The Plattsburgh State indoor track and field team jumped out of the gate strong last weekend at St. Lawrence University, with several athletes hitting first place marks at last Friday’s meet.
With a roster heavy with freshmen and new faces, head coach Nicholas Jones was very pleased with his team’s results in their first meet.
“We have a lot of new, young athletes, and for a lot of them it was their first college meet,” Jones said. “They handled themselves very well and put forth a good effort.”
Both the men and women took 1st in 4×200 meter relay. For the women, the foursome of senior Ashlee Estes, sophomore Marissa Jones, and freshmen Paige Potter and Sierra Fancher finished with a time of 1:53.82. The men saw the group of junior Luke Roderka, sophomore Ralph Cordeau, and freshmen Jordan Kane and Daryn Nephew finish in 1:36.20.
The women’s throwing group in particular saw a lot of success, with senior Heather Chapman and sophomore Brianna Coon taking 2nd and 3rd respectively in shot put, while sophomore Hannah Cunningham took 3rd in the weight throw.
“It was a very strong start for them,” Jones said. “It was a personal record for Hannah, and some very solid marks for Heather and Brianna.”
In other field events, freshman Anika Roberts won the pole vault with a 2.90 meter mark.
“She’s the highest pole vaulter we’ve had in a few years,” Jones said.
Roberts was happy to be able to get a solid mark early on her new team.
“It was first meet, and we haven’t been able to practice vaulting much, so I felt pretty good about it,” Roberts said.
Sophomore Elisabeth Plympton built off a strong season last year with a solid meet in the short distance events, receiving All-Atlantic Region Conference (AARC) qualifying times in the 60 and 200-meter events while taking 1st in both.
“I was actually kind of nervous because we were all sick before the meet,” Plympton said. “The first meet, you usually find out how out of shape you are, but I found out I actually wasn’t that out of shape, as it turned out.”
Plympton received SUNYAC Indoor Track and Field Athlete of the Week Honors for her efforts.
“It’s early, but right now she’s ranked top in the SUNYAC in both of her events,” Jones said.
On the men’s side of things, the Cardinals also received some strong performances from rookies on the team. Freshman Jordan Kane finished first in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.70 seconds, while Michael Warchol ran a personal record 4:30.47 in the mile run.
“That was a 12 second improvement on his personal record for him, so that was big,” Jones said. “He’s mainly an 800-meter guy, so that was very solid.”
Now PSUC heads into winter break, with no meet until Saturday, Jan. 20 at the Saints Indoor Invitational hosted by St. Lawrence University.
That means a lot of time off, and for some that will mean getting creative with training.
“It will be more difficult, considering we won’t be here in our facilities the whole time,” Roberts said. “I think if we keep working over break to stay in shape, though, we’ll be ready to get to work when we come back.”
Jones seemed confident in his runners’ abilities to stay focused during their rest time.
“With this being our first meet, we’ll make some corrections,” Jones said. “It’s nice to not have to rush to prepare for a meet this week. After that, it will be up to them over the break to stay in shape over break and be ready to go when they get back.”
Email Ben Watson at sports@cardinalpointsonline.com
