Ninth Straight E8 Title for Ithaca Women’s Track & Field

2/13/2016 8:30:00 PM

RESULTS

ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College women's track & field team blew away the competition at the 2016 Empire 8 Conference Indoor Track & Field Championships on Saturday in Glazer Arena. It is the ninth straight conference title for Ithaca and 12th in 13 seasons as the Bombers totaled 248 team points.

Stevens finished second in the team standings with 72 points, while St. John Fisher took third with 45 points. Nazareth came in fourth (39), Utica in fifth (36), Houghton in sixth (19) and Alfred in seventh (six) to round out the field.

Senior Eliza Dewart and junior Brandy Smith swept the athletes of the meet awards. Dewart won the 200- and 400-meter dashes to be named Track Athlete of the Meet, while Smith placed first in the shot put and weight throw to earn Field Athlete of the Meet honors.

Smith broke the facility record, conference record and set a new school record with a heave of 18.28 meters in the weight throw. Smith's mark is currently the second-best throw in the nation and is an improvement of .45 meters of her previous top performance. In the shot put, she measured out 12.79 meters.

Dewart clocked a time of 26.23 seconds in the 200 and 59.46 seconds in the 400 to earn her recognition.

In the mile run, sophomore Taryn Cordani claimed top honors in a new Empire 8 Championship record time of 5:03.64. Senior Sarah Werner also set a new conference mark in the 60-meter dash with a first place time of 7.88 seconds.

Junior Katherine Pitman was the fourth Bomber to establish a new E8 record on Saturday in the pole vault. Pitman matched her school record mark of 3.90 meters to top the field by a foot. Senior Alex Rechen also surpassed the previous conference mark with a performance of 3.60 meters, which was second overall.

Sophomore Sierra Grazia added another first place showing to Ithaca's total on the day in the 800-meter run at 2:21.52.

Sophomore Amber Edwards won the 60-meter hurdles in 9.18 seconds, which was nearly .4 seconds faster than the runner-up. The second place entry in the event was freshman Gianna Folz at 9.56 seconds. 

Ithaca nearly swept the weight throw, taking five of six placements. After Smith, junior Yvonne Palacios was second at 15.05 meters, sophomore Caitlin Noonan took third at 14.51 meters, and junior Francesa Boylan came in fifth at 13.81 and sophomore Charis Lu followed in sixth at 13.46 meters.

Lu was a runner-up in the shot put with a mark of 11.48 meters, and Boylan took third with the same distance. Palacios came in sixth with a distance of 10.20 meters.

Stevens senior Amy Regan dominated the field in the 5,000-meter with a time of 17:41.92, besting the field by over 26 seconds to establish a new E8 record time.  Freshman Mary Visca hit a personal best mark of 5:05.01 in the mile with a second place finish, while sophomore Jackie Endres nabbed fourth place with a PR of 5:20.8.

Senior Gladys Njoku placed second in the 60-meter dash, recording a school record time of 7.97. 

In the field events, Njoku set a meet record in the high jump, with a first place jump of 1.70m. Njoku would also match her season-best of 5.17m in the long jump, good for another first place finish. Additionally, junior Victoria Taibe finished fourth in the shot put, throwing 11.25m.

The Fisher 1600m relay team of Chelsea Cleveland, Sydney Saccone, Emily Strong and Jess Colmerauer posted a time of 4:08.43 to set a new Empire 8 Championship record.

Colmerauer also finished third overall in both the 200 and the 400.  Sammy Van Gee set a new Fisher record in the 5,000, finishing in fifth place overall with a time 18:21.96. In the 60-meter hurdles, Melissa Vaughn and Ronni Ehlers placed third and fifth, respectively.

Nazareth's Amanda Entress placed second in both the long jump and the triple jump to pick up 16 points for the Golden Flyers.  She vaulted to 5.12 meters (16' 9.75'') in the long jump and 10.71 meters (35' 1.74'') in the triple jump.

Another strong performance came from Samantha Goble in the 800-meter run as she finished in second place in a time of 2:23.11.  Eileen Shea was 12^th in that same event (2:32.28).

Nazareth's distance medley of Goble, Eileen Shea, Andrea Larnard and Emily Thompson earned six points with a 12:48.41 for third place.  Thompson also finished fourth in the 5000-meter run in 18:20.77.  

Utica junior Sarah Wiatr placed first in the triple jump with a jump of 11.56 meters while placing third in the long jump with a jump of 5.07 meters. Wiatr also placed fourth in the 60-meter dash with a time of 8.15.
 
The 4x400 meter relay team of Megan Christiana, Mikey Maxwell, Abby Schaible, and Jenessa McCabe placed second with a time of 4:17.60. 

The Houghton highlight of the day was the women's distance medley relay team of Rebekah White, Kate Taggart, Nikki Garns, and Joanna Friesen winning the event with a time of 12:37.01.  Individually, White came in 6th in the 800m with a time of 2:25.59, followed closely by Taggart in 8th with a personal best of 2:26.83. Garns took 4th in the 200m with a personal best of 27.04 seconds, and Joanna Friesen ran a lifetime best of 18:59.89 in the 5000m to take 8th.

Alfred freshman Megan Sadowitz tied for third with Ithaca's Gianna Folz in the high jump with a height of 1.53m (5' – 0.25"). Sophomore Lindsay Piraino  finished sixth in the 5,000 meter run with a time of 18:46.87.