Cortland Standard — College, Monday, August 29, 2016 Page 15

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By BRYAN CHAMBALAContributing Writer

Aff ordable child care has long been a challenge not only for Tompkins Cort-land Community College students, but also for our surrounding communities.

According to a 2014 study conduct-ed by Child Care Aware of America, New York state has the highest child-care costs in the country — and, with a relative lack of options (even expen-sive options), parents struggle to fi nd adequate care.

With that in mind, the Tompkins Cor-tland Community College Foundation has begun a fundraising eff ort aimed at building a new childcare facility on campus that would expand capacity and strengthen academic programs.

The new childcare center at Tomp-kins Cortland Community College will

feature preschool, toddler, and infant wings — the infant wing especially addresses a signifi cant need in the community for quality, aff ordable infant care for children ages 6 weeks to 18 months. The center has always cal-culated costs using an income-based sliding scale.

“Parents with infants struggle the most,” said Sue Dale-Hall, CEO of the Child Development Council, serv-ing Cortland and Tompkins counties. “While 55 percent of mothers with in-fants work, care for the youngest is costly and hard to fi nd.”

The new center would also include separate playgrounds for each wing, including a sand/water play area, age-appropriate climbers, and an outdoor bicycle track.

TC3 plans child care expansion

See TC3, page 16

Images provided by TC3

Page 18 Cortland Standard — College, Monday, August 29, 2016

By ALAN BUTLERSports Editor

Realistically, it was go-ing to be a hard act to fol-low for SUNY Cortland’s athletic program.

After closing out the previous 2014-15 school year crowning baseball and women’s lacrosse squads as NCAA Divi-sion III national cham-pions, the Red Dragons were hoping to pull off the daunting task of re-peating that success.

While the opportunity to repeat those fell frus-tratingly short this past Memorial Day weekend for both programs, the school still had national titles bestowed upon two individuals over the 2015-16 school year — wrestler Bobby Dierna and high jumper Nick Vachon.

Dierna, a junior out of Wayne High School, was the 157-pound national champion at the NCAA Division III Champion-ships held in Cedar Rap-ids, Iowa, back in March. He won a 7-5 decision over Drew Wagenhoff er of Wartburg in the title match, concluding a 24-2 campaign that hiked his career record at Cortland to a sparking 85 wins against just nine losses.

Vachon, a junior out of Maine-Endwell High School, cleared the bar at 6 feet-10.85 inches to win the high jump com-petition at the NCAA Di-vision III Outdoor Track and Field Champion-ships held in Waverly, Iowa, back in May. He became the school’s 102nd individual national champion, and 14th ever in men’s track and fi eld.

Complimenting those individual feats, Coach Joe Brown’s baseball team fi nished ranked No. 2 in the country af-ter losing out to eventual champion Trinity out of

Texas at the NCAA Di-vision III World Series. Coach Kelly Lickert-Orr’s women’s lacrosse club was ousted 16-11 in the NCAA Division III semifi nals by eventual champion Middlebury College out of Vermont — snapping the Red Dragons’ 40-game un-beaten streak — and had to settle for be-ing the third best team nationally.

Also, the Red Dragons had football, men’s bas-ketball, men’s lacrosse and softball squads all post NCAA Division III tournament wins before having post-season am-bitions come to a halt. Also on the national level, Cortland wres-tlers were seventh as a team and the men’s outdoor track and fi eld squad tied for 10th at their respective national competitions.

All of that helped the

Red Dragons continue the successful habit of placing among the Top 25 in the Learfi eld Sports Directors’ Cup, which ranks the top ath-letic programs among some 450 eligible NCAA Division III schools on a national level.

The National Associa-tion of Collegiate Direc-tors of Athletics, Learfi eld Sports and USA Today present the award annu-ally to recognize overall excellence among colle-giate athletic programs. The Red Dragons were 21st in the fi nal point standings for 2015-16, and joined Williams Col-lege, Amherst College, Middelbury College and Emory University as the only schools who have always been included in the 21-year-history of the rankings.

Williams College out of Massachusetts topped the Directors’

Cups standings for the 19th time.

