BROCKPORT, N.Y- Cortland won five individual events and one relay, and senior Zach Kashmer (Chili/Churchville-Chili) was named the Most Outstanding Performer of the Meet, as the Red Dragons finished second out of nine schools at the SUNYAC Men's Indoor Track and Field Championships.

Geneseo won the team crown with 202 points, followed by Cortland with 161.83 and Brockport, the host school, with 149.33. Rounding out the field were Oneonta (53), Plattsburgh (33), Buffalo St. (25.5), Fredonia (20.33), Oswego (11) and Potsdam (5).

Kashmer scored 24 points at the meet with his win in the high jump (1.95 meters/6' 4.75"), second-place finish in the pole vault (4.70 meters/15' 5") and third-place showing in the 60-meter hurdles (8.49). He tied for the top height in the high jump and earned the title due to clearing that height on his first attempt compared to the second attempt for the runner-up.

Rich Samuels (Wallkill) won the 800 meters in 1:53.67, missing the school record by less than half a second. He currently ranks 11th nationally in Division III in the event. Peyton Lalone (Ogdensburg/Ogdensburg Free Academy) won the 200-meter dash in 22.26 seconds (22.17 prelims) and ranks 17th nationally.

Brent DiVittorio (Brewster) took top honors in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.15 seconds and Micah Assibey-Bonsu (Central Islip) won the triple jump with a distance of 14.38 meters (47' 2.25"). The 4x400-meter relay team of Lalone, Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame), Connor Lewis (Glen Ridge) and Samuels won with a time of 3:20.75, which missed a meet and facility record by less than three tenths of a second.

Wendell Brand (Sleepy Hollow) finished second in the long jump at 6.89 meters (22' 7.25") and David Bernstein (Norwich) was the runner-up in the weight throw at 17.77 meters (58' 3.75"). Cortland also took second in the Distance Medley Relay as Clayton Santiago (Bethpage), Alhagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech), Hunter Braun (Rochester/Victor) and Josh Nogaret (New Berlin/Unadilla Valley) finished in 10:33.75.

Nolan Vest (Coram/Longwood) earned a third-place finish in the mile (4:17.35) and Kellen Martin (Salamanca/Cattaraugus-Little Valley) was third in the heptathlon (4,252 points). Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) tied for third place in the pole vault after clearing 4.55 meters (14' 11").

Cortland earned a total of 20 All-SUNYAC honors (12 individual and eight relay runners). All-league honors 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.
 

The Red Dragons picked up five fourth-place finishes. Liam Joyce (Dryden) was fourth in both the 60-meter dash (7.16, 7.09 prelims) and 200-meter dash (22.57). Brand was fourth in the triple jump (13.81 meters/45' 3.75"), Lewis placed fourth in the 400-meter dash (50.23), and Malik Hinds (Bay Shore) was fourth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.59, 8.50 prelims).

Cortland received fifth-place scoring from Isaiah Brooks (Minoa/East Syracuse Minoa) in the 60-meter hurdles (8.69, 8.45 prelims) and Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) in the weight throw (15.51 meters/50' 10.75") and sixth-place points from DiVittorio in the 200-meter dash (22.89, 22.76 prelims) and Ryan Konotopskyj (East Amherst/Williamsville North) in the mile (4:21.14).

Rounding out Cortland's scorers were seventh-place finishers Assibey-Bonsu in the long jump (6.70 meters/21' 11.75") and Bryan Finn (Fonda/Fonda-Fultonville) in the shot put (13.98 meters/45' 10.5"), and eighth-place finishers Brooks in the pole vault (4.25 meters/13' 11.25"), Hinds in the triple jump (13.56 meters/44' 6"), Tiernan Joseph (Chenango/Chenango Forks) in the shot put (13.37 meters/43' 10.5"), and Sean Allen (Seaford) in the high jump (three-way tie at 1.80 meters/5' 10.75").

Cortland will compete at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Indoor Championships Friday and Saturday, March 6-7, at Nazareth College. Cortland's AARTFC qualifiers during the SUNYAC Championships were:

Assibey-Bonsu, Triple Jump and Long Jump
Bernstein, Weight Throw
Brand, Long Jump and Triple Jump
Brooks, 60-meter hurdles
DiVittorio, 60-meter hurdles and 200-meter dash
Finn, Shot Put
Hinds, 60-meter hurdles and Triple Jump
Joyce, 60-meter dash and 200-meter dash
Kashmer, High Jump, Pole Vault and 60-meter hurdles
Konotopskyj, Mile
Lalone, 200-meter dash
Lewis, 400-meter dash
Makowski, Weight Throw
Martin, Heptathlon
Samuels, 800 meters
Ryan Serp, Heptathlon (9th place, 3,868 pts.)
Sorensen, Pole Vault
Vest, Mile
4x400-meter relay (Lalone, Goring, Lewis, Samuels)
DMR (Santiago, Sesay, Braun, Nogaret)

(NOTE: Heptathlon at the AARTFC Championships is limited to top 12 qualifiers. As of Saturday night, Martin is ranked 16th and Serp is 27th based on their performances at the SUNYAC Championships.)


Final Team Scores:
1) Geneseo – 202
2) Cortland – 161.83
3) Brockport – 149.33
4) Oneonta – 53
5) Plattsburgh – 33
6) Buffalo St. – 25.5
7) Fredonia – 20.33
8) Oswego – 11
9) Potsdam – 5


Complete Results:
Men
Women


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

What a weekend!  A lot of time in this space I'm granted I like to highlight some of our best performances, but I don't think I'm capable of doing that today.  We just had too many!

With 62 athletes making the trip, there were well over 200 competitive opportunities over the weekend, and only a handful that didn't match our expectations.  This was a great weekend for Red Dragon Track and Field!

Normally I like to use this space to highlight some of our top performers, but with our champions and our all-conference performers, those folks are pretty apparent to our fans and families who look at the results.  I'd rather use this space to point out a few other areas where some great things happened!

Htat Myat Lwin was a big source of pride for the program this weekend. He ran his way into the meet with a big PR last Friday at Nazareth, and dropped another .2 seconds off his 60HH time on Friday.  That was tremendous!

Kelly Gardner had a great series of jumps in the triple on Friday, but also had season's bests in the 200 and long jump, where she entered the competition as one of the worst-ranked jumpers, but finished 10th!

Both of our distance medley relays ran so tough on Friday, as did both of our 4 x 400 relays on Saturday.  Marlee Angus in particular had a great meet, leading off the women's DMR and running a great open mile to be our top finisher!

Looking at the field events, seeing Micah Assibey-Bonsu succeed in triple jump is almost an expectation at this point.  To see him PR in long jump and place was incredible!  In the men's weight, Mitch Makowski had a rough preliminaries, but was still good enough to advance to finals where he threw a lifetime best to score well for the program!  Pole vaulters Becca Gresens and Kimmy Arena both had career bests on Friday night; Kimmy started off our scoring with her podium finish.

We spend a lot of time talking about how we need to be responsible for our thoughts and actions as competitors.  As a coaching staff we're pretty thrilled at how well we accomplished that over the weekend!  It was a really proud moment for us, especially as we moved up in placing as a team compared to last year!

While most of the program is moving into preparation for the outdoor season, we do have a select group competing at the regional championship this next weekend; we have a few individuals that are almost definitively qualified for the NCAA championships in two weeks, and a large number very close!