HOUGHTON, NY – The Alfred University women's track & field team opened its 2022-23 season at the annual Houghton University Highlander December Classic on Friday evening.
 
Friday's invitational was the largest since the COVID-19 global pandemic as it featured institutions from all the NCAA Divisions, including Division I University of Buffalo.
 
The women got things started as Sarah Lutkins (Union Springs, NY/Union Springs) was the second fastest Division III runner in the mile, running a time of 5:55.42 to finish ninth overall after battling from 13^th place at the start. Six of the runners ahead of her were Bulls from UB and one Penn State-Behrend and an unattached runner.
 
The top individual track finish was from McKenzie Hall (Hornell, NY/Hornell) as she raced to a third place finish in the 3,000-meter run, behind runners from SUNY Geneseo and Houghton. Hall clocked in a time of 11:31.93, jumping ahead two places in the final lap. Olivia Gilbert (Ontario, NY/Wayne Central) had the next top finish in the lanes, running a 1:43.77 behind three Geneseo athletes and a University of Buffalo runner in the 600-meter dash. Gilbert's time earned her fifth place as she was closely followed by Ashley Page (Wayland, NY/Wayland-Cohocton) in ninth place with a time of 1:52.55.
 
The Saxons had three running in the 800-meter run as Bianca Durso (Utica, NY/New Hartford Senior) led the way with a time of 2:47.39 in 10^th place. She was followed by Ashley O'Toole (Simi Valley, CA/Simi Valley) in 11^th place with a time of 2:49.53 and Natalya Ryckman (New Eagle, PA/Ringgold) in 15^th place with a time of 3:17.14.
 
The Saxons closed out the track events with a four-five finish by its two 4x200-meter relay teams. The B-team of Durso, Page, Annabelle Townsend (Woodsville, NH/Woodsville) and Ryckman ran a time of 2:02.29 with the A-team of Gilbert, O'Toole, Lutkins and Hall came from behind to edge the team of SUNY Cobleskill with a time of 2:03.46 compared to the Fighting Tigers' time of 2:03.70. The two Saxon teams finished first and second, respectively in the first heat with the Fighting Tigers.
 
"The first meet we have in December is a perfect opportunity for the student-athletes to showcase the hard work and effort they have been putting into their training for the last several months," Interim Head Coach Matt Phillips '10 said. "Getting to watch our athletes compete allows us to see what has been going well with their training and what we can focus on in our next training block. We have a lot of time between this meet and our next competition in late January. Today gave us a great starting point that we will continue to build upon during the rest of the semester."
 
Durso had the top field event finish as she cleared 1.41-meters in the high jump to finish sixth.
 
The Saxons will next go into Winter Break before returning to Houghton University on Saturday, January 21.