Relay team, Desens crowned SUNYAC champs
The women's 4x400-meter relay team won Fredonia's first SUNYAC title in a women's relay event in school history on Saturday.
Competing at SUNYAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships, the team of Anna Dambacher (Divernon, Ill./Auburn), Kim Foltz (Elbridge, N.Y./Jordan-Elbridge), Laura Morrison (Wethersfield, Conn./ Wethersfield), and Brittany Feldman (Jamestown, N.Y./Southwestern) finished almost four seconds ahead of the second-place finisher with a time of 3:56.16.
Nicole Desens (Hopewell Junction, N.Y./Arlington) claimed another SUNYAC title of her own in the discus with a 42.57 meter throw. She came into the championship meet ranked No. 13 in the country after her 43.99 meter throw last weekend in St. John Fisher.
Both Desens and the relay team will look to better their performances next weekend at the last-chance meet in Alleghany, N.Y. with hopes of qualifying for NCAA Division III Championships.
The women's track and field team finished in sixth place with 100 team points.
"The women's conference right now is extremely competitive, but we had some great performances topped off with the 4x4," head coach Tom Wilson said. "That's the first relay conference victory in school history for the women, which is amazing. They really leaned on each other to get the job done today."
Other highlights from day two of SUNYAC's:
Dambacher's times in the sprints continued dropping on Saturday, as she finished fourth in the 100-meter dash at 12.37 and third in the 200-meter dash at 25.39.
Feldman, competing in the finals of both the 400-meter dash and 200-meter dash, took second in the 400 with a time of 57.76 and fifth in the 200 at 25.96.
Morrison and Foltz also competed in the finals of the 800-meter run and finished third and fifth, respectively. Their times were 2:12.61 and 2:17.39.
Lauren Kotas (Lancaster, N.Y./Lancaster), who was crowned a SUNYAC champion in the 3,000-meter run this indoor season, finished fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 11:26.83.
Fredonia's 4x100-meter relay team of Dambacher, Feldman, Emily Higgins (Marion, N.Y./Marion), and Mikayla Capastrani (Jamestown, N.Y./Jamestown) took fourth with a time of 49.31.
Bonnie Binggeli (Walworth, N.Y./ Gananda) finished on the podium on Saturday in the 1,500-meter run with a time of 4:52.60, while Hailey Griewisch (Dunkirk, N.Y./Dunkirk) took sixth in the finals of the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 15.81.
In the field events, Annelise Bienko (Clarence, N.Y./Clarence) finished in sixth place behind Desens in the discus with a 35.93 meter throw. Desens also took third in the shot put (12.52 meters), while Brianne Paganello also scored points in eighth place (11.15 meters).
