STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- The Cornell women's track team had terrific showings at Penn State's Sykes-Sabock Challenge Cup on Saturday in State College, as the Big Red placed second in the team scoring behind the host Nittany Lions. The Big Red women, who had 18 ECAC quaifiers and three events wins on the day, battled defending Big Ten champion Penn State to the final events of the meet, leading for much of the afternoon and tying things up again after the 3K before Penn State pulled away on the relays.
The women had an impressive afternoon in scoring 130.5 points to place second, fifty-six points clear of third place South Florida in a field of 12 teams. The team had ECAC qualifiers in every event on the track and in four of seven field events en route a new freshman record in the 800 and two alterations to the all-time top 10 lists. The women were led by event wins from junior
Melissa Hewitt in the 200, and sophomores
Genna Hartung in the 5K and
Katie Kellner in the 3K. Hewitt had another great day, winning the 200 in 24.33, now #2 all-time at Cornell (just ahead of Jeomi Maduka '09) after placing second in the 60 in 7.58. And Cornell won the first event of the day, as Hartung and classmate
Kate Rosettie placed first and second in the 5000, as both dipped under the ECAC standard, with Hartung crossing the line in 17:26.57 and Rosettie posting a 30 second personal best of 17:28.24. Freshman Liz Simpson also scored, placing fifth in 17:50.57. In the 3000, another sophomore duo also placed first and second as Kellner led wire to wire in running a personal best 9:54.00 while
Cara Costich also set a personal best of 9:55.35. Senior
Maura Carroll ran well with a seasonal best of 10:21.54 for eighth. The Big Red had a very good showing in the mile as well with another pair of personal best and scoring performances: junior
Janel Parker placed second with a time of 4:55.29 and sophomore
Kelsey Karys was fourth in 4:58.04. The Big Red picked up another 2-4 finish in the 600 as junior
Molly Glantz continued to impress with a runner-up showing of 1:31.08 and senior co-captain Kim Standridge was fourth in 1:32.17. Junior
Bry Bonavita set a PR to get eighth in 1:34.60. In the 800, a pair of freshmen ran very well in qualifying for the ECACs.
Lauren Lloyd broke the Cornell freshman record of Jessica Shaw '99 in placing sixth in 2:11.42 while
Leanne Fernandes had a personal best to in place eighth in 2:14.17. Another stellar performance came in the 60 hurdles, as junior Dani Silas moved to #4 all-time at Cornell with a great race of 8.73 to get third. Also scoring on the track, and qualifying for the ECACs for the third straight, time was junior
Kelsey Reimnitz, who was eighth in the 400 in 56.66. Senior co-captain
Mecha Santos had a seasonal best of 25.32 in the 200 and junior
Taylor Baird (9.08) and senior
Lauren Tanz (9.15) had seasonal bests in the 60 hurdles.
The field events were also very strong for Cornell. Senior co-captain Kim Lienhoop again cleared the ECAC standard of 5-7 to place third, while freshman
Sarah Udelhofen was sixth at 5-5. Junior Sam Brady had a very good day to clear the ECAC standard in the vault, placing seventh in 11-9 3/4. Meanwhile, sophomore
Victoria Imbesi had a good series in placing fifth in the shot put at 45-8 1/2. In the weight, junior
Erin Rossi threw well to get tenth at 51-8 1/4. In the long jump, freshman
Anjelique Parnell was third at 18-6 and in the triple jump, classmate
Jennifer Bush scored with a seventh place effort of 37-6. And in the pentathlon, freshman
Becca Parascandola improved by over 100 points from two weeks ago to place fifth with a score of 3,223 points.
The relays were competitive for the Big Red women as well. Junior
Meghan Brown led off the DMR and teamed up with Bonavita, freshman
Dale Kinney and Karys doubled back very well from the open mile to anchor the team. And the 4X400 ran a seasonal best of 3:47.13 as freshman
Ebolutalese Airewele, Reimnitz, Glantz and Standridge teamed up to easily win its heat in placing third overall.
Complete results can be found here:
Next up for Cornell is the Kane Invitational on Friday and Saturday in Barton Hall.