The Cornell women’s outdoor track and field team delivered a dominant performance on April 12 at the Big Red Invitational, their only home meet of the season, held at the Kane Sports Complex.
The event provided an opportunity for Cornell athletes to compete in front of local supporters and demonstrate their depth across multiple disciplines.
Sade Falese made a notable comeback in the heptathlon, finishing second overall after moving up from fifth place. She won both the long jump and 800 meters within her event. The sprint group also excelled, with Divine Bamgboye, Brianna Beckham, Natasha Redmond, and Olivia Walters winning the 4×100-meter relay. In distance events, Tenley Nelson led a sweep of the top three spots in the 1500 meters alongside Fiona Lee and Kinga Czajkowska.
Bamgboye set a new freshman record in the 100-meter hurdles with a time of 13.71 seconds. In addition to individual victories by Redmond in both sprints (100m and 200m), Cornell swept several podiums throughout running events including taking all top seven places in the 400 meters led by Sophia Comfere’s program freshman record (54.58 seconds).
In field events, Claire Springer won shot put while Lauren Smith took first place in javelin. Avery Hilliard cleared an adjusted approach to win pole vault at 4.06 meters; Lauren Cashman was second with her mark moving her into fifth all-time for Cornell.
Head coach Mike Henderson said: “It was great to compete at home in front of our fans. The team brought great energy. The throws and hurdles set the tone for the day coming out and getting wins, PRs and all-time performances.”
Cornell is scheduled to compete next at the Navy Invite on April 17-18.
