UTICA, NY - The Utica College men's and women's track and field teams will go on the road for the first time this season on Friday and Saturday, January 24th and 25th. The Pioneers will compete against a field loaded up with regional Division I athletes, and numerous Division III powers in the Cornell Upstate Challenge. The meet program begins with heptathlon action at 4:30 PM Friday, while the main portion of the proceedings will take place on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Cornell University's Barton Hall in Ithaca, NY.

Follow Along: Live results for the meet will be made available through the wonderful folks at Leone Timing. They can be found at www.leonetiming.com.

Meet Information: Full meet information, including the order of events, can be located at https://cornellbigred.com/documents/2019/11/23//2020_Upstate_Challenge_Meet_Info.pdf?id=17161.

Last Time Out: The Utica men and women both logged third place finishes as they hosted the Utica College Invitational. The women's squad put up 112 points in the team competition, while the men had 76.5 points. Both squads have opened the season with a pair of third place team finishes.

Let's Get Ready To Rumble: Saturday will mark the long awaited season debut of Ka'Sean Watlington (Bayport, NY/Bayport-Bluepoint) in his signature event, the triple jump. The multiple-time All-American and current school record holder was third in the nation indoors, and eighth outdoors last season. His personal best was recorded outdoors at the national championships with a personal best of 14.93 meters. Watlington had a strong day away from those events last Saturday, as he made the finals of the 60 meter dash, ran personal bests at 200 and 400 meters, and also was second in the long jump.

Magic Wands: Freshman jumper Kelsey Wands has been impressive so far for the Pioneers. The local product made her season debut in the long jump last weekend, and popped out a 5.30 meter leap to place first. That mark holds a convincing lead in the Empire 8 with teammate Laura Meade ranking in second to give the Pioneers even more staying power atop the conference rankings. Wands's debut long jump mark is ranked 31st nationally, and she has also proven to be a fairly strong sprinter with a good layout of track finishes at the Pioneer Winter Classic in December.

Sending It Deep: Thrower Katrina Cornick will look for even bigger marks in the throwing cage to continue on what has been a successful campaign so far. She is seeded seventh in the shot put, and eighth in the weight throw event for this weekend. She has placed either first or second in the four competitions she has competed in this season, with her first win of the year coming at the UC Invitational with a 14.32 meter toss in the weight throw. Aneesa Lewis should be well positioned to challenge in the women's weight throw, as she is seeded just ahead of Cornick for Saturday's competition with a mark of 14.60 meters. For the men, Zack Leader (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) was the top performer in the shot put last week with a sixth place finish at 12.69 meters. Antwan Kelly (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) has also shown a great deal of promise in the infancy of his college career after a 15.50 meter throw in the weight to place fourth last week. That mark is 50th nationally. Andrew Mucica (Little Falls, NY/Little Falls) joins Kelly among Utica athletes in the top ten seeds of the weight throw.

A One Mile Trial: Top distance athletes Mitchell Marlow (Malone, NY/Franklin Academy) and Kaitlyn Stinson will go searching for personal bests in the one mile run this weekend. Marlow is seeded sixth in the men's mile at his personal best time of 4:21.80, and will have a stacked field to pace him towards a potential new best in that event. Marlow ran to a fourth place finish last weekend at 3,000 meters in the UC Invitational. Stinson is seeded 25th at 5:32, and recently opened her indoor season with a time of 11:10.75 in the 3,000. Both are scheduled to take part in the 4x800 meter relays as well.

A Triple Threat: Utica will have a great chance to show well in the women's sprints with Eshone Cofield-Jackson, Jayme Connolly, and Julianne Emerson leading the way. Cofield-Jackson has been one of the key components of Utica's presence on the track in the early season with a bevy of top ten finishes. She is seeded ninth in the 60 meter dash with her AARTFC qualifiying time of 8.04 from the season opener. She will also compete in the 200, and will look for an improvement on her collegiate debut at 400 meters last week. Cofield-Jackson is currently the conference's fastest woman at 60 meters and 200 meters. Emerson is still looking to hit top gear this indoor season, but has put down a solid 60 meter mark of 8.20 this season. She is seeded at her career best of 8.08 to rank behind Cofield-Jackson, and is also Utica's highest seed at 200 meters. Connolly debuted for the season at the Utica College Invitational with a season debut time of 8.52 in the 60 meters, but has run as fast as the low eight second range in the past. She also has competed at 200 meters, and will run the first open 400 meter race of her college career this weekend.

Knowing The Half Of It: The Women's 800 meters could yield some promising results for the Pioneers. Senior Bryanna Mazzella is seeded ninth with a seed time of 2:26.56, and sophomore Laura Levi is seeded close behind in tenth. For the men, Hunter Reed (Buffalo, NY/Clarence) is seeded in the eighth position. He continues to chase a sub-2:00 800 meters at the collegiate level and will hold a seed time aligned with a 2:01 personal best. 

It's Multi Time: Kyle Swiecki (Boonville, NY/Adirondack) and Chase Pecoraro (Medina, NY/Medina) will finally get their first opportunity to shine in their multi-event discipline for the first time this season as they compete in the heptathlon. Swiecki is looking to be in even better form than a season ago when he qualified for NCAA Championships a year ago. His best career performance is 4,789 points, which he achieved at last year's AARTFC Championships last year on his way to a fourteenth place national finish. He was 2nd in the 60 meter hurdles, and in the high jump on Saturday. Pecoraro was second in the high jump on Saturday in 1.84 meters, and has been first or second in that event in both meets this year. He also has a win in the Pole Vault, which he recorded in December with a personal best mark of 4.35 meters. His best heptathlon score is 4,165 points.

Up Next: The Pioneers will host the Pioneer Open on Saturday, February 1st.