ROCHESTER, N.Y- The Cortland men's indoor track and field team, ranked 12th nationally in Division III and second in the Atlantic Region, finished in second place out of 34 schools that scored points at the All-Atlantic Region Indoor Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Championships. Nazareth College hosted the two-day event Friday and Saturday.
 
Rowan won the team title with 115 points, followed by Cortland with 64 and Ithaca with 53. Brockport (41)  and Geneseo (39) rounded out the top five.
 
Four Red Dragons posted runner-up finishes at the meet. Peyton Lalone (Ogdensburg/Ogdensburg Free Academy) was second in the 200-meter dash (22.44) and Nolan Vest (Coram/Longwood) finished second in the mile (4:16.94). Micah Assibey-Bonsu (Central Islip) ended second in the triple jump (14.58 meters/47' 10") and David Bernstein (Norwich) placed second in the weight throw (17.78 meters/58' 4").
 
Isaiah Brooks (Minoa/East Syracuse Minoa) finished in third place in the 60-meter hurdles (8.38). Connor Lewis (Glen Ridge) and Rich Samuels (Wallkill) were fifth (50.33) and sixth (50.67), respectively, in the 400-meter dash, while Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) finished sixth in the pole vault (4.58 metes/15' 0.25"). Wendell Brand (Sleepy Hollow) registered a pair of seventh-place showings with a long jump of 6.73 meters (22' 1") and a triple jump of 13.74 meters (45' 1").
 
Cortland earned top-eight finishes in all three relays. Lalone, Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame), Lewis and Samuels were third in the 4x400-meter relay (3:20.25). Liam Joyce (Dryden), Alhagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech), Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) and Goring were fourth in the 4x200-meter relay (1:31.23), and Hunter Braun (Rochester/Victor), Sesay, Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) and Clayton Santiago (Bethpage) finished eighth in the Distance Medley Relay (10:32.39).
 
The top eight individual finishers and the top three relays earn All-AARTFC honors.
 
Also for the Red Dragons, Joyce was ninth in the 200-meter dash (22.79) and Morse finished 12th in the long jump (6.57 meters/21' 6.75") and 16th in the 60-meter hurdles (8.69). Ryan Konotopskyj (East Amherst/Williamsville North) placed 15th in the mile (4:27.44) and Bryan Finn (Fonda/Fonda-Fultonville) was 27th in the shot put (13.23 meters/43' 5").
 
Cortland awaits the announcement of qualifiers for next weekend's NCAA Division III Championships, which be held in Winston-Salem, N.C., March 13-14. The final participant list will be posted on NCAA.com this Sunday, March 8, by 7 p.m. The top 20 in each individual event and the top 12 in each relay (4x400 and DMR) qualify for nationals. As of late Saturday night, Cortland athletes ranking in the national qualifying spots are:
 
Assibey-Bonsu, eighth, triple jump
Brent DiVittorio (Brewster), fifth, 60-meter hurdles
Zach Kashmer (Chili/Churchville-Chili), eighth, heptathlon
Lalone, tied 18th, 200-meter dash
Samuels, 11th, 800 meters

Complete Results:
Men
Women

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

The AARTFC meet is always a little bittersweet, in that it signals the end of the indoor season for all except a few of our family.  Because it is a high-caliber meet, it is also a high pressure situation, especially for those individuals that are close to having a performance good enough for NCAA Championships qualification.
 
We had a small women's squad attending, as for the most part it made more sense to focus on preparation for the outdoor track and field season after a great SUNYAC weekend.  While we generally had a very strong day, the highlight was pretty obvious with the great run by Taylor Hunter in the 200!  She put together an amazing effort – entering the meet ranked 5th and finishing 3rd, improving her NCAA seed time by nearly .2 seconds, and really announced herself as a national-level competitor!
 
The men's squad was larger, but still relatively small, and we intentionally kept out a couple of individuals that were already safely qualified for next weekend's NCAA Championships.  While we didn't get the qualifiers we were hoping for out of the meet, we had a number of great efforts – some season bests and/or career bests.  We're in the strange position of having done better than we have ever done in a few places, but still just being a bit short of qualifying for the NCAA Championships.  That makes the weekend very bittersweet!  The experience of watching the live results from a meet in Iowa to see if a relay is going to stay ranked high enough to qualify is a pretty unusual thing to do, especially when it ends with disappointment for the guys. 
 
On the other hand, it says a great deal about the kind of student-athletes we have and the type of program we are that we are so close to qualifying in so many different events, and it is with great pride that I am confident that we will continue to do the things we need to do to move forward to a better position this outdoor season!  On a side note, a runner-up team finish is as pretty cool thing to accomplish in a meet of this size, and something we are definitely able to find some enjoyment in!
 
We're anxiously awaiting the final publication of the NCAA performance list so that we can finalize entries to the NCAA Championships for next weekend – we're excited for those that have qualified to get out and compete well with the best in the nation!