CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team won five events and registered seven runner-up finishes during the Cortland Challenge Monday afternoon at the SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex.
 
The non-team scoring meet featured six schools – Ithaca, Le Moyne, Oneonta, Oswego and Utica, along with the host Red Dragons. Both the Red Dragon men's and women's squads will compete at the University at Buffalo on Saturday, April 17.
 
Mike Verde (Hopewell Junction/Arlington) won the 3,000-meter steeplechase in 9:47.15, which ranks second in the Atlantic region and 41st nationally in Division III. David Soto (Warwick/Warwick Valley) won the 800-meter run in 1:56.42, which is fourth best in the region. Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) took top honors in the 200-meter dash in 22.92 seconds, which ranks 16th regionally, and he was fourth in the 100-meter dash in 11.56 seconds.
 
Josh Koeppe (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) won the 10,000 meters in 33:56.25, followed by Alex Brodmerkel (West Babylon) in second (34:24.51) and Gavin Watkins (Endicott/Oswego Free Academy) in third (34:31.12). All three efforts rank in the top 18 regionally. Wendell Brand (Sleepy Hollow) won the triple jump with a distance of 13.23 meters (43' 5") that would rank 12th regionally, but Brand is already ranked sixth in the region from previously this season.
 
Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) finished second in the pole vault. He matched his season best with a height of 4.75 meters (15' 7") that ranks ninth nationally and second in the region.
 
Zach Kashmer (Chili/Churchville-Chili) placed second in both the 110-meter hurdles (15.28) and the 100-meter dash (11.44), as well as fourth in the shot put (11.87 meters/38' 11.5"). Kashmer's hurdles time is currently ninth regionally and 41st nationally. Amarian Hughes (Marlboro) was second in the triple jump at 13.12 meters (43' 0.5") and Cabel McCandless (Lindenhurst) finished second in the 1,500 meters (4:14.48).
 
The 4x400-meter relay team of Chris Blake (Red Creek), Soto, Clayton Santiago (Bethpage) and Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) placed second in 3:37.91. Santiago was third in the 800 meters with a 20th-place regional time of 1:59.87. Blake finished third in the 400-meter hurdles in 1:00.66, and Szabo was fourth in the 800 meters in 2:00.27.
 
Ryan Serp (Commack/Fayetteville-Manlius) registered a third-place time of 15.95 seconds in the 110-meter hurdles and ranks 18th regionally in the event. Alhagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) was third in the long jump (6.23 meters/20' 5.25") and sixth in the 200-meter dash (23.94), Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) finished fifth in the hammer throw (45.06 meters/147' 10") and sixth in the discus (33.66 meters/110' 5"), and Harry Tomasi (Port Jervis) was sixth in the 1,500 meters (4:24.21).

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

The biggest thing I want to emphasize about the men's team today is their ability to be mentally tough despite conditions that were generally unpleasant.  We've been in worse, but a track meet in 40-degree weather and rain – especially for folks with multiple events – makes for a very long day that can eat away at your desire to compete. Every drop can wash away a little bit of motivation if you aren't careful.  It's funny how quickly we could forget that a year ago we would have done almost anything to have a chance to compete under conditions like this!  Overall, we stayed focused and disciplined despite the conditions, which is all I can ask for!
 
Graduate student Cabel McCandless put together a great day overall – not only did he execute his race plan quite well in the 1500, he returned later in the evening to do pacemaking chores through 6000 meters in the 10k for our long-distance squad.  We asked him to be at 20:15 at the 6k, he brought his teammate Josh Koeppe through in 20:14 – quite an impressive effort!  Josh ran tough over the final 4000 meters in a relatively solo effort to get under the SUNYAC qualifying time, which we are quite happy about!   Some other highlights on the day is seeing Coltrane Goring drop down in distance to break 23 for the 200 (for the win), a pair of nice high hurdle runs from Zach Kashmer and Ryan Serp, a trio of solid efforts in the 800 from David Soto, Clayton Santiago, and Cameron Szabo (with a great assist from Harry Tomasi working as a rabbit over the first 400), another very strong day in the pole vault from Dane Sorensen, and Mike Verde running a new PR in his first steeplechase in two years!
 
We're looking forward to seeing the sun again, and to the trip to Buffalo this Saturday for a chance to compete away from home!