CHESTER, PA. – The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team kicked off its outdoor season Friday and Saturday with a second-place finish out of 29 schools at Widener University's Danny Curran Invitational. The Red Dragons accounted for three first-place finishes and a number of All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying marks.
 
Rowan won the team title with 129 points, followed by Cortland with 112 points. Stevenson was third at 102 and Stevens Institute finished fourth with 42.
 
Richard Samuels (Wallkill) finished first out of 112 competitors in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:53.92. Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) placed first in the pole vault at a height of 4.75 meters (15' 7") and Wendell Brand (Sleepy Hollow) finished first in the triple jump (13.74 meters/45' 1") to round out Cortland's first-place finishers. All three competitors hit the AARTFC qualifying mark in their respective events.
 
The 4x400-meter relay unit of Samuels, Austen Johnson (Jamestown), Ricky Castello (New Rochelle) and Noah Serrette (Valley Stream/Lawrence) placed second with an AARTFC qualifying time of 3:21.81. The other 4x4 relay unit of Zach Kashmer (Chili/Churchville-Chili), Kellen Martin (Salamanca/Cattaraugus-Little Valley), Isaiah Brooks (Minoa/East Syracuse Minoa) and Chjuvaughn Cameron (Riverhead) finished fourth at 3:30.50. Kashmer and Brooks also placed seventh and 10th, respectively, in the 110-meter hurdles. Brooks finished in 15.87 seconds, followed by Kashmer at 15.97 seconds.
 
The 4x100-meter relay unit of Cameron, Kai Bryant (Brooklyn/H.S. of Enterprise Business and Tech.), Liam Joyce (Dryden) and Connor Lewis (Glen Ridge) finished fourth with an AARTFC time of 42.99 seconds. Lewis was also Cortland's top finisher in the 400-meter dash placing 11th out of 112 competitors in 50.05 seconds. Michael Eubanks (Islip) placed 27th in the same event at 51.98 seconds, along with Castello who finished 34th (52.30).
 
In the long jump, Brand placed second with an AARTFC qualifying distance of 6.73 meters (22' 1"), while Ryan Miller (Little Falls) finished 10th at 6.32 meters (20' 9").
 
David Bernstein (Norwich) finished second out of 29 competitors in the hammer throw, reaching an AARTFC distance of 53.27 meters (174' 9"). Tyler Hochadel (Hamburg/Frontier) placed in the top 10 in the hammer throw as well finishing ninth with a distance of 42.80 meters (140' 5"). Hochadel also finished sixth in the shot put at 13.17 meters (43' 5.5").
 
Grant Boyd (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) was third overall, and the second collegian, in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with an AARTFC time of 9:43.67. Johnson and Aidan Farrell (Bloomingburg/Pine Bush) finished in the top 10 in the 400-meter hurdles finishing third and 10th, respectively. Johnson finished with an AARTFC qualifying time of 56.14 seconds while Farrell finished at 57.75 seconds.
 
Joyce was Cortland's top finisher in the 100-meter dash (11th place, 11.19) and 200-meter dash, placing seventh at 22.39 seconds (AARTFC). Bryant placed 21st out of 88 runners in the 100-meter dash at 11.36 seconds, followed by Cameron in 28th at 11.57 seconds.
 
Cabel McCandless (Lindenhurst) finished 15th of 103 in the 5,000 meters with an AARTFC time of 15:18.60. Jose Cruz (Ellenville) placed sixth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase with a time of 10:00.77 missing the AARTFC qualifying time by .77 seconds.
 
Bryan Finn (Fonda/Fonda-Fultonville) was Cortland's top finisher in the shot put and discus throw. He placed fifth out 40 competitors in the shot put (13.55 meters/44' 5.5") and seventh out of 28 in the discus (38.28 meters/125' 7"). Cole Clemons (Ithaca) placed 14th in the discus throw (36.28 meters/119' 0").
 
The Red Dragons will travel to Clinton, N.Y and Millersville, Pa. for the Hamilton Invitational and Millersville Metrics, respectively, next Saturday.

(Recap by Cortland sports information intern John Nocco)

Complete Results (TFRRS)

Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:

There isn't enough time to point out all of the positives that happened over this weekend!  One of the big things I want to make sure is highlighted is the individual sacrifices from Grant Boyd, Chad Dunham, and Eliza Nichols this past weekend.  In the 10k, Chad made pacing his teammates a huge priority; his efforts was rewarded with a conference qualifying mark for freshman teammate Mike Verde.  Both Grant and Eliza were perfect pacesetters for teammates for the first 3000 meters of the 5k on Friday night – leading to four new PRs for their teammates – even though they knew it might impact their individual effort in the steeplechase on Saturday.  Eliza had a great race on Saturday to win the steeplechase, while Grant ran his second-fastest time ever in a great effort on Saturday to be the second collegian.
 
Across the spectrum of events, things were going very well for the Red Dragons this weekend!  In the sprints, freshman Taylor Hunter was excellent in the women's 100 and 200, Maya Campbell had a great high hurdles, Steffany Batista and Jesse Correale were strong in the 400, and Kaylee Uhl and Nicole Hallenbeck had stellar opening efforts in the 400 hurdles.  Riley Wood had wonderful leaps in the triple jump and long jump, while Nicole Van Pelt was excellent in high jump.  Cat Lutjen made tremendous progress in the javelin throw, and Harley Buczkowski had a great start to her season in the hammer throw.  For some of these folks, it is really important to remember how little they have been able to really prepare for some of these 'outdoor track only' events like the 400 hurdles and the javelin throw.

For the men's team in the speed and power events, Liam Joyce impressed in the 100 and 200, with Kai Bryant not far behind in the 100.  Their 4 x 100 relay (with Connor Lewis and Chjuvaughn Cameron) ran a great opening time; Lewis came back with huge PRs in the 200 and 400!  Austen Johnson and Aiden Farrell had strong days in the 400 hurdles, while freshman Michael Eubanks had a great effort in both the 200 and the 400!  For the field events, Wendell Brand (a winner in the triple jump), Dane Sorensen (the pole vault winner), David Bernstein (who had a huge opening day through in the hammer), and Bryan Finn (who was likewise excellent in both shot put and discus throw) started off our outdoor season with a bang!

We showed great depth in all of our distance races today, led not only by Grant and Chad, but also with strong runs by Cabel McCandless in the 5k, Nolan Vest in the 1500, and Richard Samuels with the victory in the 800.

We're looking forward to getting another strong week of training in, and excited for the possibilities of our meets next weekend host by Millersville University and Hamilton College.