UTICA, N.Y. – The nationally ninth-ranked Cortland men's indoor track and field team rode the strength of four individual event victories and 11 total top-three finishes to easily claim the team crown at the 21-team Utica College Blue and Orange Invitational and Multi on Saturday and Sunday.
Cortland finished with 145 points, followed by RPI with 84. Ithaca (76), Division II St. Rose (60) and the host Pioneers (52) rounded out the top five.
Brent DiVittorio (Brewster) won the 60-meter hurdles in 8.15 seconds. His preliminary time of 8.06 seconds missed the school record by just a hundredth of a second, set a Utica facility record, and is currently ranked third nationally and first in the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC). DiVittorio also placed fourth in the 200-meter dash with an AARTFC mark of 22.80 seconds.
Zach Kashmer (Chili/Churchville-Chili) won the heptathlon with a facility-record score of 4,968 points that ranks fourth nationally and first in the AARTFC. He won four of the seven events – the 60-meter dash (7.27 seconds, 789 points), the pole vault (4.35 meters/14' 3.25", 716 points), the high jump (1.87 meters/6' 1.5", 687 points) and the shot put (11.50 meters/37' 8.75", 576 points). His highest point total was 806 points for his third-place time of 8.73 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles.
Peyton Lalone (Ogdensburg/Ogdensburg Free Academy) won the 200-meter dash in a field of 84 competitors in 22.27 seconds. He currently ranks second in the AARTFC and 13th nationally.
Wendell Brand (Sleepy Hollow) finished first out of 23 in the triple jump at 14.23 meters (46' 8.25"). He presently ranks sixth in the AARTFC and 18th nationally. Brand also finished third in the long jump with a distance of 6.62 meters (21' 8.75").
Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) was the runner-up in the pole vault after clearing 4.70 meters (15' 5"). That height places him 17th nationally and fifth in the AARTFC.
Rich Samuels (Wallkill) was third overall and the second collegiate finishers out of 41 runners in the 400-meter dash in 50.23 seconds, currently ranking him sixth in the AARTFC.
Liam Joyce (Dryden) finished second of 32 in the 60-meter dash with an AARTFC time of 7.07 seconds.
Micah Assibey-Bonsu (Central Islip) was second behind Brand in the triple jump (AARTFC-qualifying 14.11 meters/46' 3.5") and
Nolan Vest (Coram/Longwood) placed second of 53 in the mile run (4:28.14).
Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) was the third collegiate finisher (fourth overall) in the 400-meter dash with an AARTFC time of 51.02 seconds.
Malik Hinds (Bay Shore) and
Jean-Andre Sassine (Queens Village/The Lawrenceville School) were fourth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.61) and triple jump (13.41 meters/44' 0"), respectively, both with AARTFC efforts.
Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) earned fourth-place points in the 500-meter dash (1:09.47) and was part of the fourth-place 4x400-meter relay team along with Lalone, Samuels and
John Meskos (Fayetteville/Fayetteville-Manlius) (3:30.89).
Connor Lewis (Glen Ridge) earned two of Cortland's five fifth-place finishes with times of 22.97 seconds in the 200-meter dash and 51.48 seconds in the 400-meter dash (sixth place overall). The Red Dragons' other three fifth-place scorers each posted AARTFC marks –
Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) in the 60-meter hurdles (8.62),
David Bernstein (Norwich) in the weight throw (16.53 meters/54' 2.75"), and
Kellen Martin (Salamanca/Cattaraugus-Little Valley) in the heptathlon (4,139 points). Bernstein is currently eighth in the AARTFC in the weight throw.
Rounding out Cortland's scorers were
Bryan Finn (Fonda/Fonda-Fultonville) in the shot put (sixth place, 13.51 meters/44' 4"),
Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) in the 60-meter hurdles (seventh place, 8.81), Assibey-Bonsu in the long jump (seventh place, 6.42 meters/21' 0.75"), and Joyce in the 200-meter dash (23.03).
Although just placing outside of the scoring top eight,
Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) still recorded one of Cortland's AARTFC qualifying efforts at the meet with his ninth-place weight throw of 15.19 meters (49' 10").
Cortland is scheduled to send competitors to the Boston University Valentine Invitational next Friday and Saturday, Feb. 14-15, and to the Cornell Sunday Invitational on Sunday, Feb. 16.
Complete Results:
Men
Women
Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:
It's been a long weekend competing at 'the Hutt' in Utica between the 'regular meet' on Saturday and the finish of the heptathlon and pentathlon that occurred on Sunday.
Especially after the dumping of snow that happened on Friday and really interrupted our routine, we had an awesome meet this weekend through the long grind that the weekend was!
I think the team placing (first for the men and fifth for the women) is a really good indicator, especially against such a large field of schools.
Track and field can be pretty weird especially compared to other sports in that every single competitive effort of every athlete is measured and evaluated. That's pretty unique, and can be pretty challenging mentally! I made a point of emailing the team on Saturday night to point out not only how many great performances we had, but more importantly how tremendous our effort and attitude was.
Across events, nearly everybody competing this weekend was focused on the process of how to get better. That's quite challenging to do, especially in sport (and a culture) that rewards results.
It takes an extra level of responsibility and discipline to stay focused on trying to do the 'right thing,' even if it doesn't give you immediate positive results, and that was something we were incredibly strong in today.
We had our mistakes and goofs, but of course those are going to happen. What made this weekend stand out so strongly in my mind is how we were working on our process and being great at recognizing our mistakes so that we could move forward and progress for the future!
As proud as we are of this as coaches, we're just as excited for what this can mean as we move into the next phase of our indoor season!
