ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cortland men's indoor track and field team competed at the Ithaca Bomber Invitational, a 16-team, non-scoring meet that featured most of the competition Saturday and a majority of the heptathlon events Sunday.
 
Peyton Lalone (Ogdensburg/Ogdensburg Free Academy) recorded one of the fastest times in the nation for Division III this year with his win in the 200-meter dash. Lalone posted a time of 21.97 seconds, which ranks third nationally in Division III and first in the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) as of late Sunday night. Liam Joyce (Dryden) also posted a top-10 finish at the meet in the 200-meter dash, placing eighth (22.88 seconds).
 
Two other Red Dragons finished first in track events. Storm Malone (Highland) beat 24 other competitors in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.32 seconds. Richard Samuels (Wallkill) was first of 13 in the 500 meters in 1:06.14.
 
Lalone, Joyce, Noah Serrette (Valley Stream/Lawrence) and Connor Lewis (Glen Ridge) finished third in the 4x200-meter relay (1:31.07). In the 4x400-meter relay, Austen Johnson (Jamestown), Ricky Castello (New Rochelle), Samuels and Lewis finished second and hit an AARTFC mark at 3:23.54.
 
Ryan Konotopskyj (East Amherst/Williamsville North) finished third out of 40 runners in the 800 meters in 1:58.05 and James Forte (Merrick/ Sanford H. Calhoun) finished seventh with a time of 1:59.09.
 
Cortland was strong in a number of different field events, including a pair of victories. In the triple jump, C.J. White (Middletown), Micah Assibey-Bonsu (Central Islip) and Wendell Brand (Sleepy Hollow) all finished in the top 5 out of 24 participants. White finished first at 14.45 meters (47' 5"), Assibey-Bonsu followed with a distance of 14.14 meters (46' 4.75"), while Brand finished fourth at 13.74 meters (45' 1"). All three of these scores were an AARTFC qualifying mark. White currently ranks fourth nationally and second in the AARTFC with his performance.
 
In the weight throw, David Bernstein (Norwich) won the event and recorded the longest throw currently in the AARTFC at 16.88 meters (55' 4.75"). Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) also hit an AARTFC mark finishing third in the pole vault at 4.55 meters (14' 11"). Ryan Lawless (Commack) placed eighth in the same event with a height of 4.25 meters (13' 11.25").
 
Tyler Hochadel (Hamburg/Frontier) finished seventh of 40 in the shot put at 13.48 meters (44' 2.75") and was ninth in the weight throw at 13.87 meters (45' 6.25"). Ryan Miller (Little Falls) and Brand were eighth and ninth, respectively, out of 30 in the long jump at 6.36 meters (20' 10.5") and 6.29 meters (20' 7.75").
 
Two Red Dragons posted top-3 finishes in the heptathlon. Zach Kashmer (Chili/Churchville-Chili) finished second with 4,697 points and Isaiah Brooks (Minoa/East Syracuse Minoa) was third with 4,594 points. Kashmer scored 748 points in the 60-meter hurdles (8.99), 739 points in the 60-meter dash (7.42) and 737 points in the 1,000-meter run (2:52.74). Brooks had 781 points in the 60-meter hurdles (8.84), 776 points in the high jump (AARTFC-qualifying 1.97 meters/6' 5.5") and 736 points in the 60-meter dash (7.43). Kellen Martin (Salamanca/Cattaraugus-Little Valley) was eighth in the heptathlon with a score of 4,081 points that ranks 12th in the AARTFC. His top event was the 1,000 meters with a time of 2:47.89 for 788 points.
 
Cortland will compete next Friday and Saturday, Feb. 8-9, at the Boston University Valentine Invitational and on Feb. 10 at the Cornell Sunday Invitational.

(Sports information intern John Nocco assisted with this recap)

Complete Results

Coach's Corner - Comments from Head Coach Steve Patrick

First off, I'd like to point out that SUNY Cortland athletics had a great day on Saturday, February 2nd!  Every other winter team that was in action won their game/meet!  While ours wasn't scored, we certainly had a number of great efforts!
 
Freshman Mitchell Makowski, sophomore David Bernstein and senior Harley Buczkowski all had season's best performances in the weight throw.  It's nice to see the hard work they have been putting in paying off, but we still know that there is a lot more there!
 
The 200 was another really strong event for us, as Peyton Lalone shot up the record books at Cortland, becoming the third man to break 22 seconds indoors!  That also resulted in a nice move for him up the national rankings.  Juniors Liam Joyce and Connor Lewis had really nice runs in that race as well, as did freshmen Taylor Hunter and Steffany Batista.
 
Junior Kelly Gardner had a great day in the horizontal jumps, with a season's best in the long jump and a lifetime best in the triple jump.  Nicole Van Pelt and Rachel Whitcomb both got season's best in the high jump as well – as did Isaiah Brooks during the high jump portion of the heptathlon.  Our third-ranked vaulter, Isaac Brightbill, had a huge season's best to qualify for the conference championships, which is obviously exciting for us.
 
Our mid-distance running was really strong today as well, with a lot of great depth shown in the men's and women's  500, 800, and mile – we had some folks that finished well up in the overall field, including the overall win by sophomore Richard Samuels in the 500, the runner-up finish of sophomore Shannon Imbornoni in the 500, and the 3rd-place finishes of junior Ryan Konotopskyj and freshman Sydney Smith in the men's and women's 800s.
 
We're looking forward to a good week of training as well as our meets at Boston University and Cornell this weekend.