ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Four Red Dragons registered national top-15 performances at the Nazareth College Conference Challenge Cup and Multi men's indoor track and field meet.
 
Cortland finished second out of 11 schools in the final team standings. Geneseo won with 144 points, followed by Cortland with 121, Rochester with 117 and Williams with 96 in the top four.
 
Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) finished first out of 47 competitors in the 200-meter dash with a meet and Golisano Training Center record time of 22.10 seconds. He currently ranks fifth nationally in Division III with the effort. Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) won the pole vault in a field of 23 with a height of 4.90 meters (16' 0.75") that ranks fifth nationally.
 
Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) is 12th nationally in the 60-meter hurdles after winning the event in 8.28 seconds. Amarian Hughes (Marlboro) is 13th in Division III in the triple jump with his winning distance of 14.30 meters (46' 11").
 
Cortland finished the meet with 10 All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying efforts. In addition to the four mentioned above, Jones finished second in the 60-meter hurdles (8.32), Malachi Williams (New Haven, CT/Amistad Academy) was second of 37 in the 60-meter dash (7.11), Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) placed second in the weight throw (16.40 meters/53' 9.75"), Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) was third in the pole vault (4.70 meters/15' 5") and Eli Craddock (Norwich) was fourth in the triple jump (13.56 meters/44' 6"). The 4x400-meter relay team of Evan Jensen (Red Hook), Justin Schrom (Richmondville/Cobleskill-Richmondville), Michael Eubanks (Islip) and Rich Samuels (Wallkill) finished second with an AARTFC time of 3:26.01 that ranks 24th nationally.
 
Other Cortland scorers at the meet included: Morse second in the long jump (6.64 meters/21' 9.5"); Roland Zanger (Port Jervis) third in the high jump (1.84 meters/6' 0.5"); Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) (fourth, 23.07), Morse (fifth, 23.08) and Jensen (seventh, 23.21) in the 200-meter dash; Samuels in sixth place of 43 in the 800 meters (2:00.26); and Tommy Burek (Latham/Shaker) in sixth place in the shot put (13.35 meters/43' 9.75").
 
Cortland will compete next weekend at the Ithaca Bomber Invitational and Multi.

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

For the women's program, today emphasized our depth in a lot of places. Across a number of events we showed improvement from not only our top performers, but through most of the individuals entered. Whenever this happens, it shows that we're significantly moving in the right direction as a program. It's good evidence that we are working hard, and buying into what we are trying to accomplish as a program.
 
Individuals that merit a 'shout out' here would include our throwers Sarah Parr and Liz Spencer. Both ladies were close to their PRs in the weight throw, which is excellent since they were both set last week; both put the shot season's best distances today, which is a good indicator that they are putting things together! Liz Liriano and Sam Becker each ran away with their heat in the 400. They were out pretty much exactly where we had hoped, but didn't have that competition on their shoulder to help push them through the final 150. That's OK, and it's a good indicator of things to come; as a wise coach once said to me, 'never underestimate the value of winning,' so I'm thrilled that both won their heats so easily. A great example of our depth was with Katherine McDowell and Avery Hebert running indoor bests in the 400 in strong races as well; both ran indoor bests in the 200 as well! Finally, our distance women put together a strong day. Vanessa Burkard (in the 5k) and Cat Zamroz (in the 3k) both led the majority of their heat, and kept the pace honest, helping pull teammates Khalifah Tracey and Marlee Angus respectively to strong performances as well. It's fun to lead, but very hard to keep grinding out consistent splits, and both Vanessa and Cat did that to run PRs; both Khalifah and Marlee were able to run indoor bests as well!
 
The men had a number of strong efforts, and obviously Dane Sorensen breaking the 16-foot barrier (4.90 in meters) in the pole vault, Aaron Jones in the 200, Brett Morse in the 60 hurdles, and Amarian Hughes in the triple jump all made improvements in our national positioning;  Mitch Makowski (weight throw) is now in the top 50, along with the 4x400 we ran today; as I write this Eli Craddock is tied for 50th in the triple jump to put him on the national list as well.  Aaron's run puts him into the #5 spot all-time at Cortland, Mitch's toss puts him up to 3rd on the list, and Dane's jump moves him up from 3rd to 2nd on our all-time list. Those are certainly strong accomplishments for so early in the season! As with the women's team, we showed a lot of strong depth on the day, especially in our long sprints, as we put 8 men in the top 15 of the meet. Malachi Williams just missed being a part of that group with his 16th place finish (only .01 seconds behind 15th) but dropped his time significantly in the 60m to earn the runner-up position!
 
Next up for the Red Dragon Track and Field Team is the short trip to Ithaca College on Saturday, with the second day of the heptathlon on Sunday. It's been great to be back into a more 'normal' routine this week as classes have begun.  Speaking of classes, I would be foolish if I didn't point out here that both the women's and men's cross country teams earned USTFCCCA All-Academic Recognition, and that five individuals (Hunter Brignall, Ryan Cory, and Mike Verde for the men, and Rachel Castello and Cat Zamroz for the women) earned individual All-Academic Team Honors for the fall semester.