CORTLAND, N.Y. and KUTZTOWN, PA. – The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team hosted their first home meet of the season with the Cortland Friday Night Under the Lights Invitational. The Red Dragons registered five first-place finishes and a number of All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying performances.

In addition, two Red Dragons – Zach Kashmer (Chili/Churchville-Chili) and Isaiah Brooks (Minoa/East Syracuse Minoa) – competed in the decathlon at the Kutztown University Mondschein Multi on Thursday and Friday. Kashmer finished third of 14 in the maroon division with 6,313 points and Brooks was sixth in that division with 5,833 points – both career-best efforts.

At Cortland, sophomore David Bernstein (Norwich) placed first in the hammer throw reaching an AARTFC qualifying distance of 55.69 meters (182' 8"), which is the number one performance in the AARTFC as of late Saturday night. Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) finished first in the pole vault, hitting an AARTFC qualifying height of 4.70 meters (15' 5").

In the long jump, Wendell Brand (Sleepy Hollow) and C.J. White (Middletown) finished first and second, respectively. Brand won the event with a distance of 7.02 meters (23' 0.5") while White followed with a distance of 6.89 meters (22' 4.5"). Both of these scores were AARTFC qualifying marks.

Brand and White also finished as the top two in the triple jump, followed by Micah Assibey-Bonsu (Central Islip) in third. White took home first-place honors with an AARTFC qualifying distance of 14.34 meters (47' 0.75"). Brand was runner-up with a distance of 13.14 meters (43' 1.5"), followed by Assibey-Bonsu at 12.99 meters. (42' 7.5"). Malik Hinds (Bay Shore) finished first in the 110-meter hurdles in 15.90 seconds to round out Cortland's first-place performers.

Tyler Hochadel (Hamburg/Frontier) was the runner-up in both the hammer throw and the shot put. He reached an AARTFC qualifying distance of 49.92 meters (163' 9") in the hammer, and he posted a mark of 13.43 meters (44' 0.75") in the shot put. Bryan Finn (Fonda/Fonda-Fultonville) placed third in the shot put at 12.89 meters (42' 3.5").

Cole Clemons (Ithaca) placed second in the discus throw with a distance of 39.46 meters (129' 5"), followed by Finn in fourth at 38.33 meters (125' 9"). Brandon Nugent (Middletown) finished second out of 12 competitors in the javelin throw, reaching a distance of 45.34 meters (148' 9").

In the 5000-meter run, Dan Gross (East Moriches/Center Moriches) placed eighth out of 21 runners with a time of 17:04.34. Pat Carew (Levittown/Division Avenue) and Jake Anweiler (New Hartford) finished 12th (17:26.04) and 13th (17:26.71), respectively. Kellen Martin (Salamanca/Cattaraugus-Little Valley) placed third in the 110-meter hurdles (16.96), and eighth in the 100-meter dash (11.60). Tyrese Smith (Rensselaer) placed 11th in the 100-meter dash (11.73) and eighth in the 200-meter dash (23.69).

Sean Sorohan (Pearl River) finished sixth out 14 competitors in the 400-meter dash (53.42s) and 11th in the 200-meter dash (23.69). John Nethercott (Fayetteville/Fayetteville-Manlius) placed eighth in the 400-meter dash (54.96) and 12th out of 23 in the 200-meter dash (23.84).

Jesse Haynes (Hampton Bays) placed fifth in the pole vault with a height of 3.75 meters (12' 3.5"). Hunter Keil (Camden) was fifth in the high jump, clearing a height of 1.73 meters (5' 8"). Ezra Schutt (Fishkill/John Jay East Fishkill) finished sixth in the long jump with a distance of 6.32 meters (20' 9").

At Kutztown, Kashmer eclipsed the 700-point mark in four events with 771 points in the 100-meter dash (11.41), 760 points in both the 400 meters (51.21) and 110-meter hurdles (AARTFC qualifying 15.76), and 714 points in the high jump (1.90 meters). He also turned in the fastest time in the 1,500 meters at 4:45.78 for 644 points. Brooks tallied 736 points in the 100-meter dash (11.58), 725 points in the 110-meter hurdles (16.07) and 702 points in the 400 meters (52.53).

(Cortland sports information intern John Nocco contributed to this recap)

Cortland Meet Results (PDF)
Kutztown Results

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

To start off, I'd like to talk a little about the two gentlemen that competed at Kutztown on Thursday and Friday.  It's hard to understand how physically and emotionally draining a decathlon can be.  The first day is a lot of hard work and takes about 6 or 7 hours.  The second day can be closer to 8 or 9.  Because of this the first one of the year can be very tough, and Isaiah Brooks and Zach Kashmer did a great job, both achieving lifetime best scores!  Zach actually beat four other guys that competed against him in the heptathlon at the indoor nationals - 25% of the NCAA field was at this meet - and his score would have been a qualifier for the NCAA championships just last year.

The team that competed at our home meet fought some tough conditions at times with the weather, so we are very proud of what they were able to accomplish.  Our horizontal jumps had some great efforts from everybody but the jumps of freshmen Rachel Whitcomb, Kitty Tang, and Eliza Schutt, along with sophomore Riley Wood, really stand out as big achievements on the day.  Our women's 5k, led by Courtney Maurin and 'lil' Courtney Schoepflin, had great runs. 

The javelin throwers dealt well with rain and wet grass to put up some big throws, with Cat Lutjen already near her school record and with freshman Liz Spencer throwing a SUNYAC qualifier, while the hammer throw was great for us with both the men and women: if I'm correct, fIve of our men and both of our women threw either their season's best or career best!

We recognize that we're fortunate to have the level of support from the College and the athletic department to go the the meet at Kutztown, host a home meet, and to head down to the Bucknell Bison Invite this weekend as well! Track and field is a weird and complex sport, and having that amount of support and flexibility to put our individuals in the best position to succeed is incredible to have!