ITHACA, N.Y. – Cortland earned three victories and four runner-up finishes at the non-team scoring Ithaca College Bomber Invitational and Multi men's indoor track and field meet Saturday and Sunday.
 
Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) finished first out of 23 athletes in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.24 seconds. That performance ranks 10th nationally in Division III and is one of 12 Cortland efforts that met All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying standards. The combination of Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs), Evan Jensen (Red Hook), Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) and Jones won the 4x200-meter relay in 1:29.83 (the event is not conducted at the AARTFC or NCAA championships). Ryan Cory (Beacon) finished first out of 34 in the 3,000-meters with an AARTFC time of 8:36.04.
 
Goring, Jensen, Justin Schrom (Richmondville/Cobleskill-Richmondville) and Rich Samuels (Wallkill) placed second in the 4x400-meter relay. Their time of 3:21.78 currently ranks 10th nationally. Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) was second in the pole vault, clearing 4.85 meters (15' 11") to also rank 10th nationally and Amarian Hughes (Marlboro) finished second in the triple jump at 13.82 meters (45' 4.25"). Those three performances met AARTFC standards. In addition, Roland Zanger (Port Jervis) finished second in the high jump by clearing 1.94 meters (6' 4.25").
 
Also performances that met AARTFC levels included: Jones (third of 66, 22.23) and Morse (eighth, 22.75) in the 200-meter dash; Morse in the 60-meter hurdles with a prelim-best time of 8.39 seconds (he didn't compete in the finals); Samuels in the 400 meters (third of 36 in 50.73 seconds); Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) (third, 4.70 meters/15' 5") and Sam Haaland (Shokan/Onteora) (fourth, 4.40 meters/14' 5.25") in the pole vault; and Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) in the weight throw (fifth, 15.30 meters/50' 2.5").
 
Among other Red Dragon highlights, Elijah Craddock (Norwich) was fourth in the triple jump (13.20 meters/43' 3.75"), Tommy Burek (Latham/Shaker) finished fifth of 27 in the shot put (13.57 meters/44' 6.25"), Jensen and Goring were ninth (22.93) and 10th (22.96), respectively, in the 200 meters, Hunter Braun (Victor) was eight of 49 in the 800 meters (1:59.27), and Hunter Brignall (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy) placed 10th of 50 in the mile (4:26.89).

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

This was a great weekend for Red Dragon Track and Field! Across almost every event, we had a lot of tremendous progress both individually and as a team.
 
We saw three updates to our all-time lists – Zach Nyhart in the pole vault improved upon his #3 all-time mark at Cortland with 4.85m/15'11", Aaron Jones tied for the 5th-best performance in the 60 High Hurdles (with 8.24 seconds), and the men's 4 x 200m relay of Brett Morse, Evan Jensen, Coltrane Goring, and Jones now owns the 4th-fastest time ever run by a relay at Cortland with 1:29.83 seconds.
 
Our women's jumps went quite well as a group, with Kimmy Arena (pole vault), Matteson Donnelly (triple jump), Danielle Fisk (high jump), Abby McDowell, and Kitty Tang (triple jump) all jumping either season or career best distances today. That was a tremendous indication that the things we have been working on in practice are translating into stronger performances during competitions!
 
One of the best things about the track we were on this weekend is how well it is set up to run a fast 200 or 400, and we showed up ready to perform today! Seven men ran season or career bests today; it's not a coincidence that they are all ranked in the top 16 of the conference right now – coincidentally, the top 16 entrants are who get to compete at the SUNYAC Championships, so that is a good spot to be in. For the women, fourteen (!) women ran a season or career best in the 200 today, which is great evidence that things are building up to a great point for us. We also showed some great efforts in the 4 x 400 relays today, as we showed off some depth – both our men's and women's 'B' squad ran faster than the best team from the school that is behind us in the conference.
 
The distance squad put in a number of strong performances on the day, as we saw a great trend on the day of the student-athletes choosing to go after strong performances. There's such a mental challenge in the sport of track and field, especially in the endurance events where a lot of your success is based around your willingness to take a chance on how much you can hurt or suffer. It's a difficult to achieve the balance between how hard you can push and how much is left in the race, and it is very challenging to learn how much you can ask of yourself. Today, we excelled in that as a group, and it was very exciting to be a part of!
 
To close, I'd like to recognize a few individuals that had performances that went above and beyond what I mentioned above. Firstyear Roland Zanger dropped a big chunk of time off his 60 high hurdles time to meet the conference standard, but had a great lifetime best in the high jump of 1.94m/6'4.25" to leap into the top spot in the conference (and yes, if you are wondering/groaning, that was intentional). Of course our heptathletes (Nik Knobloch and Ryan Serp), competing in seven events over two days and hitting the conference standard, should be commended. The overall 'race of the day' award should probably go to senior Cat Zamroz, who dropped 13 (!!) seconds off of her PR in the 800, in a fantastic effort and an incredibly well-run tactical race.
 
Two meets coming up – some of the team is headed to the Ocean Breeze Track and Field Complex on Staten Island this Friday, while another good part of the roster makes the trip down to Susquehanna University on Saturday.