PENFIELD, N.Y. – The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team finished in fifth place out of 34 teams and the Red Dragon women placed 15th out of 34 schools at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Championships Wednesday and Thursday at St. John Fisher College.
 
Cortland finished with 60 points on the men's side. Brockport won with 84, followed by Carnegie Mellon (80), Ithaca (79), Geneseo (64) and Cortland. The Red Dragon women scored 18 points at the meet. Geneseo won the team title with 149 points, followed by Ithaca (95) and Brockport (70). The top eight finishers in each individual event, and the top three in each relay, are designated as All-AARTFC.
 
Cortland earned three titles and two runner-up finishes on the men's side. Zach Kashmer (Chili/Churchville-Chili) won the decathlon with a career-best score of 6,605 points and as of late Thursday night ranks 10th nationally in Division III. He scored 819 points in the 100-meter dash (11.19) and 798 points in the 110-meter hurdles (15.43), and he won five events – the shot put (11.71 meters/38' 5"), the high jump (1.89 meters/6' 2.25"), the 400 meters (50.89), the discus (31.68 meters/103' 11"), and the pole vault (4.20 meters/13' 9.25").
 
Isaiah Brooks (Minoa/East Syracuse Minoa) finished first in the 110-meter hurdles in 14.59 seconds, followed by Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) in second (14.66) and Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) in fourth (14.73). As of Thursday night, Brooks ranks 15th nationally in the event, Jones is 16th, and Morse is 19th. Jones also finished third in the 200-meter dash (22.10).
 
The combination of Alhagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech), Morse, Craig Denton (Albertson/Herricks) and Jones took top honors in the 4x100-meter relay in 42.38 seconds. Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) placed second in the pole vault at 4.88 meters (16' 0"), a height that ranks him 12th nationally as of Thursday night. Amarian Hughes (Marlboro) was sixth in the triple jump at 13.93 meters (45' 8.5").
 
Also for the Red Dragons, David Soto (Warwick/Warwick Valley) just missed the scoring column with a ninth-place time of 4:03.71 in the 1,500 meters, and Wendell Brand (Sleepy Hollow) was 12th in the triple jump (13.53 meters/44' 4.75") and 14th in the long jump (6.69 meters/21' 11.5").
 
Cortland's 18 women's points resulted from a sweep of the top two spots in the high jump. Aubrianna Lantrip (Phelps/Midlakes) won the event with a height of 1.72 meters (5' 7.75") that places her fourth nationally in Division III as of late Thursday, while Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) was second at 1.69 meters (5' 6.5") and ranks ninth nationally. Rachel Castello (Cheektowaga/West Seneca East) finished 12th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (12:18.22).
 
The NCAA Division III Championships will be held May 27-29 in Greensboro, N.C. The top 19 in each women's individual event, the top 17 in each men's individual event, and the top 14 relays for both genders qualify for the national meet (these numbers were listed incorrectly in the previous meet recap). The final NCAA qualification list will be posted by 8 p.m. on Friday, May 21, on NCAA.com.

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

We had a hot couple of days at the AARTFC Championships – both in terms of the performances and the weather.
 
Our team placing is pretty indicative of the quality of student-athletes that we brought out to the meet – for the most part, anybody we brought to the meet performed at a high level, and the number of season or personal bests reflects that!
 
For the entire season, our men's high hurdle squad has led the national #eventsquad rankings, which is the average of the best four performers on your team, and the results of the finals on Thursday certainly solidified that! All three of the young men (Isaiah Brooks, Aaron Jones, and Brett Morse) ran lifetime bests! For Aaron and Brett, it's especially impressive since this is their first season of outdoor track and field at the collegiate level, and the transition to hurdles that are 3 inches higher than in high school can be difficult to navigate.
 
Isaiah and Aaron are now fourth and fifth on our all-time list for the high hurdles, and Brett's time would have easily been a school record when I started coaching here. Those gentlemen have certainly put in great work!
 
Certainly Dane Sorensen vaulting to a new season's best of 4.88 (or 16 feet) in the pole vault and solidifying his NCAA qualification was exciting, as was Zach Kashmer's new conference meet record and personal best in the decathlon which gained him admission to the NCAA Championships. And it goes without saying that seeing our men's 4x100 relay sprint to the championship was quite exciting – Aaron and Brett were joined by fellow sophomores (although freshmen in eligibility) Alhagie Sesay and Craig Denton to run their fastest time of the year, which also leaves them ranked 5th in the region! Considering that our 5th best relay squad ever ran 42.07, we have a lot to look forward to out of that group!
 
Our two women's scorers were 'only' in the high jump, and have made us likely to be the only school in the nation with multiple qualifiers in that event. Since both Aubrianna Lantrip and Danielle Fisk had season bests we are certainly excited about their opportunity to compete at the NCAA Championships next week. In terms of historical excellence without our program, Bri is now tied for second all-time at Cortland, while Danielle has now claimed the fourth-best performance ever by a Red Dragon.
 
We're waiting on pins and needles for acceptances into the NCAA Championships, which should become public on Friday evening.

(EDITOR'S NOTE  Cortland has four men and two women who qualified for nationals - Brooks (110 hurdles), Jones (110 hurdles), Sorensen (pole vault) and Kasher (decathlon) on the men's side, and Lantrip and Fisk (both high jump) on the women's side.)