There’s no better feeling than hitting your stride at the right moment. The Red found its rhythm at the Cortland Classic, making a strong showing in both track and field events across the men’s and women’s competitions.
This past weekend, the Red traveled to SUNY Cortland, where it participated in a two-day contest which mainly consisted of decathlon, heptathlon and field events.
The Red’s multi-event specialist, junior Gabe Ball, competed in the men’s decathlon, where he achieved second place overall, scoring 5,349 total points.
Of this point total, 731 came from a first-place finish in the men’s decathlon high jump, where he cleared a 1.92-meter height. In the men’s decathlon 100-meter, Ball earned 703 more points after getting a third-place finish with a time of 11.74.
Ball also competed in the men's decathlon long jump, shot put and 400-meter on Friday afternoon, before wrapping up the weekend with performances in the men's decathlon 110-meter hurdles, discus throw, pole vault, javelin throw and 1500-meter on Saturday afternoon.
On the women’s side, senior Margaux Rawson and freshman Johanna Stuard competed in the women’s heptathlon. They earned first and third place in the heptathlon 100-meter hurdles with times of 15.02 and 16.50, earning them 839 and 654 points, respectively.
Throughout the weekend, the two women competed in the women’s heptathlon high jump, long jump, javelin throw, shot put, 200-meter and 800-meter.
This grueling gauntlet proved the Red’s prowess, with Rawson achieving first place overall with a point total of 4,340 and Stuard getting second place with 3,802 points.
In the non-combined women’s 1500-meter, senior Alexa Barton finished second-place overall with a time of 5:02.89.
In the women’s hammer throw, sophomore Avery Hastings cruised to a first-place victory with a distance of 56.17-meter. The next closest distance was 51.48-meter by St. John Fisher’s Anna Steed.
In the final event on Friday evening, the women’s long jump, freshman Elizabeth Graham and sophomore Sade Falese put on a show, finishing in second and third place with distances of 5.57 meters and 5.54 meters, respectively.
Graham and St. John Fisher’s Veronica Duell went back and forth before Graham eventually fell to second place, missing out on first place by 0.01 meters after she failed to reach a distance of 5.58 meters on her final attempt.
On Saturday morning, the Red came out strong, delivering a first-place win at a time of 48.65 in the women’s 4x100-meter relay. The performance came from Falese, junior Skyy Johnson, sophomore Brianna Beckham and freshman Rebecca Griebel.
In the men’s 800-meter, seniors Jacob Pantoya and Tyler Patterson reached podium status, finishing first and third with times of 1:54.27 and 1:57.01, respectively.
On the women’s side of the 800-meter, freshman speedster Fiona Lee got a blazing time of 2:16.57 to claim her first first-place finish of the outdoor season. Sophomore Riley Ebersole was right behind her to claim the second spot with a time of 2:20.33.
Lee was previously sidelined throughout the entire winter season with an injury, and this was her first competition back.
“Coming off the injury, I really had to trust in the cross-training, workouts, and the work I put in behind the scenes,” Lee said. “I’ve also felt a lot of support from my coaches and teammates, which gave me the confidence to go out there and push myself. This team has truly been the best thing to happen to me at Cornell.”
Freshman Kate Fenwick competed in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, where she finished at an impressive time of 1:06.26, good for second place overall.
In the final event of the Cortland Classic, the women’s discus throw, the Red claimed three of the top four spots on the leaderboard. Freshman Torie Jamieson achieved a first-place finish with a distance of 41.72 meters. Senior Noelle Elkinton was right behind her, grabbing second place with a distance of 40.01 meters, and junior Nicole Loy finished fourth at 39.15 meters.
The moment has finally come for the Red to travel back to the University of Pennsylvania to participate in the hallowed Penn Relays from Thursday, April 24 to Saturday, April 26. There remain just three weeks until the Ivy League Outdoor Heptagonal Outdoor Track & Field Championships, so Cornell will look to reach its qualifying times for the championships in the upcoming weeks.
Buzmael Joanus is a Sun Contributor and can be reached at bwj27@cornell.edu.
