Cora Butler.
Cora Butler capped one remarkable season by winning the State Division 2 long jump title with a best-ever 18-3, which was made more dramatic by the fact that she fouled on her first jump and jumped “only” 16-0 on her second. So, talk about pressure for the top-seeded D-2 long jumper, when she just put it all together and leaped out to another school record on her final jump. Butler also finished third in the triple jump with a school-record 38-4.
Over the past 20 years New Paltz has had just four State champions: Jackie Seabrooks in the long jump in the early 1990’s; Alex Brown in the shot out in the mid-90’s; Steve Umbro in the 400 hurdles in the late 90’s; and Sean Bramley in the discus in the early 2000’s.
The New Paltz 4 x 400 relay team of Austin Stewart, Seth Odari, Paul Lamarche and Adrian Climer nearly garnered the Huguenots their second gold of the State Meet with a 3:23.99 second-place finish to Bayport-Bluepoint’s 3:22.58. Climer added a 10th place finish in the 400 with a 51.17. Ben Nadareski took sixth in the 110 hurdles with a 15.54. And the 4 x 100 relay team of Nadareski, Romikeo Duzant, Joey Fitzpatrick and Odari finished ninth in 44.80. The 4 x 800 of Matt Hasbrouck, Lorenzo Mazzucca, David Busby and Alfredo Mazzucca team finished 23rd.
For the girls, senior Naomi-Bouchard-Gordon finished her stellar career with a 14th place finish in the 400 hurdles with a 69.53.