BOSTON, MASS. – Cortland junior Micah Assibey-Bonsu (Central Islip) finished second nationally in the triple jump, breaking a 36-year-old school record in the process, to highlight the Red Dragons' performances at the final day of the 2019 NCAA Division III Men's Indoor Track and Field Championships. The meet was held Friday and Saturday at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center.

Cortland tied for 30th out of 116 schools in the final team standings with Assibey-Bonsu's eight points. North Central won the team crown with 55 points.

Assibey-Bonsu covered a distance of 15.00 meters (49' 2.5") on his first attempt of the day. The previous school record of 14.90 meters was set by Mark Therrien in 1983. Assibey-Bonsu entered nationals seeded ninth with a distance of 14.47 meters (47' 5.75").

After his first attempt, Assibey-Bonsu went 13.77 meters on his second and passed on his third attempt. He earned three more attempts in the finals, with the last of those tries marking his second-best distance of the day at 14.48 meters. MIT's Yorai Shaoul won the national title at 15.22 meters (49' 11.25"), which he reached on his first try.

C.J. White (Middletown) earned one of the nine spots in the triple jump finals after hitting 14.43 meters on his second try. He improved slightly up to 14.44 meters (47' 4.5") on his fifth try of the day but slipped from eighth to ninth place and just missed All-America honors.

Isaiah Brooks (Minoa/East Syracuse Minoa) finished 15th and Zach Kashmer (Chili/Churchville-Chili) placed 16th in the heptathlon. Brooks scored 4,603 points and Kashmer ended with 4,218 points. Brooks started Saturday with 741 points in the 60-meter hurdles (9.02) and added 576 points in the pole vault (3.85 meters/12' 7.5") and 632 points in the 1,000-meter run (3:03.34). Kashmer bounced back strong after being in 19th place through the first day with 748 points in the 60-meter hurdles (8.99), 716 points in the pole vault (4.35 meters/14' 3.25") and 727 points in the 1,000 meters (2:53.75).

Coverage Links:

Championship Web Page (by host UMass Boston)
Results Page (Delta Timing)
Championship Digital Program
Official NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championship Web Sites:  MEN  |  WOMEN

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

Of course Micah's huge jump, national runner-up status, All-American honor and new school record are a huge deal!  But we shouldn't overlook that this was a pretty unusual meet for us in that we had big numbers for an NCAA meet, but for almost everybody it was their first time.  It's hard to understand the level of anxiety that comes with being apart of the NCAA Championships, and this especially holds true for your firsts time!

For the most part we performed where we were seeded. We had a lot of good efforts that didn't quite get us on the podium, but we're proud of the efforts of the student-athletes to got here, let alone of their efforts here.  We spend a lot of time focusing being on the podium, sometimes to the point of forgetting that being 9th, 15th, or even 20th in the country is an amazing accomplishment and something to be incredibly proud of!

It's a little funny that this year the NCAA raised the field sizes for each event, but that didn't benefit a single one of the Red Dragons that qualified for the meet. Every one of the team would have been in under last year's rules!  This team has worked incredibly hard, and greatly deserves the success they've earned so far!