Ithaca College

To all Ithaca College faculty, staff and students, please join us this Thursday, March 30 at 12:15 p.m. as we celebrate the amazing NCAA Championship accomplishments of four Ithaca College winter athletics teams at the Hill Center inside Ben Light Gymnasium.

Women’s Indoor Track & Field

On March 10-11 in Naperville, Ill., the women’s track & field team wrapped up competition at the Division III Indoor Championships as the national runner-up, the best finish in school history. Ithaca produced six All-Americans at the national meet, including three individual national champions.

Junior Taryn Cordani won the 3,000- and 5,000-meter runs, while senior Katherine Pitman prevailed in the pole vault to run Ithaca’s all-time individual national champion total to 37.

Cordani set a new NCAA DIII meet record in the 5K with a time of 16:28.15, to beat out the field by nearly five seconds. Cordani became the 25th student-athlete to win a national title at Ithaca and the first indoor track & field athlete to do so since 2011-12. She was also the first indoor runner to place first since 1991-92.

The follow afternoon, she capped off her impressive weekend with a facility record time of 9:42.43 in the 3K. Both of her times set new school records.

Pitman secured her second career national title in the pole vault with an NCAA DIII indoor meet record mark of 4.18 meters. She now holds both indoor and outdoor championship meet records after she won last year’s outdoor championships with a mark of 4.21 meters.

Senior Brandy Smith was an All-American in two events for Ithaca. Smith placed second in the shot put with a school record mark of 15.21 meters and was sixth in the weight throw at 17.81 meters. Freshman Beth Cripps tied for eighth in the pole vault with a cleared height of 3.60 meters.

Ithaca also sent its distance medley relay team of junior Sierra Grazia, freshmen Alexandria Rheaume and Sarah Rudge, and sophomore Emilie Mertz. The quartet finished 12th in the event.

Wrestling

The wrestling team qualified wrestlers in six different weight-classes for the 2017 Division III National Championships, held in La Crosse, Wis. The Bombers put on and excellent performance at the two-day event, scoring 34.5 team points to finish in ninth-place of the 68 programs in attendance. It marked the program’s first Top-10 finish as a team since coming in fifth in back-to-back seasons in 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Ithaca equaled its total from last season, placing three NCAA All-Americans at the Championships. Headlining IC’s finishers was senior Carlos Toribio, who finished as the Runner-Up at 197 pounds. He is the first IC wrestler to score back-to-back All-American finishes at the National Championships since Alex Gomez notched three straight All-America honors from 2013-2015. He was also the first since Gomez, who finished as Runner-Up in 2014, to appear in the final round of the Championships.

The Bombers scored also scored All-American performances from two individuals set to return to South Hill next season in sophomore Jake O’Brien and freshman Sammy Schneider. O’Brien took eighth-place at 285-pounds, while Schneider was fifth at 149-pounds. It was the first All-America honor of both wrestler’s respective collegiate careers.

Also appearing in the tournament was senior captain Jimmy Kaishian, as well as juniors Nick Velez and Jaison White. Kaishian competed at 125-pounds, Velez battled at 165-pounds, while White rounded out the group at 174-pounds.

Women’s Swimming & Diving

The women’s swimming & diving team sent seven entrants to the 2017 NCAA Division III National Championship Meet in Shenandoah, Texas. Competing in one of the busiest swimming and diving program’s in recent seasons, the Bombers accrued 65 team points to finish in 17th place out of the 60 women’s teams at the meet. It was the highest finish for the IC women at the National Meet since a 14th-place showing in 2009-10.

Ithaca racked up seven total NCAA All-American performances on the week. Headlining the finishers were junior diver Nickie Griesemer and senior swimmer Grace Ayer, who both earned First-Team All-America accolades. Griesemer finished as the Runner-Up on the three-meter springboard, while Ayer posted a seventh-place finish in the 200-yard individual medley.

IC also had five Honorable Mention All-America performances during the week. Senior Lake Duffy earned the honor in the 50-yard freestyle, while Ayer and Griesemer both picked up additional honors in the 100-yard breaststroke and one-meter springboard events, respectively. Ithaca’s final two Honorable Mention All-America finishes came in the relays, as junior Jaclyn Pecze and senior Samantha Reilly joined Ayer and Duffy to post Top-16 finishes in the 200- and 400-yard medley relays. The 400-yard medley relay race was particularly memorable as the IC foursome set a new program-record time of 3:47.48, while Ayer led off the race with a new program record in the 100-yard backstroke with a 56.37 split.

Also competing on the diving events were juniors Katie Helly and Lindsey Suddaby.

Women’s Basketball

The women’s basketball team posted a 25-4 record at the conclusion of the 2016-17 season. After winning the Empire 8 Conference championship on February 25 in Hoboken, N.J., Ithaca earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championships and was awarded hosting rights for the opening rounds of the tournament on March 3-4.

Ithaca won its first round game against Rochester Institute of Technology, 65-62, in front of a jam-packed crowd inside Ben Light Gymnasium. The following evening, the Bombers trailed by 13 points to SUNY New Paltz heading to the fourth quarter and mounted a valiant comeback to tie the game up at 80-80 with less than two minutes left in the game. Unfortunately, though, Ithaca could not complete the comeback and fell to New Paltz, 83-80.

In that contest against New Paltz, senior Ali Ricchiuti became the 13th player in school history to eclipse 1,000 points in her career. Ricchiuti would be named all-region by D3hoops.com a few weeks later, as would junior Jordan Beers.