The Empire 8 Athletic Conference has announced the Track Athlete, Field Athlete, Rookie and Coach of the Year awards for the 2016-17 women’s indoor track and field season. The conference coaches vote on the awards and for the third time Ithaca College has swept the awards.
Ithaca also swept all four honors in 2008-09 and 2009-10.
Junior Taryn Cordani, senior Brandy Smith and freshman Bethany Cripps have been named the Indoor Track, Field and Rookie of the Year, respectively.
Cordani capped of an outstanding 2016-17 campaign by winning a pair of National Titles at the NCAA Indoor Championships. The junior took home titles in the 5,000 meter and 3,000 meter, to mark the second straight year an E8 runner has won both events. Cordani ran a Division III meet, school and facility record time of 16:28.51 in the 5,000 meters and then set a facility and school record time of 9:42.43 in the 3,000 meters.
At the Empire 8 Championship meet Cordani set a new facility record en route to a first place finish in the mile with a time of 5:06.50, which was 10 seconds faster than the runner-up. She also anchored the first place distance medley relay squad that blew away the field by nearly a minute with a time of 12:18.95.
Cordani was named the Track Most Outstanding Performer at the NYSCTC Championship, after a school record performance in the 5,000-meter run with a time of 16:58.37 to place first and a winning mile time of 5:06.91.
At the ECAC Championships, Cordani was the anchor on the distance medley relay that won the event in a facility record-breaking time of 11:52.83, which was nearly six seconds faster than the runners-up.
As a result of her outstanding year she was named United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Atlantic Region Track Athlete of the Year.
Smith is the sixth Bomber to be named the Field Athlete of the Year and the first since 2012-13. She scored 11 points at the NCAA Championship and earned All-American honors in both events. Smith placed sixth in the weight throw with a mark of 17.81 meters (58 feet, 5.25 inches) and finished second in the shot put with a launch of 15.21-meter (49 feet, 11 inches) to set a new school record by nearly a meter.
Smith successfully defended both of her titles at the Empire 8 Championship with a mark of 16.38m in the weight throw and a 12.52m distance in the shot put.
At the NYSCTC Championship, Smith was the runner-up in the shot put (12.49m) and topped the field in the weight throw by two meters with a mark of 17.92 meters (58' 9.5"). She was a double winner at the ECAC Championships as she won the shot put with a mark of 13.79 meters and the weight throw with a mark of 16.91 meters.
Cripps was voted the Rookie of the Year and is the sixth Bomber athlete to earn the award. She was the runner-up in the pole vault at the conference championship with a height of 3.65m. Cripps also was the runner-up at the ECAC Championship in which she set a personal best height of 3.78 meters. Cripps qualified for nationals and was seeded 10
th and ended up finishing eighth with a height of 3.60 meters to earn All-America honors.
The Ithaca College staff, led by Head Coach Jennifer Potter, earned the Women’s Indoor Track and Field Coaching Staff of the Year for the third straight year. Ithaca capped off an outstanding season as national runner-up, which is the highest team finish in program history.
During the season Ithaca claimed its tenth consecutive Empire 8 Indoor Track & Field Championship as junior Katherine Pitman was named the field athlete of the meet after setting the NCAA Division III Indoor pole vault record of 4.25 meters.
The Bomber’s also claimed their 16th NYSCTC crown and Ithaca finished first at the ECAC Championship. The coaching staff guided nine women to USTFCCCA all-region honors, had four individuals and one relay qualify for the NCAA Championships, had three individual national titles and six All-American performances.
In addition, one member of each team was named that institution’s representative on the 2016-17 Women’s Indoor Track and Field Sportswoman of the Year Team. Empire 8 emphasizes that "Competing with Honor and Integrity" is an essential component of a student-athlete’s experience in conjunction with an institution’s educational mission. These honorees have distinguished themselves and consistently exhibit the critical traits as outstanding sportswomen.
Sportsmanship Team
Alfred: Lindsay Piraino
Houghton: Maggie McDonald
Ithaca: Amanda Zapat
Nazareth: Claire Ludington
St. John Fisher: Chelsea Cleveland
Stevens: Melissa Barnes
Utica: Molly Ferguson