The Plattsburgh State track and field team will be moving on to the NCAA Division III Atlantic Regional Championships hosted by Ithaca College riding mixed results at last weekend’s SUNYAC championships.
The women posted strong results grabbing a third-place finish in the eight-team tournament while the men finished in the last spot in their tournament.
The women were propelled by strong finishes by both veterans and newer faces.
“We just have had some solid young individuals come into our program that have had a big impact very quickly,” said Nicholas Jones, PSUC head coach.
Sophomore Elisabeth Plympton won both the 60-meter and 200-meter dashes en route to winning indoor track athlete of the meet. Plympton also owns the second-fastest time in NCAA Division III in the 60-meter with 7.71 seconds and the fifth-fastest time in the 200-meter at 25.32 seconds.
I ran two personal records, so that’s ideal for championships, that’s when you want to run your best,” Plympton said. “I pulled out the four fastest times of my life, with trials the first and finals the second.”
Senior Lindsey Davenport also delivered, taking third in the 800-meter with a time of 2:20.99, and running as a member of both the distance medley relay team that took first and the 4×400-meter relay team that took second.
The great outing held a little extra meaning for Davenport, as this was the last indoor SUNYACs of her college career.
“I was happy with the third-place finish in the 800, but the team finishes in the 4×400 and the distance relay really made the weekend special, being able to share it with the team,” Davenport said.
The distance medley team also included senior Ashlee Estes, freshman Jackie Corbett and sophomore Kristina Watrobski, while the 4×400 team included freshman Janyll Barber and sophomores Marissa Jones and Taylor Canet.
Marissa Jones qualified for regionals in the 400-meter, running a 59.38 second time into third place.
Freshman Mikayla Rossier finished 11th in the pentathlon but hit personal bests in the shot put and 60-meter hurdles, and a season best in the long jump.
The men still had some bright spots in a weekend that didn’t go quite the way they wanted.
“We had some people that got sick, and some people weren’t able to compete,” Nicholas Jones said.
Jones pointed out some standouts on the men’s side including freshman Michael Warchol’s fifth-place finish in the 800-meter, junior Brian Fabian’s fifth-place finish in the 400-meter and sophomore Anthony Ciccarelli’s performance in the heptathlon as a few.
“Ciccarelli definitely stepped up big and had a [349] point improvement personal best in the men’s heptathlon to finish fourth as a sophomore,” Jones said. “That was huge, he set a lot of personal bests that day.”
Ciccarelli was surprised but pleased with his results.
“It was pretty shocking,” Ciccarelli said. “I’ve been working hard all season, but all of it came together at the same time and came out of nowhere to make a great meet.”
Today and tomorrow the Cards will be competing in the NCAA Division III Atlantic Regional Championships hosted by Ithaca College.
The team is now competing in the All Atlantic Region Track & Field Conference, a conference that Jones called more competitive than the ECAC. That doesn’t mean they won’t be ready.
“It’s definitely a higher caliber meet than what we’ve seen in the past, so we were lucky enough to have 10 athletes qualify for the championship meet,” Jones said. “A lot of the athletes that went to SUNYACs ran multiple events, which is definitely the most races they’ve competed in all season. They’re a little tired, so we’re trying to rest them up while getting a little bit of work in so they’re ready for the regional championship.”
Email Ben Watson at cp@cardinalpointsonline.com
