ROCHESTER, N.Y. and ITHACA, N.Y. – Ryan Cory (Beacon) set a new school record in the 3,000-meter run to highlight numerous strong performances by the Cortland's men's indoor track and field team at the Cornell University Marc Deneault Invitational.
 
The Red Dragons sent a majority of their athletes to the Cornell meet on Saturday in addition to some competitors at Friday's Nazareth Conference Tune-up meet.
 
Cory was the top collegiate finisher in the 3K, and second overall behind Ryan Mahalsky of the Philadelphia Runner Track Club, with a time of 8:24.83. He broke the previous school in the event of 8:29.49 set by Seth DuBois at the 2008 New York State Championships.
 
Cory's effort currently ranks second in the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) and was one of nine AARTFC qualifying marks by the Red Dragons at Cornell. The 4x400-meter relay team of Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame), Evan Jensen (Red Hook), Justin Schrom (Richmondville/Cobleskill-Richmondville) and Rich Samuels (Wallkill) finished first in 3:24.32. Samuels also had an AARTFC time of 1:57.40 for third place out of 26 runners in the 800 meters.
 
Amarian Hughes (Marlboro) won the triple jump with a distance of 13.89 meters (45' 7") and Brett Morse was third of 20 in the long jump at 6.77 meters (22' 2.5"). Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) finished fourth of 27 in the 60-meter dash in 7.06 seconds and Hunter Brignall (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy) was sixth of 29 in the mile (4:22.34). In the pole vault, Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) recorded a third-place height of 4.76 meters (15' 7.25") and Sam Haaland (Shokan/Onteora) was fifth at 4.61 meters (15' 1.5"). All of the above performances met AARTFC standards.
 
Goring and Jensen were first and second in the 300 meters in 35.53 and 35.78 seconds, respectively. The Red Dragons claimed three of the top five spots in the 19-runner 1,000 meters – David Soto (Warwick/Warwick Valley) finished second (2:34.11), Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) was third (2:35.77) and Ben Fenton (Horseheads) finished fifth (2:40.80).
 
Three Cortland runners placed in the top eight out of 23 runners in the 5,000 meters with Rob Davidson (Setauket/Ward Melville) fourth (16:01.69), RJ Davis (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) fifth (16:16.22) and Adam Schreiber (Williamson) eighth (16:26.74). Doug Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian) and Michael Eubanks (Islip) placed fourth (51.86) and fifth (51.88), respectively, in the 400 meters, and Mike Alvarez (New Windsor/Newburgh Free Academy) was fourth of 11 in the 600 meters (1:29.84).
 
Also for the Red Dragons at Cornell, Craig Denton (Albertson/Herricks) finished fifth (23.63) and Hagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) was seventh (23.66) out of 25 in the 200-meter dash. Alex Daniel (Warsaw) was third in the triple jump (12.44 meters/40' 9.75"), Hughes finished sixth in the long jump (6.33 meters/20' 9.25"), and Nate Wilsoncroft (Horseheads) placed eighth in the 800 meters (2:01.52).
 
At Nazareth on Friday, Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) turned in an AARTFC effort with his sixth-place distance of 15.81 meters (51' 10.5") in a field of 35 competitors in the weight throw. He also was 12th of 35 in the shot put at 13.12 meters (43' 0.5"). Roland Zanger finished fifth of 19 in the high jump (1.84 meters/6' 0.5") and 16th in the 60-meter hurdles (9.46).

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

Obviously, a new school record is really exciting! Ryan ran a great race (and we would like to thank the event winner, Ryan Mahalsky of the Philadelphia Runner Track Club for making it a fast race), and really put it out there. It was great to be there for it today! There are a couple of important points that Ryan's performance raised that I don't want to be missed: First, Brett Morse's hurdle time from last Friday put him in the all-time top 5 at Cortland! Secondly, Sarah Parr's weight throw from last Saturday put her in the all-time top 5 at Cortland! I regret that I missed both of those from last weekend's meets. Third, Coltrane Goring led a strong trio in then 300 today; he now takes over the #5 spot all-time at Cortland! On a personal note, I had posted a screenshot of the new record at the meet, and by the time I had gotten back to the office, Seth DuBois – the former record-holder – had already reached out to congratulate Ryan on social media. That was quite a classy gesture, and is greatly appreciated!
 
We took a small group to Nazareth College on Friday, since it afforded those athletes a better chance to compete. We had a lot of great progress with the process, which is exciting! Sometimes we can lose sight of the process because we are so focused on the outcome (much in the same way one can 'lose the forest for the trees'). I would like to point out how well the throws squad did at Nazareth both in terms of the outcome (we had a number of season best or lifetime best throws), as well as the means by which they went about achieving those performances.
 
The bulk of the team was at Cornell today, and the results were quite strong! To start off the day, our guys in the 5k were aggressive, and they needed to be to make a run at getting into the conference meet. Rob Davidson nearly broke the 16-minute barrier, but in a race that was well run. Fellow firstyear RJ Davis also showed an improvement on the season and he met the conference standard, which is a nice measure of progress. We saw some strong performances as well from the men in the 1k and mile – especially Hunter Brignall in the men's mile to race quite intelligently and with a great deal of toughness to set a new PR of 4:22! Hunter has shown off great range this season, as he has hit the qualifying standard for every distance event at the conference level this year.
 
The long sprints for both teams performed quite well, with a number of season or lifetime bests, and numerous very strong efforts. It was quite a good day for that event group! On the women's side, Abby McDowell improved on her season's best for the long jump, in a manner that moved her into the conference meet for that event! Kayla Pucci ran tough and smart to qualify herself for the conference meet in the 800, which was very nice to see as she is develops in the mid-distance events. Rebecca Salim, Faith Nelson, and Alyssa LaBelle all ran season's bests in their sprint events on the day, and Vanessa Burkard ran a tough mile to run her fastest time ever. Firstyear Laura Suppa really put some of the technical changes we have been working on together to have quite an impressive PR in the 60 high hurdles, and junior Lauren Anderson did the same – both are rounding into form at the right time!
 
With all that success, the highlight of the day was probably Sam Haaland who jumped new personal bests twice in the pole vault, finishing over the 15' barrier! Sam has now 'vaulted' up to be ranked 36th in the country! It's been a tremendous amount of progress for Sam over the past three semesters since he has been able to practice with us.