CORTLAND, N.Y. – Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) and Wendell Brand (Sleepy Hollow) each won twice as part of Cortland's seven individual event victories as the Red Dragons' men's track and field team hosted the Cortland Conference Qualifier meet.
 
The meet was Cortland's last prior to the SUNYAC Championships May 7-8, which the Red Dragons will also be hosting.
 
Jones won the 110-meter hurdles in 14.83 seconds and the 200-meter dash in 22.30 seconds. He currently ranks 20th nationally in Division III and first regionally in the 110-meter hurdles, and he's 14th regionally in the 200. Jones also anchored Cortland's winning 4x100-meter relay team, which also featured Alhagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech), Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) and Craig Denton (Alberton/Herricks), which finished in 42.45 seconds to rank fifth regionally.
 
Brand captured the long jump with a distance of 6.87 meters (22' 6.5"), which ranks eighth regionally, and he won the triple jump at 13.94 meters (45' 9").
 
Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) won the pole vault with a season-best height of 4.85 meters (15' 11") that ranks eighth nationally and second regionally. Doug Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian) won the 400-meter dash in 51.98 seconds and David Soto (Warwick/Warwick Valley) was the 800-meter winner in 1:56.25, which ranks 10th regionally.
 
Morse posted three top-three individual finishes. He was second in the 200-meter dash (22.73) and the long jump (6.64 meters/21' 9.5") and third in the 110-meter hurdles (15.47). Sesay was third in both the 100-meter dash (11.48) and the long jump (6.64 meters/21' 9.5"). Morse officially finished ahead of Sesay in the long jump due to a farther second-best distance. Denton was third in the 200-meter dash (23.18) and fourth in the 100-meter dash (11.64).
 
Isaiah Brooks (Minoa/East Syracuse Minoa) ended second in the 110-meter hurdles (15.31) and third in the pole vault (4.40 meters/14' 5.25"). He's currently seventh regionally in the pole vault. Rich Samuels (Wallkill) finished second in the 800 meters in 1:57.31, which ranks 16th regionally, and Chris Blake (Red Creek) was runner-up in the 400-meter hurdles in 59.03 seconds, which is 19th regionally.
 
Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) was the hammer throw runner-up with a distance of 45.38 meters (148' 11"), and also turned in seventh-place efforts in the discus (36.93 meters/121' 2") and the shot put (11.78 meters/38' 7.75"). Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) finished third in the 1,500 meters (4:10.43).
 
Zach Kashmer (Chili/Churchville-Chili) notched four top-six showings, finishing fourth in the discus (39.30 meters/128' 11"), tying for fourth in the pole vault (3.90 meters/12' 9.5"), placing fifth in the 110-meter hurdles (16.04), and finishing sixth in the javelin (37.01 meters/121' 5").
 
Amarian Hughes (Marlboro) was fourth in the javelin (39.83 meters/130' 8") and Cabel McCandless (Lindenhurst) finished fourth in the 1,500 meters (4:12.82). Justin Schrom (Richmondville/Cobleskill-Richmondville) and John Nethercott (Fayetteville/Fayetteville-Manlius) were fourth (53.22) and fifth (53.54), respectively, in the 400-meter dash, and Clayton Santiago (Bethpage) finished fifth in the 800 meters (2:01.97).

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

I'm very thankful that we once again were able to push our luck in a positive direction with the weather today. While our sprinters and high hurdles dealt with a headwind most of the day, we had only a few light sprinkles to contend with over the course of the day. We had a number of folks that took great advantage of the opportunity today, so that was quite exciting!
 
A wise person once said to me to 'never underestimate the value of winning;' so even if the performance wasn't as top-notch as we had hoped for, the value in being able to compete against others (or, in some cases, yourself) to be the top competitor on the day has value – especially with the conference meet coming up. I feel confident that all those victors were identified in the story from our sports information department, so I won't make you read their names again.
 
For both the men and women, the long jump was a fairly strong event on the day for us, as we saw some big season's best across most of our competitors on the day. It's certainly a great time of year to be doing our best, so we're happy to see those results from Lauren Anderson and Kitty Tang on the women's side, as well as for Wendell Brand, Brett Morse, and Alhagie Sesay on the men's side.  There's still work to do, but it's great to see things moving in the right direction for us!  Kitty came back in the triple jump – for the first time in college – and put herself into the conference meet in that event!
 
Aaron Jones was a strong highlight on the day, as he not only ran a career-best that moved him up the NCAA rankings, but did it into a strong headwind to go along with anchoring the 4x100 relay and earning his third victory of the day with a new best in the 200.
 
Dane Sorensen continued to have good progress in the pole vault with a new season's best, which is always a promising situation; Isaiah Brooks' vault was a new personal best for him as well; Kimmy Arena also jumped a season's best to win the women's competition! And while neither were event winners, Chris Blake had a big personal best in the 400 hurdles, while Marlee Angus dropped a lot of time off of her 1500 personal record in a great effort!
 
Finally, some very important highlights would be individuals overcoming a measure of adversity to put themselves into a strong position – John Nethercott (in the 400) and Rich Samuels (in the 800) both came back for this meet off injuries that limited their training for weeks in an attempt to earn a way into the conference championships; both came out and fought really well to make a strong case for themselves! Elizabeth Liriano overcame less-than-stellar meet management that incorrectly set the hurdles for her race – ultimately, I blame the head coach – and then came back to re-run the event by herself after only a few minutes rest to run her season's best! That was a very tough performance on her part!
 
We're hosting again next weekend!  This time it will be the SUNYAC Championships on Friday and Saturday, and we're looking forward to it!