Hall of Fame
Toni (Wiszowaty) Lynch wrapped up her career as one of the most accomplished distance runners in the history of the Plattsburgh State cross country and track and field programs, and she helped the Cardinals finish second at the 2007 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships.
She earned three All-America citations in outdoor track and field (one in 2006, two in 2007), two All-America honors in cross country (2006, 2007) and one All-America plaudit in indoor track and field (2007).
Her top cross country performance came at the 2006 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships, as she finished fourth at the meet, while she was the runner-up in the 10,000-meter run at both the 2006 and 2007 NCAA Division III Women’s Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
The Shirley, N.Y., native earned the Plattsburgh State Female Achievement Award in 2007-08 and currently holds program records in the indoor 3,000-meter run (9:50.16), the indoor 5,000-meter run (16:52.81), the outdoor 5,000-meter run (16:44.99) and the outdoor 10,000-meter run (33:57.46).
Date of Induction into Cardinal Sports Hall of Fame:
October 18, 2019
Where is she now:
Toni is a kindergarten teacher at Division Street Elementary School for the Saratoga City School District. A 10-year teaching veteran, Toni is in her seventh year at Division Street Elementary. She has her M.S.Ed in childhood education B-6 and a master’s in literacy B-6, both of which she received from SUNY Plattsburgh.
She resides in Ballston Lake, N.Y., with her husband, John, and their children, Elijah (5) and Dylan (soon to be 3, in December). Toni cites having two active boys as her greatest personal accomplishment, while her greatest professional accomplishment is being accepted into the Master Teacher Program and becoming a Master Teacher. Bestowed by Governor Andrew Cuomo, the title is given to just 980 teachers K-12 across New York State who exhibit a knowledge of expertise in the STEM field.
Favorite Plattsburgh State Sports Moment:
“On a team level, my proudest moment as an athlete has to be the very first time my team made it to nationals in cross country in 2006. We worked so hard that season to make it after being riddled with injury after injury. We worked our butts off to make it, and we did. I feel like an easy answer would be our accomplishment in 2007 of getting second at nationals, but I was really proud of our women’s team in 2006 for doing something we didn’t think was possible, and that set the stage for our 2007 performance and made us hungry for more. 2006 was also the year our women’s team developed such a close, unbreakable bond. Individually, my proudest moment has to be winning the 10k at Penn Relays in 2008 against top runners from Division I, Division II and Division III. Even though this win was eventually followed by a season-ending injury, I was still happy with such a prestigious win. That performance allowed me to crack into the top-10 all-time performances in Division III history, was a leading time in Division III that year in that event, was a school record and was a SUNYAC record.”
