Ithaca Women’s T&F Team Slashes Records on Way to Third Straight NYSCTC Title
Canton, N.Y. – The Ithaca women’s track & field team had a standout day en route to claiming its third consecutive New York State Collegiate Track Conference Championship on Saturday at St. Lawrence. It is the 11th time in program history that Ithaca has won the state meet. Senior Marcia McCord (Rancocas Valley/Mount Holly, N.J.) rewrote her own school record in the 200-meter dash and won a total of three events to lead the Bombers and claim NYSCTC Track Athlete of the Meet accolades.
Ithaca, who notched 23 individual All-NYSCTC performances and a pair of all-state relay finishes on day two of competition, finished with 258 points, almost double that of the second-place team with 133.50.
McCord finished in 25.52 to win the 200, while also winning the 55 dash in 7.38 and the triple jump with a mark of 11.22 meters, with all three meeting ECAC qualifying standards.
Senior Kate Leugers (Rice Memorial/Richmond, Vt.) hit the NCAA provisional qualifier in the mile run and slashed her own school record of 5:01.42 with a first-place finish of 5:00.11. She was one of three all-state finishers in the event as junior Heidi Baumbach (Lake Placid/Lake Placid) placed third in 5:18.35 and sophomore Carly Graham (West Genesee/Syracuse) eighth in 5:28.13.
Leugers also placed second in the 1,000, one of three Ithaca runners to finish with ECAC-qualifying marks.
Leugers finished in 3:06.35, freshman Jodi Robinson (Rush-Henrietta/Rush) was third in a season-best 3:08.77 and freshman Hannah Craig (Upper Arlington/Columbus, Ohio) finished fifth in a season-best 3:08.98.
Another NCAA provisional mark was met when senior Kristen DeStefano (Boiceville/Onteora) set a new meet record clearing a season-best 3.55 meters to win the pole vault. Junior Julie Orland (Haverford/Havertown, Pa.) placed eighth with a vault of 3.05 meters.
The Bombers scored 26 of 39 possible points in the 3,000 run. Senior Melanie McCormic (Champlain Valley Union/Williston, Vt.) won the event in a season-best 10:53.50, followed by junior Molly Quinn (C.W. Baker/Baldwinsville) in second place in a season-best 10:54.41 and senior Elizabeth Schloss (Canterbury/Fort Wayne, Ind.) third with another season-best of 10:55.15. Sophomore Megan Schenk (Brick Township/Brick, N.J.) placed seventh in 11:00.36.
Junior Emma Dewart (Barker/Barker) finished second in the 55 hurdles in 8.68 and sophomore Tammia Hubbard (Sacred Heart Cathedral Prep/San Francisco, Calif.) followed in third with a time of 8.90. The pair both surpassed the ECAC standard. Dewart also ran to a fourth-place finish in the 55 dash in 7.70, while freshman Kheiyasa Carter (Valhalla/White Plains) finished sixth in a season-best 7.85.
Senior Emily Moran (Walkill/Walkill) was the runner-up in the 500 run with a time of 1:21.42 and sophomore Jenn Randall (Cincinnatus Central/Cincinnatus) placed third in the 800 with a season-best 2:21.56 finish. Both Moran and Randall hit ECAC qualifiers. Freshman Martyann Chro (Naugatuck/Naugatuck, Conn.) finished second in the 400 dash in 1:02.38.
Senior Lindsay Johnston (Jonathan Law/Milford, Conn.) hit a season-best mark of 10.59 meters in the triple to finish sixth.
Ithaca’s 3,200 relay of Craig, Graham, graduate student Alicia Burillo (Valley Central/Montgomery) and Robinson placed second in a season-best 9:58.60 to qualify for the ECAC meet next weekend, while the Bombers’ 1,600 relay closed the track with a fifth-place 4:17.74 finish. The 4x400 team was comprised of Moran, freshman Katie Edwards (St. Joseph by the Sea/Staten Island), sophomore Annmarie Charno (Plainedge/Seaford) and freshman Paige Klingerman (Loyalsock Township/Williamsport, Pa.).
Ithaca will next compete on March 4-5 at the ECAC Championships at the Armory.
Results