Track is one of the sports where it is easy to feel like you’re on top of the world when things are going right. But when things aren’t necessarily going your way, it isn’t as easy to find the joy in what you do and it is almost as if you’ve hit a “wall” and can’t break through. You can either cave in and allow yourself to remain the same, or you can keep chipping away little by little until you finally have that breakthrough you were looking for.
Autumn Pittman ran through that “wall” at full speed.
Pittman is a sophomore majoring in communications studies at SUNY Cortland, and is a top sprinter not just on the track and field team at Cortland, but amongst some of the top sprinters in the nation as well.
It was easy to see when she stepped foot on campus last year as a freshman that she was going to be a force to be reckoned with on the track. It was only just a matter of when it would occur.
College track hasn’t been the easiest transition for Pittman, who for a while in her young college career couldn’t seem to get through that aforementioned “wall.”
“It was really just a mental kind of thing that I had to fight through,” said Pittman.
Pittman stated that she would get pretty nervous before she would get ready to run, which was something that she felt affected her from time to time with not being able to elevate her to that level that she and all of her teammates knew she could reach.
But it was just a matter of when.
That when would occur at the Indoor SUNYAC Championship meet back in February of this year.
Heading into the meet, Pittman was always floating in the low eight second range for her 60 meter dash personal record, but was struggling to make it into that sub eight second range.
Before her 60 meter preliminary championship race, a quick prayer and some added motivation from a teammate would push Autumn to a mark she had yet to see.
“Seeing Kendall [Sobczyk] go sub eight right before I ran was awesome. I absolutely love watching my teammates do amazing things. When I saw her time I told myself ‘I got to go and double it.’ I went to the line, did my inner prayer, got set in my blocks and let God take the wheel.”
Freshman Kendall Sobczyk, another stellar sprinter on the track team, ran a 7.95 second 60 meter in her prelim race, which was her first time going under eight seconds.
As excited as Pittman was for her fellow teammate, she knew that this was going to be the one.
After getting set in her blocks, the official got them into their up positions.
Bang.
Off she went.
7.98 seconds later, Pittman would “absolutely freak out” after realizing that she had accomplished one of her goals.
And rightfully so, as at that moment, she knew that all her hard work is beginning to pay off.
Her teammates know just how hard she works at her craft. Senior Alyssa Labelle had nothing but praise for how dedicated Pittman is to achieving all of her goals.
“Autumn is easily one the hardest working individuals I’ve ever met in my life. Day in and day out, you see her speed and endurance going up, and it’s only going to make her an even better runner.”
Although Labelle ran a personal best of 8.07, she couldn’t help but shift her excitement towards Pittman after her time was announced, and would instantly receive the same love from her teammate after she finished up her race.
“It was a huge sense of pride because you love seeing your teammates do well, especially knowing that this was a huge goal for Autumn. But as excited as we all were for her, she was just as excited for us. It speaks volumes to who Autumn is as a person.”
Coach Patrick, head coach of the Cortland track and field team, knows better than everybody that sometimes the level of work being put in can take a toll on the athletes.
“Autumn felt like she plateaued because of how hard she had been working. We’ve seen with a lot of folks that they would have a hard time recovering for the weekends after such a hard week of practice, yet they wouldn’t be running faster.”
Patrick would credit Pittman for her mental fortitude to maintain that mindset that things would end up working out in the long run, and has already done wonders for her at the start of the outdoor season.
Her belief in herself has taken her to a place where although she isn’t quite an upperclasswoman just yet, but she has the potential to be one of the greatest to ever step on the track.
When asked what Pittman has on her mind next, she knows exactly what she wants to accomplish.
“Break school records, and then continue to break the records the I set” with a huge smile beaming off her face after a nice pre meet warm up before the Cortland Classic meet.
“No doubt in my mind she can break every record of every event she touches,” said Labelle.
That confidence would carry right over to day two of the Cortland Classic, as Pittman would reach nearly uncharted territories in the 100 meter dash.
With a time of 12.01 seconds, Pittman almost became the first woman in Cortland history to go under 12 seconds in the event, after having a previous P.R. of 12.41 seconds that she would run the previous week at the Bucknell University Bison Outdoor Classic meet.
She also clocked in another personal best in the 200 meter, with a blazing time of 25.06 seconds, as she is closing in on that sub 25 second mark.
It seems now that week in and week out, Pittman is bumping down all of her personal records. And remember, this young woman is only a SOPHOMORE. Halfway through her second outdoor season, she is already on the verge of rewriting the history books.
The sky’s the absolute limit for Pittman, as she has officially caught her stride, and is showing no signs of letting up anytime soon.