The Ithaca College women’s track and field recorded their highest team place in school history at the 2017 NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships March 10–11, finishing in second with 41.25 points. At the end of the first day, the Bombers were in first place with 23.25 points. Junior Taryn Cordani and senior Katherine Pitman both won national championships in their events.
Cordani won first-place in both the 3,000-meter and 5,000-meter races. With the victories, she became the 35th individual national champion in school history. In the 5,000-meter run, Cordani set an NCAA Division III meet record with a time of 16:28.15. In the 3,000-meter, she placed first with a time of 9:42.43 March 11. She is the Blue and Gold’s first indoor track and field national champion since Emma Dewart ’12 won a championship in the pentathlon in 2011–2012. Additionally, Cordani became the first indoor runner to win a national title for the Bombers in the 5000-meter race since Ann Marie DelSignore ‘94 in 1991–1992.
Pitman secured the team’s second individual national championship March 10 when she won first-place in the pole vault. Pitman also set a NCAA Division III meet record with a height of 4.18 meters. Pitman now holds both the indoor and outdoor Division III meet records for the pole vault. She is now the 36th individual to win a national championship for the South Hill squad.
Freshman Beth Cripps, who also competed in the pole vault, came in eighth place with a mark of 3.60 meters, winning an All-American title for her performance.
In the shot put, senior Brandy Smith took second place with a distance of 15.21 meters, a distance that is a new school record. Smith also claimed another All-American title in weight throw, where she took sixth place with a throw of 17.81 meters.
With a time of 12:27.38, the distance medley relay team of freshmen Alexandria Rheaume and Sarah Rudge, sophomore Emilie Mertz and junior Sierra Grazia took 12th place.
The team returns to action 10 a.m. March 25 at the Susquehanna Invitational in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania.
