CORNING ATHLETES SIGN TO COMPETE AT COLLEGE LEVEL (18 PHOTOS) (June 14, 2026)

BY BRIAN FEES
Southern Tier Sports Report
CORNING — The Corning Hawks held a college signing recently, with 10 members of the Corning cross country and track and field teams signing to compete in college.

Nine of the 10 athletes will go on to run track, or cross country, in college, while one will ski at the collegiate level.

Bryce Hammond signed to run Division I cross country and track at Stony Brook, while Teagan Walsh will do alpine skiing at Division II Lees-McCrae College. 

Claire Devlin and Brooklyn Gordon will both compete in track and field at St. John Fisher and Adrian Blouin and Freddie Collins will both compete in track and field at RIT.

Madeline Sweet will run cross country at Emerson College and Sebastian Boutwell will run cross country at Oswego. 

Nicholas Ferratella will run cross country and track and field at the University of Rochester, while Ethan Wentzel will run track and field at Swarthmore. 

For Hammond when he started looking at schools Stony Brook just seemed to be the right fit.

“When I came into the college process I was more looking at the individual colleges,” Hammond said. “In the end, when I decided on Stony Brook, I decided I should go someplace that is affordable, but also has a really strong program. I felt like Stony Brook fit that bill the most, that’s why I’m going there.”

A week earlier a pair of Horseheads runners, Nicholas Kowal and Mackenzie Baker, both committed to run at Stony Brook as well. For Hammond having some people he knows running at the same school as him will be special. 

“It’s going to be nice, because I feel like for many kids the first hard battle to jump over in college is finding the people you spend time with and building those relationships,” Hammond said. “So, coming in with guys from the section, it gives you some of that baseline so you are not necessarily in there alone. You have some people you have known for a long time.

In high school Hammond has had kids like Ferratella and Boutwell, along with younger kids like Chris Lawson, and kids that graduated in past years, like Jaxyn Mahoney a year ago, to push him in races. Hammond is excited to have a whole roster of runners who can push him everyday. 

“It’s going to be very nice, even in high school just having a few kids there really helps,” Hammond said. “I can’t imagine how much more helpful it’s going to be with that many kids.”

Getting a chance to run in the Division I level is special for Hammond.

“I am very excited that I have finally been able to say I am going to be able to compete at the D1 level,” Hammond said. “It’s going to be nice to continue to grow as an athlete being surrounded by strong athletes every day, and every race.”

For Walsh, once she saw Lees-McCrae, in North Carolina, she knew it was a school for her.

“I really enjoyed the campus, and the area is so beautiful,” Walsh said. “The campus is like stone work and it’s a really great area and it’s really pretty.

“They have two different mountains. One is five miles and one is six miles from campus. They aren’t like the big mountains you have out in Colorado, but they are similar to the mountains you have here. They have higher elevation so they will get snow even though they are further down south. I’m really, really excited. The team is so nice, the coach is amazing and I know I’m going to have a good time. Th coach is amazing, everyone on the team is so nice. They also have snow boarders and everyone on the team is nice.”

For Walsh it’s special to get to keep skiing in college.

“I’m so excited,” she said. “It feels relieving because I don’t know what I’m going to do if I’m not ski racing, so it feels nice to be able to do this for four more years.”

After playing three sports in high school, with skiing, soccer and track and field, it will be nice for Walsh to focus on one sport in college.

“It’s going to be a lot less pressure,” Walsh said. “I’m excited to put the focus on one sport and improve myself even more.”
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PHOTOS BY BRIAN FEES

PHOTO GALLERY FROM THE SIGNING:

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