LEWISBURG, PA. – The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team recorded nine All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying performances at Bucknell University's Bison Outdoor Classic Saturday and Sunday. The meet featured numerous Division I and Division II schools.
 
In the 1,500-meter run, Nolan Vest (Coram/Longwood) and Hunter Braun (Victor) both reached AARTFC qualifying times. Out of 109 competitors, Vest finished ninth at 3:56.24 while Braun finished 55th at 4:01.14.
 
Richard Samuels (Wallkill) finished 11th out of 124 runners in the 800 meters in 1:52.89 and James Forte (Merrick/Sanford H. Calhoun) was 33rd in 1:54.20, both AARTFC times. Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) finished fifth out of a field of 15 in the pole vault, clearing an AARTFC qualifying height of 4.50 meters (14' 9"). Austen Johnson (Jamestown) placed 19th out of 33 runners in the 400-meter hurdles with an AARTFC qualifying time of 56.53 seconds. Chad Dunham (Central Square/ Paul V. Moore) also hit an AARTFC qualifying time in the 10,000-meter run at 32:28.14 to finish 23rd.
 
The 4x800-meter relay unit of Chris Moore (Neponsit/Avon Old Farms), Braun, Vest and Forte finished in fifth in 7:51.49, the fastest time so far this season in the AARTFC. The 4x100-meter relay team of Kai Bryant (Brooklyn/H.S. of Enterprise Business and Tech.), Liam Joyce (Dryden), Brent DiVittorio (Brewster) and Chjuvaughn Cameron (Riverhead) placed ninth with an AARTFC qualifying time of 42.98 seconds.
 
Joyce recorded two individual top-20 finishes. He was 19th out of 53 runners in the 100-meter dash (11.30) and 18th out of 51 runners in the 200-meter dash (22.59). Cameron finished 24th in the 100-meter dash (11.38)
 
Cortland will host the Cortland Classic next Friday and Saturday, April 19-20, and is also scheduled to send competitors to the Princeton University Larry Ellis Invitational on Friday.

(recap by Cortland sports information intern John Nocco)

Complete Results

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

It's probably safe to say that our mid-distance and 100 meter athletes were the stars of the program at Bucknell this weekend.  

We were started off on Saturday evening with a bang as Taylor McClay had a collegiate best in the 1500; for the men Clayton Santiago, Hunter Braun, and Nolan Vest all had lifetime bests in the 1500!

We closed our competition on Saturday with a great 10k from Chad Dunham, which was also a new lifetime best effort.

On Sunday, both 4x100 relays had great performances to set the tone for the day!  While we have room to improve our baton passes still things are definitely moving in the right direction!

Our 800 squad really came through huge today.  Taylor McClay returned to race and was only a tenth of a second from a collegiate best; out next five runners all had lifetime or collegiate bests, including Shannon Imbornoni breaking 2:18, Clayton Santiago winning his heat and dipping under 1:59, a 1:56 for freshman Chris Moore, a 1:54 for James Forte, and a sub-1:53 for Richard Samuels in his first collegiate outdoor season.

If you look at the results, the 100m performances don't appear as impressive as they actually were.  The weather stopped cooperating after the 800s, so a lot of he meet became a struggle.  Most of the fields were about two tenths of a second slower than their season's best; Chjuvaughn Cameron and Taylor Hunter both ran significantly faster than what they have already done this season, which was very impressive!  Liam Joyce had a very solid performance as well, and both he and Chjuvaughn were impressive in the 200 as well!

We closed the weekend with a 4x800 relay for the men, which is an event we rarely do.  While the overall effort was great, and a lot of the credit will rightfully go to blistering anchor leg run by James Forte, I'd like to highlight how great the race of Nolan Vest was as well.  As our third leg Nolan made a huge move early to get into contact with two other teams that definitely helped put James into a position where he was able to out-duel their anchors.