BROCKPORT, N.Y- The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team earned 16 individual and two relay All-SUNYAC honors, including four league titles, on the way to a second-place team finish at the SUNYAC Championships, hosted by SUNY Brockport Friday and Saturday.
 
Cortland finished with 183 points, 20 ahead of third-place Brockport's 163. Geneseo won the league title with 313 points. Rounding out the field were Oneonta (65), Plattsburgh (27), Buffalo State (26), Potsdam (15.5), Oswego (10) and Fredonia (9.5).
 
Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) captured the 110-meter hurdles crown (14.64) and was third in both the 200-meter dash (21.83) and long jump (6.83 meters/22' 5"). Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) won the 200-meter dash (21.66) and was second in the 110-meter hurdles (14.78). Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) won the pole vault at 4.80 meters (15' 9"), which is tied for 19th nationally in Division III, and the 4x100-meter relay team of Zashon Abrams (Morrisonville/Saranac), Morse, Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) and Jones finished first in 42.18 seconds.
 
Morse finished the meet with 24.5 team points scored (22 individually plus a fourth of the 10 points for the winning relay), the most of any competitor at the meet, while Jones was third with 20 points (18 individually plus 2.5 for the relay).
 
Cortland swept the top three spots in the pole vault. In addition to Sorensen's win, Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) was second at 4.55 meters (14' 11") and Sam Haaland (Shokan/Onteora) was third at 4.25 meters (13' 11.25"). Jean-Andre Sassine (Queens Village/The Lawrenceville School) and Amarian Hughes (Marlboro) placed second (14.32 meters/46' 11.75") and third (14.25 meters/46' 9"), respectively, in the triple jump.
 
Rich Samuels (Wallkill) finished second in the 800 meters (1:54.04), Ryan Serp (Commack/Fayetteville-Manlius) was second in the decathlon (5,378 points), and Roland Zanger (Port Jervis) tied for second in the high jump (1.85 meters/6' 0.75"). The 4x400-meter relay team of Doug Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian), Samuels, Brandon Root (Bellmore/John F. Kennedy) and Justin Schrom (Richmondville/Cobleskill-Richmondville) placed second in 3:20.98.
 
Ryan Cory (Beacon) turned in a third-place finish in the 5,000 meters (15:13.06), Mike Verde (Hopewell Junction/Arlington) was third in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (9:25.27), and Ryan Joule was third in the javelin at 4.5.54 meters (149' 5").
 
The top three finishers in each event earn All-SUNYAC honors – winners are first team, runners-up are second team and third-place finishers are third team, with their official all-league designation from the conference based on their best placement.
 
Goring was fourth in both the 200-meter dash (21.90, 21.77 prelims) and 400-meter dash (49.64), and Cory finished fourth in the 1,500 meters (3:57.35). Zanger placed fifth in the 110-meter hurdles (16.63) and seventh in the long jump (6.79 meters/22' 3.5"). Root finished sixth in the 100-meter dash (11.24, 11.21 prelims) and 400-meter hurdles (58.19) and Knapp placed sixth in the 400-meter dash (50.72).
 
Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) finished sixth in the 1,500 meters (4:01.08) and Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) ended sixth in the hammer throw (49.21 meters/161' 5"). Abrams was seventh in the 100-meter dash (11.25) and David Soto (Warwick/Warwick Valley) placed seventh in the 800 meters (1:59.30, 1:54.84 prelims).
 
Tommy Burek (Latham/Shaker) scored with both a seventh-place toss in the discus (38.21 meters/125' 4") and an eight-place hammer throw (44.82 meters/147' 0"). Other scorers with eighth-place efforts included Clay Santiago (Bethpage) in the 800 meters (2:01.71, 1:55.97 prelims), Nick LaRocque (Millbrook) in the discus (37.91 meters/124' 4"), and Nik Knobloch (New Paltz) in the decathlon (4,815 points).
 
