The Plattsburgh State track and field team had good performances in the Southern New Hampshire Penman Relays last Saturday. The women’s track team set the meet record last week for 4×400-meter relay and 400-meter dash.
Sophomore Desirae Blair was awarded by the State University of New York Athletic Conference as track athlete of the week.
“She has been working hard and she is improving from last semester. Things are going well for her,” head coach Nick Jones said.
The team of junior Elisabeth Plympton, sophomore Janyll Barber, junior Taylor Canet and junior Marissa Jones qualified for the regional championship with the time of 4:00.02. Blair came in fourth for the women’s javelin with the result of 38.29 meters.
Jones won the 400-meter dash with the time of 58.09. Plympton came in third for the 200-meter dash with the time of 25.69. Freshman Aislyn McDonough came in first for the 800-meter with the time of 2:20.72. With these results, they have qualified for the regional conference.
“I went in not really expecting to run that at all because it is a big [personal record] for me,” McDonough said. “I just wanted to try my best, and I know that my coaches knew what I was capable of, so I just trusted them.”
For the men’s team, senior Brian Fabian came in second for the 400-meter dash with the time of 49.96. Sophomore Luke Groves won the 800-meter with the time of 1:57.19. The team of sophomore Brenden Jung, Groves, Fabian and sophomore Andrew Horan landed first place for the 4×400-meter relay with the time of 3:24.19.
McDonough also said she is normally the ultimate for the 4×400-meter relay but she took Jones’ place last week. Jones was nervous for the event, but with help from her teammates, she managed to keep the lead for the team.
McDonough also said that being a transfer student, everything is new to her and joining the team only in January feels like she landed in the middle of everything.
She was unsure about how well she would perform. Finishing 800-meter with the time of 2:34.00 for the beginning of the indoor season was a little discouraging for her, but she didn’t give up.
“I just kept working hard, and my teammates really helped me with pushing me through workouts,” McDonough said.
McDonough said that the team has the same mindset and is working together to achieve its goals. She also said that joining the team helped her fit in, and that most of her closest friends are on the team.
“Everyone kind of has similar goals. They just want to keep pushing and pushing,” McDonough said. “No matter how much you achieve, there is always a bigger goal at the end of the day.”
McDonough said that the team was very welcoming when she came in and when they have recruits from high schools, they want the students to join and they are very inclusive.
“It’s definitely a great outlet for me. I would say it does get stressful at some points where you have to miss class or work around practice,” McDonough said. It is really my outlet and if anything releases my stress.”
With the SUNYAC championship approaching, Jones is trying to keep the athletes healthy. Jones wants the athletes to treat the Cortland Classic meet as if it were the SUNYAC championship where it will be a two-day meet.
The SUNYAC championship is going to be a big meet for McDonough, she said. The top three rankings are very close. She wants to stay focused and have a good meet. As for the regional, she is not expecting much but to show up and do her best.
“My focus right now is the 800, I do think that I can get a better time for that, so I will just keep pushing and see what happens,” McDonough said.
