COLLEGE CROSS COUNTRY/TRACK & FIELD: NEWARK VALLEY’S SWITZER SIGNS WITH CORTLAND (2024-05-28)

Tioga County Sports Report
By TIM TAYLOR
NEWARK VALLEY — Harley Switzer will continue her distance running career at SUNY Cortland. On Tuesday, the Newark Valley senior signed to run cross country and track & field for the Red Dragons.

Cortland has a long history of success in both sports and has drawn several competitors from Newark Valley and other Tioga County schools.

Switzer believes she can contribute to the team in both sports.

“I'm very dedicated and focused and if I set goals, I stick to them and do everything I can to achieve them,” she said.

Switzer selected Cortland for its educational program.

“I want to go to be a teacher and they have a really good education program, and they have a really good sports program,” she said. “I just went and visited it and I just fell in love with it.”

The school also has a good Spanish Education program, which is big draw for Switzer.

“I've been taking Spanish for five years now and I just really like it,” she said. “I went to Spain twice. I went my junior year and my senior year as a class trip, and it was really fun and I just fell in love with the country and the language and I just want to keep sticking with it.”

Eric D’Arcy, who has coached Switzer in both sports, had his doubts early on about a college career for her

“If someone had said in seventh grade Harley was going to fall in love with running and have this success, I would've said, ah, not sure. But as time went along, slowly but surely she developed this passion and it really started to show through when she had a couple of those challenges put in front of her.

The coach noted her sophomore year wasn’t as productive as Switzer had hoped, but she turned things around as a junior.

While she was a top-10 runner in the section heading into her senior year of cross country, she wasn’t among the potential state qualifiers. When sectionals rolled around, she took fourth in Class D (third as an individual qualifier) and went on to run in the state meet.

She has also qualified for the 1500- and 3,000-meter runs at the state track & field qualifier, which begins Wednesday.

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PHOTOS BY TIM TAYLOR.

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