BROCKPORT, N.Y. - The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team rang up six individual titles on the way to a second-place finish at the 2019 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Outdoor Championships. The meet was held Friday and Saturday at The College at Brockport.
 
Geneseo won the team title with a total of 210.5 points. Cortland finished with 184 points, followed by Brockport with 172 points and Oneonta at 119 points. Rounding out the field of nine were Buffalo State (54), Fredonia (31.5), Plattsburgh (29), Oswego (10), and Potsdam (8).
 
Zach Kashmer (Chili/Churchville-Chili) broke the SUNYAC meet record and the Brockport facility record in the decathlon with his winning score of 6,506 points. The previous meet record of 6,339 points was set by current Cortland senior Brent DiVittorio (Brewster) in 2017 and the previous facility record of 6,309 points was set by former Red Dragon Connor Christopherson in 2015.
 
Micah Assibey-Bonsu (Central Islip) and C.J. White (Middletown) each surpassed the previous facility record in the triple jump. Assibey-Bonsu won the event with a distance of 14.92 meters (48' 11.5") and White was second at 14.62 meters (47' 11.75"). The old facility record was 14.48 meters.
 
Storm Malone (Highland) won the 110-meter hurdles for the third consecutive year with a winning time of 14.85 seconds. Austen Johnson (Jamestown) won the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 55.36 seconds, and the 4x100-meter relay unit of Peyton Lalone (Ogdensburg/Ogdensburg Free Academy), Liam Joyce (Dryden), DiVittorio and Chjuvaughn Cameron (Riverhead) finished first in 42.31 seconds. David Bernstein (Norwich) was the league champ in the hammer throw after recording a distance of 56.70 meters (186' 0").
 
Wendell Brand (Sleepy Hollow) finished second in the long jump (6.98 meters/22' 11") and Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) finished second in the pole vault (4.80 meters/15' 9"). The 4x400-meter relay team of Johnson, Ricky Castello (New Rochelle), Chris Moore (Neponsit/Avon Old Farms) and Connor Lewis (Glen Ridge) placed second with a final time of 3:21.46.
 
Cortland also earned five third-place finishes. Joyce was third in the 200-meter dash (22.27), James Forte (Merrick/Sanford H. Calhoun) was third in the 800-meter run (1:55.62) and Nolan Vest (Coram/Longwood) was third in the 1,500-meter run (3:58.94). Cole Clemons (Ithaca) finished third in the discus throw with a distance of 40.74 meters (133' 8") and Isaiah Brooks (Minoa/East Syracuse Minoa) finished third in the decathlon with a total of 5,825 points.
 
Cortland earned a total of 15 All-SUNYAC honors, which go to the top three places in each event. Winners are first-team, runners-up are second team, and third-place finishers are third team.
 
DiVittorio placed fourth in the 100-meter dash (11.22) while Lalone placed fourth in the 200-meter dash (22.28). Kellen Martin (Salamanca/Cattaraugus-Little Valley) followed Brooks in the decathlon, placing fourth with 5,259 points. Tyler Hochadel (Hamburg/Frontier) was fourth in the hammer throw (47.90 meters/157' 2") and Brand was fourth in the triple jump (14.35 meters/47' 1").
 
Joyce, Lewis and Aidan Farrell (Bloomingburg/Pine Bush) all recorded fifth-place finishes in the respective events - Joyce in the 100-meter dash (11.29), Lewis in the 400-meter dash (49.90) and Farrell in the 400-meter hurdles (56.74).
 
The Red Dragons recorded five sixth-place finishes: Bryan Finn (Fonda/Fonda-Fultonville) in the discus throw at 37.98 meters. (124' 7"); Cameron in the 100-meter dash (11.29); Richard Samuels (Wallkill) in the 800-meter run (1:58.09); Jose Cruz (Ellenville) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:50.29); and Jesse Haynes (Hampton Bays) in the decathlon (4,783 points).
 
Chad Dunham (Central Square/Paul V. Moore) was seventh in the 10,000-meter run with a final time of 32:40.19 and Malik Hinds (Bay Shore) was seventh in the 110-meter hurdles in 15.85 seconds. Hochadel was also seventh in the shot put, hitting a distance of 13.53 meters (44' 4.75").
 
