BOSTON, MASS. and ITHACA, N.Y. – A national top-10 ranking relay effort highlighted Cortland's men's indoor track and field performances during two weekend meets. The Red Dragons recorded multiple All-Atlantic Region Track and Field (AARTFC) qualifying marks at the Boston University Valentine Invitational Friday and Saturday, Feb. 8-9, and the Cornell University Sunday Invitational Feb. 10.

Connor Lewis (Glen Ridge), Ricky Castello (New Rochelle), Richard Samuels (Wallkill) and Austen Johnson (Jamestown) combined to record the fastest AARTFC time this season and the 10th best in Division III nationally, as of late Sunday night, in the 4x400-meter relay. The Red Dragons finished seventh out of 58 teams with a time of 3:18.30. Samuels also recorded the second fastest time in the AARTFC in the 800-meter run (1:53.98) that placed him 49th out of 269 competitors.

Johnson and Lewis also hit AARTFC qualifying marks in the 400-meter dash. Johnson finished 66th of 192 with a personal best time (49.87 seconds) while Lewis finished at 50.94 seconds for 108th place.

In the mile, three Red Dragons recorded AARTFC qualifying times. Ryan Konotopskyj (East Amherst/Williamsville North) finished in the top half of the 278 competitors with a 129th-place time of 4:20.08. Grant Boyd (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) and Cabel McCandless (Lindenhurst) also hit AARTFC qualifying times. Boyd recorded his fastest time on the season at 4:21.76, as did McCandless at 4:22.33.

Other AARTFC performances included Chris Moore (Neponsit/Avon Old Farms) in the 800-meter (1:57.61) and Liam Joyce (Dryden) in the 200-meter dash (22.45 seconds).

At Cornell, Storm Malone (Highland) had the best time in the 60-meter hurdles preliminaries at 8.24 seconds, which ranks him 15th nationally in Division III and second in the AARTFC.

Dane Sorenson (Warwick/ Warwick Valley) and Ryan Lawless (Commack) finished second and third, respectively, in the pole vault. Both recorded an AARTFC qualifying mark of 4.55 meters (14' 11"), but Sorenson placed ahead of Lawless on account of fewer misses.

Micah Assibey-Bonsu (Central Islip) finished second out of 14 competitors in the triple jump with an AARTFC qualifying distance of 14.11 meters (46' 3.5"). Malik Hinds (Bay Shore) placed fifth in the triple jump with a distance of 13.12m (43' 0.5").

David Bernstein (Norwich) hit an AARTFC qualifying mark in the weight throw. Bernstein also finished sixth out of 34 competitors with a distance of 16.13m (52'11"). Tyler Hochadel (Hamburg/Frontier) was seventh of 34 in the shot put with an AARTFC distance of 14.37 meters (47' 1.75") and placed 10th in the weight throw (14.48 meters/47' 6.25"). Bryan Finn (Fonda/Fonda-Fultonville) finished 10th in the shot put (12.95 meters/42' 6") and Chjuvaughn Cameron (Riverhead) was eighth of 49 in the 200-meter dash (23.91).

Cortland will compete next Saturday, Feb. 16, at Cornell University's Marc Deneault Invitational as well as sending some field competitors to Ithaca College.

(Recap by Sports Information Intern John Nocco)

Complete Results:
Boston University - Women
Boston University - Men
Cornell Sunday Invitational - Women and Men

Coach's Corner - Comments from Head Coach Steve Patrick

This was a great three days of track and field for the Red Dragons!  It's always wonderful to see the hard work the student-athletes have been putting in pay off.

Picking highlights to mention after a weekend like this is a difficult task as there are so many highlights!

In Boston, Shannon Imbornoni had a tremendous 800 on Friday to set the tone for the team.  Her 2:18 was a huge PR, but there's room for her to still go faster.  The same can be said for our top trio in the 400, as Kaylee Uhl, Jesse Correale, and Steffany Batista all were sub 60 seconds, which is one of those barriers you love to get under as an athlete.  Jesse's new PR was really impressive, as she skipped from being over 61 seconds to joining the sub-60 club.

The men at the Boston meet also had some strong performances.  Again, we were led off with a strong 800 - this time from Richard Samuels, who broke 1:54!  He came back to split 48.5 on the 4x400 relay, leading the team to a great nationally ranked performance of 3:18.  Austen Johnson anchored that relay in excellent form holding off a charging university of Southern Maine team by .01 seconds, which could matter for selection to the NCAA meet. Austen also broke a barrier, dipping under 50 seconds for the first time in his career.

The milers for both sides put in good work at Boston; Sydney Smith had an excellent race to lead the ladies, while the men had a great showing of depth as 6 runners were under 4:28, led by Ryan Konotopskyj.  Of special note is Grant Boyd, who has dropped around 10 seconds off his PR in the last 2 weeks!

Cornell was focused a lot more on the field part of track and field, and see had some strong results in Barton Hall as well.  Maya Campbell had a great hurdle performance in the trials, and continued her role as one of the top triple jumpers around with an overall victory in the meet.  Nicole Van Pelt continued her path of improvement in the high jump with a new collegiate best (her third in a row). 

The guys had some strong efforts as well.  Ryan Lawless had a huge PR in the pole vault, and nearly broke through to be over 15'.  He's been working extremely hard, so seeing him have that breakthrough was very exciting!  Teammate Tyler Hochadel opened the day with a solid effort in the weight throw - his furthest of the year - and closed the day as the last Cortland athlete competing with a huge lifetime best in the shot put by over a foot and a half!

It's great to have so many strong performances at this time of year, and we are looking forward to peaking for the championship season.  Our meets at Cornell and Ithaca College next weekend should help us to be ready for he conference, regional, and NCAA meets.