CORTLAND, N.Y. – Six different Red Dragons won individual events as the Cortland men's outdoor track and field team hosted the Cortland Classic at the SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex. Most of the action took place on Sunday, except for the first five events of the decathlon, which were held on Saturday.
 
Cortland's men's and women's teams will return to action when they host the Cortland Qualifier meet on Sunday, May 2, at 3 p.m. Cortland will also be the site for the SUNYAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships May 7-8.
 
Isaiah Brooks (Minoa/East Syracuse Minoa) won the 110-meter hurdles in 15.03 seconds and currently ranks fourth in the Division III Atlantic region. Wendell Brand (Sleepy Hollow) moved into sixth in the region in the triple jump with his winning distance of 14.03 meters (46' 0.5").
 
Alhagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) won the 100-meter dash in 11.41 seconds and was second in the 200-meter dash in 23.27 seconds. Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) took top honors in the 200 meters (22.72) and was second in the 110-meter hurdles (15.10).
 
David Soto (Warwick/Warwick Valley) won the 800 meters in 1:56.43 and Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) finished first in the pole vault at 4.75 meters (15' 7"). The combination of Sesay, Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs), Craig Denton (Albertson/Herricks) and Jones won the 4x100-meter relay in 42.81 seconds. Denton also finished third in both the 100-meter dash (11.57) and 200-meter dash (23.66), while Morse was third in the 110-meter hurdles (15.34).
 
Amarian Hughes (Marlboro) was the runner-up in the triple jump at 13.73 meters (45' 0.5"), which ranks seventh regionally, and he placed fifth in the javelin with a throw of 37.80 meters (124' 0"). Sam Haaland (Shokan/Onteora) was second in the pole vault at 3.95 meters (12' 11.5") and Cabel McCandless (Lindenhurst) finished second in the 1,500 meters (4:09.45), followed by Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) in third place (4:11.49).
 
Justin Schrom (Richmondville/Cobleskill-Richmondville) and David Mellick (Wallkill) finished third (53.01) and fourth (54.33), respectively, in the 400-meter dash. Dan Gross (East Moriches/Center Moriches) was third in the 10,000 meters (33:54.92) and Chris Blake (Red Creek) placed third in the 400-meter hurdles (59.77).
 
Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) turned in fourth-place showings in the discus (37.99 meters/124' 8") and the hammer throw (44.32 meters/145' 5"). Josh Koeppe (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) was fourth in the 10,000 meters (34:30.28), Harry Tomasi (Port Jervis) was fourth in the 800 meters (2:03.64), Clayton Santiago (Bethpage) finished fourth in the 1,500 meters (4:14.05), and Ben Zinger (Liverpool) was fifth in the 10,000 meters (35:22.61).
 
Zach Kashmer (Chili/Churchville-Chili) finished third in the decathlon with 5,554 points. He was on pace to finish first, but didn't score in the pole vault and finished 323 points behind the leader. Kashmer scored 804 points in the 100-meter dash (11.26), 781 points with a first-place showing in the 400 meters (50.73), and 745 points with his first place time in the 110-meter hurdles (15.89). He also had the best showings in the shot put (11.77 meters/38' 7.5") and the discus (35.48 meters/116' 5").
 
Ryan Serp (Commack/Fayetteville-Manlius) placed sixth in the decathlon with 4,965 points. He picked up 742 points in the 100-meter dash (11.55), 704 points in the 400 meters (52.48) and 688 points in the 110-meter hurdles (16.40), and he had the best time in the 1,500 meters at 5:00.86 for another 555 points.

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

It was great to have some warmer weather over the weekend for the team to compete in; we are especially thankful that the weather held out for us on Sunday. We had a headwind for some races, but thankfully the rain held off.
 
I'm hopeful that where we made mistakes today we will be able to learn from them and move forward to a greater level of success. Mistakes aren't a problem as long as we can progress and continue to improve!
 
For both teams, triple jump was a pretty strong event over the weekend, as all four of our athletes (Matteson Donnelly and Abby McDowell for the women; Wendell Brand and Amarian Hughes for the men) had a season's best. All four did a good job of executing the skills we are working on!  The women's high was a good but frustrating day, as all three ladies showed season's best of 1.64 meters to lead the conference and move up the national list. All three (Danielle Fisk, Aubrianna Lantrip, and Nicole Van Pelt) had good attempts at 1.67 meters, so we are excited for where we can possibly be in the next couple of weeks with those three!
 
The men's team had some strong depth in the short sprints and high hurdles, and competed very well considering the headwind that they ran into during all three events. The four men in the 4x100 relay (Alhagie Sesay, Brett Morse, Craig Denton, and Aaron Jones), along with Isaiah Brooks, took 8 of the 9 top spots in the 100, 200, and 110 High Hurdles, which leaves a lot to be pleased with; teammate Taylor Hunter – recently elected as the Student Government President – swept the 100 and 200 on Saturday for the women with season's bests in both events!
 
Finally, I'd like to make note of Ryan Serp – in his first decathlon, he set or tied collegiate PRs in 5 events, and hit performances in the other 5 events that were among his best ever for a very strong weekend. Normally the first decathlon a competitor does results in a very challenging day 2, but Ryan fought through the fatigue quite well!
 
The team will be hosting (again!) this upcoming weekend, with the Cortland Qualifier on Sunday, May 2nd as well as hosting the SUNYAC Championships the following Friday and Saturday.