 13 seconds and produce one of the top ten times in the nation (at the time of writing this report) so far this season.  Classmates Katie Kellner (10:05.67, an indoor PR) and Kate Rosettie (10:09.33, a PR) placed fourth and fifth while sophomore Genna Hartung was sixth (10:15.83) and senior Kristin Sellers was seventh (10:18.93, an indoor PR).  In the mile, junior Janel Parker had a huge collegiate best of 5:01.60 to place fifth and freshman Dale Kinney set a PR to place sixth in 5:04.94; junior Meghan Brown was close behind in 5:08.02 despite being sick.  Freshman Leanne Fernandes did a good job in the 800, placing third in 2:20.89 as sophomore Marie McKenna was fourth in 2:22.47 and classmate Liz Reamer was sixth in 2:24.97.  Elsewhere on the track, the hurders also performed well as junior Dani Silas missed out on the final by only .03, running 8.98 for ninth; senior Lauren Tanz was tenth in 9.23 and juniors Karen Schillinger and Taylor Baird tied for 11th in 9.27.

The relays both dipped under the ECAC standard as the distance medley relay of Kinney, freshman Ebolutalese Airewele, Parker and sophomore Cara Costich clocked 11:59.70 for second.  The 4X400 of Reimnitz, Glantz, Bonavita and Standridge ran 3:51.15 for fourth.  

The Big Red had several good performances in the field, led by three high jumpers who cleared 5-5.:  freshman Sarah Udelhofen was fourth, senior co-captain Kim Lienhoop was seventh and freshman Becca Parascandola was ninth.  In the vault, sophomore Claire Dishong cleared 11-5 3/4 for third and junior Sam Brady was fourth at 10-6.  Freshman Anjelique Parnell did a very nice job to place fourth in a seasonal best 18-2 1/2 in the long jump as junior Jess Wilson was sixth at 17-5 1/2.  Junior Kristin Brandt was third at 38-2 1/4 in the triple jump, with sophomore Savannah Johnson sixth at 37-0 1/2.  In the throws, sophomore Victoria Imbesi was sixth at 42-7 while senior Cassie Schweighofer was eighth at 40-9 3/4 in the shot put; Schweighofer also placed eighth in advancing to the weight throw final at 49-10.

Complete results can be found here:

Next up for Cornell is the Upstate Challenge, which will be held on Friday and Saturday, January 21-22 in Barton Hall.  Multi-events and a DMR “Carnival” will highlight the action on Friday evening with the bulk of the meet on Saturday afternoon after the conclusion of the Hartshorne Masters Mile races.