ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cortland men's indoor track and field team turned in six performances currently ranked in the top 20 nationally in Division III at Saturday's season-opening Cornell University Greg Page Relays.
 
There was no team scoring at the event, which featured Division I schools Cornell, Syracuse and Binghamton, Division III schools including Cortland, Ithaca and Oneonta, and unattached entries.
 
Junior Zach Nyhart (Hamburg), in his first meet as a Red Dragon, finished third overall behind two Cornell athletes in the pole vault with a height of 4.81 meters (15' 9.25"). He currently ranks third nationally in Division III. Nyhart was actually tied for the second-best height with one of the Cornell competitors, but officially finished third since he cleared the 4.81 meters on his second try and the Cornell athlete was successful on his first try.
 
Amarian Hughes (Marlboro) ranks fourth nationally in the triple jump with his distance of 14.01 meters (45' 11.75"). He was the fourth collegiate finisher at the meet (fifth overall) behind three Division I athletes.
 
Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) and Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) each rank in the top 20 nationally after their performances in the 60-meter hurdles. Morse qualified for the finals with a time of 8.39 seconds in the prelims that ranks sixth nationally. He was eighth in the finals in 8.45 seconds. Jones finished 11th in 8.57 seconds and presently is tied for 19th nationally. Morse also finished eighth in the long jump (6.21 meters/20' 4.5").
 
Hunter Brignall (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy) finished fourth out of 19 runners in the 3,000 meters in 8:54.29, a time that places him 12th in the current Division III rankings. Ben Fenton (Horseheads) placed sixth in the event at 9:11.03, followed by Tom Adamescu (Canandaigua/Canandaigua Academy) in eighth (9:28.82) and Clay Santiago in ninth (9:32.59).
 
Cortland's 4x400-meter relay team of Michael Eubanks (Islip), Rich Samuels (Wallkill), Nate Wilsoncroft (Horseheads) and Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) are currently ranked third nationally with their time of 3:26.58. They finished fourth at the meet behind two Cornell units and one from Binghamton.
 
Samuels and Wilsoncroft finished second (1:07.71) and sixth (1:10.13), respectively, in the 500-meter run. Goring was eighth out of 66 runners in the 300-meter dash in 35.94 seconds, with Jones in 10th place (36.01), Evan Jensen (Red Hook) in 13th (36.27), Hagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) in 19th (36.93) and Eubanks in 20th (37.27). Sesay placed 11th of 52 in the 60-meter dash in 7.23 seconds. Jensen ended 12th (7.23), Malachi Williams (New Haven, CT/Amistad Academy) as 13th (7.24) and Zaire Higgins (Albany/Colonie) finished 16th (7.27).
 
Also for the Red Dragons, Tommy Burek (Latham/Shaker) finished seventh of 16 in the shot put at 12.68 meters (41' 7.25"). Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) placed eighth in the shot put (12.66 meters/41' 6.5") and was ninth out of 20 in the weight throw (14.19 meters/46' 6.75").
 
Cortland will compete next Saturday in a meet at Utica College.

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

What a long strange day it was!
 
It was great to be back at an indoor track and field competition – for most, this was the first indoor meet in at least 21 months! The first meet of the year is always a challenge, and the first meet in nearly two years was that much more of a struggle! We certainly showed a lot of nerves today, which is quite understandable. Today was much more of a positive day than a negative day. If we can learn from the mistakes that we made today, then it will be a really strong springboard for improvement across the program!
 
For the women's team, some highlights that stood out for us from looking over the results would include Kimmy Arena in the pole vault, Sam Becker in the 60 and the 300, Bridget Bennett in the 60 and the 300, Liz Liriano in the 60 and the 300, Autumn Pittman in the 60, Abby McDowell in the triple jump, Kitty Tang in the long jump, and a quintet of distance runners in the 3000 of Rachel Castello, Vanessa Burkard, Cat Zamroz, Marlee Angus, and Sophie Steger. A couple of athletes that I would like to give a 'shout out' to would be Katherine McDowell, competing in more or less brand new events than in previous years who had a very strong 300, and Courtney Schoepflin who made a great move and sacrifice in the 3000 to help her teammates – especially Marlee and Sophie -  stay on pace in the middle of the race.
 
On the men's side, obviously Zach Nyhart with a 4.81m vault – which puts him 4th in our all-time list and makes a great statement on the national level – had a great start his career at Cortland. Fellow vaulter Sam Haaland broke the 14' barrier setting a new PR, and was really quite strong in his efforts on the day. Amarian Hughes led the way for the horizontal jumps, opening his season only slightly behind his lifetime best in triple jump, which is certainly exciting! Hunter Brignall ran a really tough race in the 3k to break the 9-minute barrier; he raced smart and strong early, and was able to keep pace when the top finishers dropped the pace during the last 1k. Tom Adamescu (in the 3k) and Adam Schreiber (in the 5k) both had great efforts and race execution to run personal bests. We had a positive showing in the throws from Tommy Burek and Mitch Makowski; both started off the season in good fashion. Where we had a lot of depth on the day was in our sprints and high hurdles. Overall the 60, 300, and 60 meter high hurdles were filled with good performances for us, but nearly all had some mistakes as well. Since nearly all of those mistakes are easily fixed, it is exciting to see what is coming next for those groups.
 
We're excited to have the chance to travel to Utica to compete next weekend, before shutting things down for final exam week.