ITHACA, N.Y- The Cortland men's indoor track and field team, ranked 12th nationally in Division III and third in the Atlantic Region, earned six individual top-eight honors and one relay award at the inaugural All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Championships. Ithaca College hosted the two-day event Friday and Saturday.

Cortland finished in 11th place out of 23 schools that scored with 31 points. Rowan finished first with 120.5 points, followed by Geneseo (49), Utica (49), Ithaca (44), and Brockport (43) to round out the top five.

Storm Malone (Harrison/Highland) was the top Cortland finisher, placing second in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.24 seconds. Malone repeated as the SUNYAC champion in the event last weekend.

The 4x400-meter relay team of Easton Reagan (Schenectady/Schalmont), Ricky Castello (New Rochelle), Austen Johnson (Jamestown) and Noah Serrette (Lawrence) earned third place honors in 3:20.05.

Cortland had two runners earn fourth place honors as Richard Samuels (Wallkill) clocked in at 1:56.95 in the 800-meter run and Micheal Outing (Farmingdale) followed up his 8.30 seconds preliminary performance with a time of 8.34 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles finals.

Other Red Dragon scorers included Nolan Vest (Coram/Longwood), who completed the mile in 4:20.37 for seventh place, and Tyler Hochadel (Hamburg/Frontier), who also added a pair of points to Cortland's total as he finished seventh in the weight throw with a distance of 15.03 meters (49' 3.5").

Also for the Red Dragons, Matt Greenlaw (Warwick/Warwick Valley), Charlie Kollmer (Mount Sinai) and Matt DeLorenzo (Wallkill) placed 10th, 12th and 13th, respectively, in the pole vault. All three cleared 4.26 meters (13' 11.75"), with misses determining placement.

Cortland awaits the announcement of participants for next weekend's NCAA Division III Championships, which will be held in Birmingham, Ala., March 9-10. The final participant list will be posted on NCAA.com Monday by 9 a.m. The top 15 men in each individual event and the top 12 in each relay (4x400 and DMR) qualify for nationals. As of late Saturday night, Cortland athletes ranking in national qualifying spots are:

Dawan Jones (Buffalo/Tapestry Charter), fourth, triple jump
Brent DiVittorio (Brewster), fourth, heptathlon
Malone, tied 10th, 60-meter hurdles
Outing, tied 12th, 60-meter hurdles
Dev Williams (Syracuse/Corcoran), tied seventh, long jump

The 4x400-meter relay was briefly ranked in the top 12 after its AARTFC performances, but dropped as other results came in nationally and are currently tied for 14th place.


Complete Results:
Men
Women

Coach's Corner - Comments from Head Coach Steve Patrick on the AARTFC Men's and Women's Indoor Championships

For the most part we went into this meet as a tune-up for the NCAAs with a few folks, as well as a last ditch effort to try and get a qualifying mark. We had some really nice performances, highlighted by our weight throwers Harley Buczkowski and Tyler Hochadel.  Both had very solid days, placing well in the finals. While neither is able to advance to next weekend's championships in Alabama, they are both primed for the outdoor season, especially in the hammer throw!
 
Sophomore Nolan Vest had a great mile, with his best effort of the season. We couldn't be much happier with his race, or his development over the course of the season. In a lot of ways this is his first real season of track and field in college, as he missed most of last year with an injury. The little bit of outdoor track and field he was able to participate in was pretty limited, so to be this successful this quickly is a great accomplishment.
 
Our men's 4x400 relay (Easton Reagan, Austen Johnson, Noah Serrette and Ricky Castello) put together an exceptional effort on Friday night.  Their performance (3:20.05) was faster then what the school record was when I started coaching here; to give you some perspective in 2008 we had a team run 3:20.82 on a banked track to break what was the school record at the time.  It's quite amazing that these men ran so much faster this weekend while on a flat track!  We're quite proud of where that relay is at this point in time, and are disappointed for them – not in them, but for them because they have unfortunately missed being in the top 12 spots that automatically qualify for the NCAA championships by .23 seconds.  It was tough to track the results from other meets today and see four teams from across the country move past us on the leaderboard.
 
It seems pretty safe that we will have five Red Dragons at the NCAA Championships next weekend in Birmingham, Alabama, and are quite excited to see what they can do!