National dreams and a Liberty League title fuel Ithaca College women’s track and field season. With powerhouse athletes returning, the team is ready to prove its dominance across every event.
The team has a revamped roster, which head coach Jennifer Potter said is going to make the squad more well rounded. Last season, the team ranked second place in the 2024 Liberty League Indoor Championships. This year, the team is ready to win it all, according to junior Cecelia LaBonte and senior Laura Suppa.
“[Winning the championship is] something that we haven’t gotten the past two years,” LaBonte said. “It’s definitely something we talk about a lot. We’ve raised our team standards this year, a little bit, kind of pursuing that. And we’re hoping to have a lot of people score in leagues.”
Last season, Suppa went to nationals for outdoor track and placed 14th in 60-meter hurdles, and earlier in her season placed first in the same event at the Liberty League Indoor Championship. Suppa said she can improve on speed and form this year, but her individual goal is to make another appearance at nationals.
“That’s something only time can tell and the training that I’m doing,” Suppa said. “It’s definitely something that I’m hoping to achieve.”
During the summer, Suppa said she woke up at 5 a.m. every day and went to the track and gym and followed it up with recovery exercises to heal her shin splints injury.
“[We are] just really having everyone focusing in on their events and putting in all the work and focusing on the small things like making sure we’re going to the athletic trainer and getting the recovery that we need, and making sure we’re healthy by Liberty Leagues and not drained out by that time,” Suppa said.
Also a strong performer, LaBonte got first in the pentathlon during the 2024 Liberty League Indoor Championship and said she wants to defend her title. Last indoor season she was ranked 47th and is striving to be in the top 20 to individually qualify for nationals.
Another key performer was senior Luca Pecora, who placed second in the triple jump at last year’s Liberty League Outdoor Championships. Sophomore sprinter Ava Butler also made a strong showing, finishing third in the 4×400 relay alongside senior Natalie MacArthur and junior mid-distance runner Joy Petersen at the 2024 Liberty League Indoor Championships.
In the high jump, Potter said the Bombers are expecting a strong performance from sophomore Madeleine Wright. During the 2024 outdoor season, Wright qualified for nationals in the high jump event after placing second at the regional championship. Additionally, Wright placed first in the heptathlon event at the 2024 Liberty League Outdoor Championships.
In pole vault, junior Bree Boyle was the Bombers’ top performer, finishing fourth at both the 2024 Liberty League Indoor and Outdoor Championships.
Sophomore Celia Ryan will be a key athlete in jumps for the Bombers. At last season’s Liberty League Indoor Championships, Ryan placed fifth in the high jump, sixth in the long jump, and ninth in the triple jump.
Junior distance runner Kyla Eisman is also set to make an impact. In the 2023 cross-country season, Eisman qualified for nationals and took first place in three events during the 2023–24 indoor season, including the 5,000-meter race at the Liberty League Indoor Championship.
With the goals of winning the Liberty League Championship, the team has also made some changes to the coaching staff. Stargell Williams is the new throwing coach for the team and Dom Mikula ’24 is coaching pole vault. Prior to coaching, Mikula was an athlete for the college setting multiple school records for pole vault with multiple All-American awards. Head coach Jennifer Potter was coaching hurdles before but has now added the role of coaching sprints. Erin Dinan, the head men’s and women’s cross-country head coach, is coaching distance events.
Potter said the team sought out new short sprinters, an area where they struggled last year. Potter said she is excited to see how athletes perform such as first-year sprinters Ella Tucker, Aynisha McQuillar and Marykate Rudnicki.
“I really feel strong about the depth,” Potter said. ”I feel like we’re going to do very well scoring in all event areas … from sprints and hurdles to jumps and distance and throws.”
With all of these returners, the Bombers will also feel the absence of standout thrower Lily Seyfert this season. Last year, Seyfert earned Liberty League Indoor Honorable Mention in shot put and was named to the USTFCCCA Indoor All-Region team for shot put.
Some teams the Bombers are anticipating tough competitions with are the University of Rochester Yellowjackets, the Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers, and the Vassar College Brewers. Last season, the Yellowjackets claimed first place at the 2024 Liberty League Indoor Championships, while the Tigers and Brewers finished third and fourth, respectively.
However, the Liberty League Championships is not the team’s only goal, according to Potter.
“There’s a lot of tradition of excellence within our program,” Potter said. As an alum and someone who ran here, it’s exciting to see the continuation and the elevation of the level of success of the program. I think that continuity and that belief is really strong for us in that. We don’t want to just win Liberty Leagues, we want to perform at the national level,”
