UTICA, NY - The Utica College track and field teams will be competing close to home this weekend as they trek up College Hill to Hamilton College for the Hamilton Invitational. The proceedings begin on Pritchard Track at 10 a.m.

Follow Along: Live results will be available through Leone Timing at http://leonetiming.com/

Come On Down: Local fans are encouraged to seize two of their best opportunities to see the Pioneers in action this outdoor season, which will both take place at Hamilton College. Utica is set to return on Tuesday, April 16th for the Hamilton Mid-Week meet. Utica College and Hamilton College are separated by just 8.3 miles of road on the shortest route. Admission to both meets is free.

The Facilities: Pritchard Track is an eight lane, european style oval track with a soft surface and a particularly wide turning radius. The jumping runways, high jump apron, and shot put facilities are located trackside, and the discus, hammer, and javelin events will take place in a separate area located beyond the coniferous treeline to the northwest. Parking is available at the field house, or at the lot located across from the baseball and softball fields on Campus Road.

Last Time Out: The Pioneers sent a limited squad to the Geneseo Early Season Invitational, and got some impressive results out of their contingent. The throwing events particularly excelled as freshman DeAndre Fyffe had a record setting debut while winning the discus and shot put, and Katrina Cornick (Mason City, IA/Mason City) also impressed in her discus debut and nearly missed out on a school record. The track belonged to distance runner Mitchell Marlow, who turned in a new school record at 5,000 meters.

Get On The Fyffe Train: Freshman DeAndre Fyffe was named the Empire 8 Conference field athlete of the week on Monday after an impressive debut performance at this weekend's Geneseo Invitational. The freshman turned in event victories in both the shot put and discus, and arguably had the greatest debut performance in any event in Utica history in the discus as he instantly re-wrote the record books. Fyffe threw a school and Empire 8 record 52.10 meters on his first collegiate throw in the discus. His first throw in the discus currently stands third nationally. He also cracked the national leaderboard in the shot put as his collegiate best winning throw of 15.39 meters is tenth in all of Division III.

Putting the Power In Power Forward: Sophomore Katrina Cornick (Mason City, IA/Mason City) has contributed greatly to the women's ice hockey team as a mainstay power forward in the Pioneers' lineup. However, she may just be more prominent at a different athletic pursuit as she continued to excel in the throws after an abbreviated indoor season, and her most recent performance netted her the Empire 8 Women's Field Athlete of the Week honors. In her collegiate outdoor track debut, Cornick landed just short of a school record in the discus this past weekend at Geneseo. She came through with a throw of 39.25 meters to place second. The throw is currently 35th-best nationally. The school record is held by teammate Molly Ferguson (Abington, MA/Abington High School) in 39.39 meters, and the pair could presumably duel for the school record all season long.
 

Keanu Being Keanu: Although the freshman Fyffe stood tall on Saturday, NCAA qualifier Keanu Heedram still delivered a strong performance of his own. Heedram was third in the shot put on Saturday at 14.50 meters, but tied his collegiate best and former Empire 8 record performance in the discus with a heave of 48.56 meters.

Record Setter: 2019 Empire 8 indoor 3,000 meter and 1 mile run champion Mitchell Marlow can now add his name to the school record books in the 5,000 meters. The junior from Malone, NY set a new school standard in the event and broke a longstanding school record with his performance at Geneseo this weekend. Marlow placed fifth in a time of 15:25. That time broke Morgan Payne's 2012 school record performance by almost eleven seconds.

Hurdling To Greatness: Utica's women's hurdle squad continued to build off a terrific indoor season with a strong outdoor debut in the 100 meter hurdles this past weekend, with three athletes making it back into the finals at Geneseo. Hannah Durant (Schenectady, NY/Guilderland) ran her first college 100 hurdles final in 16.67 seconds to place fourth. Michelle Rodriguez-Mendez (Utica, NY/Proctor) and Shannon Gleason (East Durham, NY/Cairo-Durham) also qualified for the finals and placed fifth and seventh respectively. Rodriguez-Mendez had Utica's fastest time of the day in the preliminaries in 16.60 seconds.

Jumping for Joy: On Saturday, Marquis Simpson placed fourth in the long jump at 6.61 meters, and Ka'Sean Watlington was eighth at 6.31 meters while not competing in his specialty event, the triple jump. Sean Murphy was eighth in the triple jump in a performance of 12.28 meters. For the women's squad, Laura Meade (Glenville, NY/Scotia-Glenville) performed well in the horizontal jumps as she placed fourth in the triple jump event in a jump of 10.40 meters, and recorded a 4.69 meter leap in the long jump. Both performances were collegiate bests for Meade.

Last Time At Hamilton: The Pioneers had a great weekday afternoon the last time they competed at Pritchard Track during the 2018 outdoor season at the Hamilton Mid-Week meet. Nicole Herringshaw (Syracuse, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse) had the premier performance for the women's squad with a school record 36.98 meters in the Javelin throw and a tie for the win in the high jump at 1.54 meters with teammate Abigail Guidarelli (Farmington, NY/Victor). Molly Ferguson (Abington, MA/Abington High School) won the discus in 36.86 meters. For the men's squad, Ka'Sean Watlington set a new school record in the triple jump in 14.58 meters, and former Pioneer Patrick Fitzgerald set a new program standard in the pole vault. Keanu Heedram won the shot put and discus events, Kevin Gangemi won the 400 meters in 49.65 seconds, and Nicholas Ashton won at 800 meters at a clip of 1:58.39.

Up Next: The Pioneers will head to Westfield, Massachusetts for the Jerry Gravel Classic hosted by Westfield State on Saturday, April 13th.