CORTLAND, NY - The Utica University track and field program piled up personal bests on the first day of the Cortland Classic hosted by SUNY Cortland. No team scores were kept.
Michael Roberts (Remsen, NY/Remsen) led the way for Utica on the track with an eye-popping performance at 10,000 meters. His time of 33:42 was good for fifth in a competitive field, and stands third-best all time in the history of the program.
Elsewhere on the track, three Pioneers will be in tomorrow's hurdles finals by moving on from the preliminaries. Sophie Henderson had the fastest time of the women's 100 hurdles preliminary heats with a time of 15.86, and Laura Meade will also run in tomorrow's final after improving her personal best to a 16.25 for the third-fastest time and a new #5 mark in program history. Brady Szekeres (Accord, NY/Rondout Valley) qualified for the men's 110 hurdles final with a time of 16.79, which was a personal best time.
Jade Dening was four hundreths away from a personal best at 1,500 meters with a time of 5:04.72 to place eighth. She was the third-fastest Division III runner in the field, with the top five competitors coming from Division I Syracuse.
In the field, the Pioneers were led by their men's javelin contingent. Justin Swavely (Rome, NY/RFA) produced an astounding throw of 52.14 meters to win, record the #3 mark in program history, and qualify for the AARTFC meet. Jacob Barnes (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) was second at 47.95 meters with a convincing personal best. Anthony Ricozzi (Carmel, NY/Carmel) was eighth at 39.12 meters. Kameren Port (Gloversville, NY/Gloversville) also added a personal best mark of 36.52 meters in placing tenth.
In the women's javelin, Kurstan Martin was fourth with a personal best throw of 29.10 meters.
In the men's hammer throw, Antwan Kelly (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) led the way with a fifth place finish at a mark of 45.91 meters. Swavely added to his great day with a personal best of 44.85 to finish seventh. Brady VanAernam (Johnstown, NY/Johnstown) was ninth with a personal best performance of 44.42 meters, and Mark Brown (Warwick, RI/Pilgrim) was tenth.
In the women's hammer throw, Skyler Whorf had a personal best throw of 40.48 meters to place eighth. Gabrielle DeSanctis was tenth.
DeSanctis was also fourth in the women's pole vault with a clearance of 2.16 meters.
After day one of the men's decathlon, Andrew Wieder (Clinton, NY/Clinton) is in third place with 3,068 points. Chase Pecoraro (Medina, NY/Medina) ranks fifth with 2,846 points. Wieder has been in the top four in all events, while Pecoraro was tops in the high jump at 1.79 meters.
Saturday action begins with the men's decathlon hurdles at 9 a.m.
