CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team posted two victories and six runner-up finishes at the CNY College Challenge, hosted by the Red Dragons Tuesday afternoon. The meet included competitors from Cortland, Cornell, Ithaca, Oswego and Hartwick.
 
Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) won the 110-meter hurdles in 14.60 seconds. The performance currently ranks him 15th nationally in Division III and first in the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference. Ryan Joule (Staten Island/Susan B. Wagner) won the javelin throw with a toss of 47.61 meters (156' 2"), followed by Doug Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian) in second at 43.08 meters (141' 4").
 
The 4x100-meter relay team of Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs), Evan Jensen (Red Hook), Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA) and Jones posted a second-place time of 42.00 seconds that currently sits sixth on the AARTFC charts. Goring also placed second of 19 in the 200-meter dash in 22.43 seconds, followed by Jensen in third at 22.46 seconds, while Morse was second in the long jump at 6.83 meters (22' 5"), an AARTFC qualifying distance.
 
Rich Samuels (Wallkill) hit an AARTFC standard with his second-place time of 49.46 seconds in the 400-meter dash. Other Cortland athletes reaching AARTFC marks during the meet included Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) in the hammer throw (fourth place, 53.33 meters/174' 11"), Hunter Braun (Victor) in the 800 meters (fifth place, 1:56.80), and Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) in the pole vault (fifth place, 4.65 meters/15' 3").
 
Tommy Burek (Latham/Shaker) registered a second-place performance out of 13 competitors in the shot put (12.94 meters/42' 5.5") and a third-place effort out of 13 in the discus (37.06 meters/121' 7"). He was also fifth in the hammer throw (43.83 meters/143' 9"). Zashon Abrams (Morrisonville/Saranac) was third of 13 in the 100-meter dash (11.35), Roland Zanger (Port Jervis) was third in the 110-meter hurdles (16.65) and fifth in the long jump (6.32 meters/20' 9"), and Jean-Andre Sassine (Queens Village/The Lawrenceville School) placed third in the triple jump (13.46 meters/44' 2").
 
Six other Red Dragons turned in fourth-place efforts: Amarian Hughes (Marlboro) in the javelin (36.49 meters/119' 8"); Justin Schrom (Richmondville/Cobleskill-Richmondville) in the 400-meter dash (50.82); Nick Kaires (St. James/Smithtown East) in the discus (36.34 meters/119' 3"); Alex Daniel (Warsaw) in the triple jump (13.40 meters/43' 11.75"); Brandon Root (Bellmore/John F. Kennedy) in the 400-meter hurdles (58.19); and Ben Fenton (Horseheads) in the 1,500 meters (4:13.75).

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

Some years we get lucky in that this Tuesday meet is warm, sunny and fast. Other years we get what we got today – breezy, a moderate breeze, and some misting-type rain at times. It's a cold that settles into your bones a bit, which can make performing a bit of a challenge!
 
Of course, it's important that we are focused and tough no matter what the conditions are, and that we recognize that a meet like this still offers a valuable opportunity to compete, as well as the training benefit that can come from competing. And while we weren't all perfect, we certainly were able to get a lot of quality work in, which included some performances that were significant improvements on where we have been so far this season!
 
For the Lady Red Dragons on the track, Faith Nelson had a strong PR in the 100, Bridget Welch had the same in the 400, and Lauren Anderson turned in a career best in the 100 High Hurdles.  For the field, Alyssa LaBelle led the way in the jumps with a fantastic improvement in her long jump – an event she only started doing a few weeks ago – to most likely earn a spot at the conference meet. Our throws squad had a strong day overall, with PRs from Danielle Fisk in the javelin, Sarah Parr in the shot, and Catie Lally in both the shot and discus! It's great to see the group peaking at the right time as we are within two weeks of the conference meet.
 
The men's squad had some similar places were we achieved significant results on the day. For the throws, Doug Knapp hit a PR to qualify for the conference meet, while Alex Daniel had a big lifetime best in triple jump, as Brett Morse and Roland Zanger both had outdoor bests in the long jump. Morse joined with Evan Jensen, Coltrane Goring, and Aaron Jones to run as time in the 4x100 that is #4 all-time at Cortland; Jones ran a lifetime best of 14.60 in the high hurdles, which propelled him far up the national list! Rich Samuels became the fourth man on the squad to dip under the 50-second barrier with his PR in the 400, and then came back to pace the 800 through 500 meters, where teammate Hunter Braun had a nearly 1-second PR to jump well up the conference performance list.
 
In many other event groups for both the women and men, there was good effort, good focus, and a good level of being tough, which are all the things we want to see as we start to head into championship season. Up next, Ryan Cory gets the opportunity to race at the prestigious Penn Relays on Thursday night, and a large contingent heads to the Paul Kaiser Classic this Saturday at Shippensburg University.