The SUNY Athletic Conference also ranks athletic success, with Cortland placing second behind Geneseo in this year’s Commissioner’s Cup standings. The Red Dragons won confer-ence titles in men’s bas-ketball, baseball, soft-ball, men’s indoor and outdoor track, men’s lacrosse and women’s lacrosse.

Here’s a quick look at Cortland’s 2015-16 sports campaign:

———FALL ATHLETICS

Football (9-3): The Red Dragons were regular season cham-pions in their fi rst-ever season in the Empire 8 Conference, and won a fi rst round NCAA play-off contest over Salis-bury before traveling cross-country to Oregon and losing to Linfi eld. Coach Dan MacNeill was named the All-East Coach of the Year by D3football.com and the National Coach of the Year by the web site HERO Sports.

Junior quarterback Steven Ferreira passed for 3,127 yards and 29 touchdowns — with only fi ve interceptions — as the Red Dragons also beat Ithaca College for the sixth straight season in the fabled Cortaca Jug contest. Defensive end Jake Ceresna had a team-high 9.5 sacks and safety Carson Las-siter 100 tackles while joining Ferreira and kick returner Dylan Peebles as All-East selections.

Men’s Soccer (12-5-2): For the third straight season, the Red Dragons reached double fi gures in victories. Cort-land also reached the

Red Dragons in Top 25NCAA titles for wrestler Dierna, high jumper VachonThe 2016 SUNY Cor-

tland C-Club Athletic Awards Ceremony, held May 2 at the college’s Alumni Arena, honored the top student-athletes from among the 600-plus who competed on Cortland’s 25 men’s and women’s in-tercollegiate teams during the past academic year.

The SUNY Cortland C-Club Male Senior Athlete of the Year Award was presented to wrestler Joe Giaramita (Elwood/John H. Glenn) and the C-Club Female Senior Athlete of the Year Award was presented to women’s lacrosse midfi elder Tara Monaghan (Stony Point/North Rockland). The awards are sponsored by the C-Club and were voted upon by Cortland athletic administrators.

Giaramita won the 2015 NCAA Divi-sion III wrestling title at 197 pounds and fi nished as only the second four-

time All-American in Cor-tland wrestling history. He graduated as Cortland’s career wins leader with an overall mark of 129-26 with 32 pins.

Monaghan scored 80 goals, tying her for the highest single-season total in school history, and also notched 14 as-sists for 94 total points in 22 games. She recorded career totals of 236 goals, 42 assists and 318 draw controls and fi nished sec-ond in school history in draw controls and third in goals.

Other fi nalists for Male Senior Athlete of the Year were football defensive end Jake Ceresna (New Fairfi eld, CT), basketball guard Blair Estarfaa (Buf-falo/Maryvale), lacrosse attack Zach Hopps (Ak-w e s a s n e / M a s s e n a ) , wrestler Lou Puca (Hun-tington) and baseball out-fi elder Conrad Ziemen-dorf (Penfi eld/Webster

SUNY Cortland athletes honored

Photo provided by SUNY Cortland

2015-16 Cortland Red Letter Award Winners:Front Row (left to right): Miranda Fergus (women’s swim-

ming and diving), Michaela Stumpf (women’s gymnastics), Mitch Ryan (men’s cross country), Kerri Culhane (women’s cross country), Kayla Koelbel (women’s indoor track and fi eld), Ella Neville (women’s soccer), Mia Hayes (women’s tennis).

Middle Row (left to right): Jamie Bucci (softball), Nicole Bello (women’s lacrosse), Lou Puca (wrestling), Jarred Iacov-elli (men’s outdoor track and fi eld), Madison Fischl (women’s ice hockey), Drew Weigman (men’s ice hockey), Sara O’Brien (fi eld hockey), Carly Peters (women’s golf).

Back Row (left to right): Blair Estarfaa (men’s basketball), Joe Brand (men’s lacrosse), Devonte Davis (football), Robby Reiser (men’s soccer), Reeve Callen (men’s swimming and div-ing), Keith Andrews (baseball), Connor Christopherson (men’s indoor track and fi eld), Caysea Cohen (women’s basketball).

Not present: Amanda May (women’s volleyball) and Han-nah Anthes (women’s outdoor track and fi eld).

Bob Ellis/staff photographerCortland’s Tanner Whiteman pitches last May.

See DRAGONS, page 21

See HONORED, page 27