UTICA, N.Y. – Cortland recorded six first-place finishes, highlighted by a school-record pole vault from Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley), and the Red Dragons finished first out of 12 schools in the final team standings at the men's indoor track and field Utica University Holiday Classic.
 
Cortland easily claimed the team crown with 220 points, almost double of runner-up Utica (111). Delhi (88) and RPI (70) were third and fourth, respectively.
 
Sorensen cleared 5.01 meters (16' 5.25") in the pole vault, eclipsing Cortland's previous indoor school record of 5.00 meters (16' 4.75") set by Ryan Pericozzi in Feb. 2012. Sorensen currently ranks second nationally in Division III in the event. Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) won the shot put with a distance of 16.31 meters (53' 6.25") that also ranks second nationally in Division III. He moved into second place on Cortland's all-time performers list in the event behind only James Monaco, who set the school record at 16.59 meters (54' 5.25") in 1983.
 
Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) posted two first-place finishes. He won the 60-meter hurdles in 8.16 seconds and the long jump in 6.82 meters (22' 4.5"). As of late Saturday night his hurdles time is ranked fourth nationally. Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) is ranked fourth nationally in the triple jump after his winning distance of 14.49 meters (47' 6.5"), and Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) won the 800 meters in 1:59.23.
 
Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) is currently fifth in the 400-meter dash with his runner-up time of 49.47 seconds. Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) ranks sixth nationally in the 200-meter dash with his second-place time of 22.34 seconds, and Hunter Brignall's (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy) second-place time of 4:20.09 in the mile currently ranks eighth nationally. Zach Nyhart's (Hamburg) second-place pole vault of 4.70 meters (15' 5") is ninth in Division III.
 
Cortland is idle until Jan. 14 when it heads back to Utica for the Utica University Winter Opener.
 
Cortland's scoring (top 8) performances at the meet were:
(* AARTFC qualifier)
 
Dane Sorensen
1st, Pole Vault, 5.01 meters (16' 5.25")* (School Record)
 
Cameron Szabo
1st, 800 meters, 1:59.23
3rd, Mile, 4:21.62*
 
Brett Morse
1st, 60-meter hurdles, 8.16*
1st, Long Jump, 6.82 meters (22' 4.5")*
3rd, 200-meter dash, 22.54*
 
Amarian Hughes
1st, Triple Jump, 14.49 meters (47' 6.5")*
 
Isaiah Brunache
1st, Shot Put, 16.31 meters (53' 6.25")*
4th (5th overall), Weight Throw, 15.37 meters (50' 5.25")
 
Aaron Jones
2nd, 200-meter dash, 22.34*
3rd, 60-meter dash, 7.15*
 
Coltrane Goring
2nd, 400-meter dash, 49.47*
5th, 200-meter dash, 22.60*
 
Hunter Brignall
2nd, Mile, 4:20.09*
2nd, 800 meters, 2:00.29
 
Ryan Serp (Commack/Fayetteville-Manlius)
2nd, 60-meter hurdles, 8.59*
7th, Long Jump, 6.26 meters (20' 6.5")
 
Zach Nyhart
2nd, Pole Vault, 4.70 meters (15' 5")*
 
Hagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech)
2nd, Long Jump, 6.63 meters (21' 9")
 
Evan Jensen (Red Hook)
3rd, 400-meter dash, 50.02*
4th, 200-meter dash, 22.57*
 
Alex Daniel (Warsaw)
3rd, Triple Jump, 12.79 meters (41' 11.5")
 
Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas)
3rd (4th overall), Weight Throw, 15.69 meters (51' 5.75")*
4th (5th overall), Shot Put, 13.60 meters (44' 7.5")
 
Matthew Schaffert (Lockport)
5th, 60-meter dash, 7.25 (7.20 prelims)
8th, Long Jump, 6.20 meters (20' 4.25")
 
Douglas Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian)
5th, 400-meter dash, 51.49
 