Rounding out Cortland's scorers were four eighth-place finishers: Grant Boyd (Newburgh/Newburgh Free Academy) in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:50.73); Brandon Nugent (Middletown) in the javelin throw (42.17 meters/138' 4"), Finn in the shot put (12.86 meters/42' 2.25"); and Bernstein in the discus throw (37.33 meters/122' 5").

Cortland will host the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference Outdoor Championships Wednesday and Thursday, May 15-16. Cortland's AARTFC qualifiers during the SUNYAC Championships were:

Assibey-Bonsu, Triple Jump
Bernstein, Hammer Throw
Brand, Long Jump and Triple Jump
Brooks, Decathlon
Cruz, 3,000-meter Steeplechase
Dunham, 10,000 meters
Farrell, 400-meter hurdles
Forte, 800 meters
Hochadel, Hammer Throw
Johnson, 400-meter hurdles
Joyce, 200-meter dash
Kashmer, Decathlon
Lalone, 200-meter dash
Lewis, 400-meter
Malone, 110-meter hurdles
Martin, Decathlon
Samuels, 800-meter
Sorensen, Pole Vault
Moore, 800 meters (10th place, 1:55.89 prelims)
Verde, 3,000-meter Steeplechase (10th place, 9:51.81)
Vest, 1500 meters
White, Triple Jump
4x100m Relay (Lalone, Joyce, DiVittorio, Cameron)
4x400m Relay (Johnson, Castello, Moore, Lewis)

(Recap by Cortland sports information intern John Nocco)

Complete Results

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

We had quite a fun weekend!  I'd be lying if I told you that we weren't hoping for each team to finish at least one spot higher than we did, but that's also a credit to the teams that were in front of us at the end of the weekend.  We're quite proud of how we showed up and competed over the weekend, and in the few places that we may not have succeeded as well as we had expected or hoped, we are confident that those will be good learning experiences for our future.  It's remarkable as we are analyzing the results on noticing the number of personal bests and season bests that were reached by team members through the weekend.
 
Between the two teams, there are 42 events – 21 for each gender.  We took home the conference title in 11 events, which is easily more than our 'fair share.'  It's always nice to have some tangible evidence like that pointing out how things are moving in the right direction for us!  We had some pretty dominant performances that moved well up the national qualifying list: not only from our two new school records (congratulations to the ladies on the 4x100 relay – Kelly Gardner, Maya Campbell, Steffany Batista, and Taylor Hunter as well as congratulations again to Maya in the triple jump) as well as some awesome triple jumps where our top two men broke the facility record while claiming the top two spots on the podium with some huge jumps (congratulations Micah Assibey-Bonsu and C.J. White).  Micah's leap was the 2nd-farthest ever recorded by a Cortland athlete outdoors!  Wendell Brand narrowly missed out on earning us a 1-2-3 sweep in the event, but did set a new personal record and moved up the national list with his first effort over 47 feet in taking fourth!

David Bernstein improved on his career best in the hammer throw with a huge toss in claiming the win on Friday!  For a bit of perspective, David threw a 16-pound cannonball on a wire 62 yards; the farthest NFL field goal is only 3 feet farther!  David also came back on Saturday to score in the discus, which was quite an achievement considering that he was the last qualifier for the meet.  Junior Zachary Kashmer also had a number of personal bests over the weekend, and continued the Cortland tradition of dominance in the decathlon.  Zach's score places him as safely qualified for the NCAA Championships, and broke the meet record held by teammate Brent DiVittorio, as well as the facility record of teammate and former assistant coach Connor Christopherson.
 
While we're looking forward to the last-chance opportunities this upcoming weekend as well as the chance to host the AARTFC Regional Championships on May 15th and 16th, we don't want to lose perspective on our seniors, some of whom concluded their career this past weekend.  In particular, Cortland continued it's success in the hurdles as senior Storm Malone once again defended his title in the 110-meter high hurdles, while classmate Austen Johnson defended the title for Cortland keeping alive our three-year streak of having a Red Dragon has been atop the podium for both events.  One of the few seniors for the women's team, Nicole Hallenbeck closed out her career with her fastest effort ever in the 400 hurdles!  Another great example of our sustained excellence is Tyler Hochadel, who has competed in the finals of every throwing event he was qualified for over his four year career as a Cortland Red Dragon.  The coaches are incredibly thankful for the seniors with the program, and wish to thank them for their dedication, hard work, and sacrifice for our extended track and field family.