ROCHESTER, N.Y- The Cortland men's and women's indoor track and field teams earned 10 individual All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) honors, along with one All-AARTFC relay finish, at the regional championship meet held Friday and Saturday at Nazareth College.
 
Cortland's men finished third out of 48 schools in the AARTFC standings with 66.5 points. Rowan won the meet with 98 points, followed by Geneseo (72), Cortland and Ithaca (60) in the top four. The Red Dragon women tied for 25th place out of 46 schools with five points. Geneseo was the team champion with 108 points.
 
Ryan Cory (Beacon) set a meet record and broke his own school record by more than five seconds in the 3,000-meter run with his winning time of 8:19.14. He was aided in the race by teammate Hunter Brignall (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy), who set the early pace as a "rabbit" for Cory.
 
Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) and Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) basically finished in a dead heat for second place in the 60-meter hurdles at 8.30 seconds. With times broken down even further, Jones officially finished second (8.294) and Morse was third (8.299). Jones also finished fourth in the 200-meter dash in 22.20 seconds.
 
Three Red Dragons earned All-AARTFC spots in the pole vault. Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) placed second at 4.86 meters (15' 11.25"), Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) tied for fourth at 4.71 meters (15' 5.5"), and Sam Haaland (Shokan/Onteora) finished eighth at 4.41 meters (14' 5.5").
 
Amarian Hughes (Marlboro) was second in the triple jump (14.11 meters/46' 3.5") and Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) placed sixth in the weight throw (16.55 meters/54' 3.75"). The 4x200-meter relay of Evan Jensen (Red Hook), Morse, Justin Schrom (Richmondville/Cobleskill-Richmondville) and Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) finished in second place in 1:29.91.
 
For the Cortland women, Danielle Fisk (Honeoye Falls/Honeoye Falls-Lima) earned All-AARTFC recognition with her fifth-place high jump of 1.60 meters (5' 3").
 
The top eight finishers in each individual event and the top three in each relay earn All-AARTFC meet honors.
 
Other men's results included: Jensen, Michael Eubanks (Islip), Schrom and Goring finishing fourth in the 4x400-meter relay (3:20.76), with the second through fourth spots separated by less than a half second; Malachi Williams (New Haven, CT/Amistad Academy) placing 15th in the 60-meter dash (7.13); Roland Zanger (Port Jervis) tying for 15th in the high jump (1.82 meters/5' 11.5"); and Eubanks ending 19th in the 400 meters (51.66).
 
In addition to Fisk in the high jump, Cortland's other women's results included: Sam Becker (Narrowsburg/Sullivan West), Katherine McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee), Avery Hebert (Stillwater) and Elizabeth Liriano (New York/Manhattan Ctr. for Science and Math) finishing eighth in the 4x200-meter relay (1:48.33) and 10th in the 4x400-meter relay (4:15.54); Kimmy Arena (West Islip) tying for 13th in the pole vault (3.07 meters/10' 0.75"); and Abby McDowell (Tappan/Tappan Zee) finishing 15th in the triple jump (10.81 meters/35' 5.75").
 
Cortland awaits the announcement of qualifiers for next weekend's NCAA Division III Championships, which be held in Winston-Salem, N.C., March 11-12. The final participant list will be posted on NCAA.com this Sunday, March 6, by 7 p.m. The top 20 in each individual event and the top 12 in each relay (4x400 and DMR) qualify for nationals. As of late Saturday night, Cortland athletes ranking in the national qualifying spots are:
 
Jones, tied 10th, 60-meter hurdles (8.16)
Sorensen, tied 10th, pole vault (4.90 meters/16' 0.75")
Nyhart, tied 15th, pole vault (4.85 meters/15' 11")
Morse, tied 16th, 60-meter hurdles (8.21)
Cory, 19th, 3,000 meters (8:19.14)

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

Regular readers will be delighted to know that I am going to be keeping this short! There's a lot going on between putting in work for the outdoor season (which opens up in just three weeks) and putting together last-minute details for our trip to the NCAA Championships coming up this week.
 
For our program, the AARTFC meet is something we use to work on progress – we don't worry very much about the place, but instead on the process. We don't enter very many athletes into the meet for this reason! For the women, I'd like to make note of our 4x400 relay runners, which doubled back in the 4x200. Friday's relay didn't go according to plan, as our leadoff tumbled pretty badly after the first lap – thankfully there wasn't a serious injury, and she was able to get up and finish her leg. The other three ladies turned in strong efforts in what was essentially a time trial because of being out of contention in the heat. I'm thrilled with how well those young women came back on Saturday to run our season's best in the 4x200 relay, to run our fastest time of the season. That speaks volumes about their character and determination.
 
With the men, we had a number of good efforts that didn't necessarily lead to the performances we were hoping for and know we are capable of, but we are confident that we learned something on the day. Our men's relays turned in quite stellar performances on both days, and clearly show a bright future for us. Mitchell Makowski had a tremendous day in the weight throw, earning a spot into the finals and on the podium with a new PR! While Ryan Cory's record will get a lot of attention, the shining star on the day was distance teammate Hunter Brignall, who stepped up to the challenge of being a rabbit for Ryan over the first mile to make sure that the race got out at the right pace. Ryan was the top seed, so the rest of the field was likely to be waiting for him to make a move; Hunter's unselfishness paved the way for Ryan's stellar performance and is very much appreciated!
 
The NCAA performance lists are set tonight at midnight, so we should know soon who is likely to be representing Cortland at the National Championships in Winston-Salem, NC next weekend.