Nate Wilsoncroft (Horseheads)
5th, 800 meters, 2:01.88
 
Harry Tomasi (Port Jervis)
5th, Mile, 4:25.99
6th, 800 meters, 2:03.66
 
Travis Iwuagwu (Suffern)
5th, 60-meter hurdles, 8.88
 
Roland Zanger (Port Jervis)
5th, High Jump, 1.81 meters (5' 11.25")
6th, Long Jump, 6.26 meters (20' 6.5")
7th, 60-meter hurdles, 9.20 (9.17 prelims)
 
Robert Davidson (Setauket/Ward Melville)
6th, 5,000 meters, 16:07.10
 
Nick Kaires (St. James/Smithtown East)
6th (7th overall), Weight Throw, 13.37 meters (43' 10.5")
 
Oba Awolowo (Hauppauge)
7th, 400 meters, 52.20
 
Ryan Morales (Warwick/Warwick Valley)
7th, Triple Jump, 11.85 meters (38' 10.5")
 
Austin Garske (Rocky Point)
8th, 400 meters, 52.28
 
Clayton Santiago (Bethpage)
8th, Mile, 4:30.23
 
Tom Adamescu (Canandaigua/Canandaigua Academy)
8th, 5,000 meters, 16:19.58
 
Nik Knobloch (New Paltz)
8th, 60-meter hurdles, 9.23

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

I feel very fortunate that we had the opportunity to bring a large chunk of the team to Utica to compete today. Almost everybody competing had an improvement in their process as compared to last week at Cornell. We may not have gotten PRs across the board, but I'm very please with what happened today, especially after what is a tiring and stressful week with the end of  fall semester classes! While we didn't stress the team score at all, its always nice to put together a couple of team victories as well!
 
For the Lady Red Dragons, we saw a very impressive day on the track in the sprints. Obviously having wins in the 60 and 400 (by Autumn Pittman and Liz Liriano respectively) was very nice, but the depth in both events was quite positive on the day. We had a number of PRs, and a number of folks that ran significantly faster than the previous year at the same meet. Folks have been putting in a good deal of work, and it is great to see it paying off.

Moving up to the distance events, Marlee Angus put together an excellent day to end her semester in the 800 and the mile – not just running strong performances, but really executing her plan quite well during the event. We really showed off our depth at the start of the day with the women's 5000, however. We aimed to have a pack of runners at 12 minutes at the 3000 meter mark, which we did achieved quite well with all seven ladies. Our plan was to then push the final 2000 meters fairly hard, and we had a great level of success with that as Khalifah Tracey, Vanessa Burkard, Adrienne Martin, Devin Reilly, and Rachel Castello all finished under the 20-minute mark! For both Adrienne and Devin, that was a big lifetime PR in the event! In the jumps, every single woman had a season's best, which I'm not sure has ever happened with me before as a head coach! In particular I'd like to highlight AnJalyna Talmadge, who had a lifetime best in long jump, a season's best in high jump, and a lifetime best in the high hurdles.
 
The men's team had quite a strong day overall as well, obviously highlighted by Dane Sorensen's new school record in the pole vault (becoming the third Red Dragon over 5 meters ever, which is quite an accomplishment) and Isaiah Brunache's stellar shot put performance, which lands him currently second in the country and in the #2 spot all-time at Cortland. We had some incredibly depth in the 200 and 400 (with some wonderful individual performances led by Aaron Jones in the 200 and Coltrane Goring in the 400); Cam Szabo and Hunter Brignall executed race plans wonderfully to lead strong contingents in the 800 and mile events; in the 5000 the men like the women had a fairly easy pace through 3000 meters; all five men finished well under that pace led by Robbie Davidson who dropped over 15 seconds per thousand over the final 10 laps!

It would be foolish not to mention Amarian Hughes who had a strong day with a new personal rest in the triple jump, and Brett Morse who led a strong contingent in both the long jump and the high hurdles (where he once again improved his personal best, and is now tied for 5th on our all-time list). But I think that I would like to highlight senior Hagie Sesay, who had a huge PR in the long jump (indoors) and a one of his best performances ever in the 200 as he's a guy who has worked tremendously hard over his time with us and it's really enjoyable to watch things coming together for him!
 
Up next is a well-deserved reduction in training which coincides nicely with our final exam week; after some time at home we will be back in action in 2023!