Cortland will compete at the Swarthmore Last Chance Meet (held at Widener University this year) on Monday, May 16, and the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Outdoor Championships May 18-19 at Moravian College. Cortland's AARTFC qualifiers during the SUNYAC Championships were:
 
Hunter Brignall (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy), 10,000 meters (9th place, 32:47.75)
Cory, 5,000 meters and 1,500 meters
Rob Davidson (Setauket/Ward Melville), 10,000 meters (13th place, 32:54.62)
RJ Davis (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse), 10,000 meters (11th place, 32:52.65)
Goring, 400-meter dash
Hughes, Triple Jump
Jones, 110-meter hurdles
Makowski, Hammer Throw
Morse, 110-meter hurdles and Long Jump
Nyhart, Pole Vault
Samuels, 800 meters
Santiago, 800 meters
Serp, Decathlon
Sorensen, Pole Vault
Soto, 800 meters
Szabo, 1,500 meters
Verde, 3,000-meter steeplechase
4x100-meter relay
4x400-meter relay
 
(NOTE: Some Cortland performances met AARTFC standards, but due to excessive wind conditions were not officially AARTFC qualifiers and are not listed here)
 
Final Team Scores:
1) Geneseo - 313
2) Cortland - 183
3) Brockport - 163
4) Oneonta - 65
5) Plattsburgh - 27
6) Buffalo St. - 26
7) Potsdam - 15.5
8) Oswego - 10
9) Fredonia - 9.5

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

First since I'm writing this on Sunday, let me wish a Happy Mother's Day especially to the mothers of our current and past team members, as well as the alumnae mothers out there!
 
We were fortunate to stay dry this weekend while competing at a great meet in a great facility, but I do wish they could have turned down the wind a little. It did make for a bit of a long weekend for us. The Lady Red Dragons showed continued improvement! I looked back against our results from last year, and was quite pleased to see a significant increase in our point total versus last year.  It's nice to have tangible measures of progress like that! We certainly had some highlights that don't necessarily show up the scoring table that should be acknowledged: Katherine McDowell scored in an event that is relatively new to her, as she changed from being a jumper to a 400 specialist at the beginning of this year, and earned her way into the finals to score. Lauren Anderson dropped a big PR in the 100 hurdles to make finals and narrowly miss all-conference honors!

Liz Spencer closed her career with two PRs – one in the shot put, and one in the javelin – which is certainly a great way to go out. Khalifah Tracey and Devin Reilly had great efforts in the 10k, which can be a long and lonely event on a Friday night. They showed a great deal of toughness to go out and compete that way to close out their seasons. And speaking of toughness, two other athletes should be highlighted: first, Abby McDowell was nearly the highest scorer for the team, earning spots in both the long jump and the triple jump. This comes after nearly two weeks of being unable to train due to an injury; she showed a great deal of confidence and focus to be able to go out and perform that way. Second, Rachel Castello took a pretty nasty fall into the water at the first jump – which is a little ironic since her hurdles and water jumps have been really strong this season! Any time your entire body is submerged in the steeplechase, things haven't gone very well. She didn't think twice to get up and finish in 4th overall!
 
For the men, keeping the second place team position from the indoor championships (which was a big improvement in the right direction since we were third last year) is quite a positive. We aren't satisfied, but we also want to recognize where things are going well! The men's team had a pretty horrific fall as well, as Brandon Root went down hard over the 10th hurdle in the 400 hurdles, but was able to get up to hold onto 6th place. Seeing Dane Sorensen returning to form following injury to earn the victory in the pole vault (and lead to a sweep of the all-conference spots in that event) was great! We had a number of spots where folks took chances to really do something special, which is what we wanted to go for. It's a good measure of where we are that we can do that and still have the strong team performance.

In particular, I'd like to point out three breakthrough performances that men had over the weekend. Freshman Nik Knobloch had his best or nearly his best performance in all 10 events of the decathlon over the weekend to earn team points. That's quite an achievement, made more exciting by the fact that he has only been with us since transferring into Cortland in January. Firstyear Roland Zanger earned 13 points across three events, but his most impressive breakthrough on the day was his long jump, where he jumped nearly 2 feet better than his best from his high school career twice at this meet. And 'Mean' Jean (-Andre) Sassine had a tremendous breakthrough in the triple jump, surpassing his previous best mark by over 2 feet to earn the runner-up position!
 
With graduation this weekend, it's important to congratulate these folks for completing their undergraduate degrees, and to thank them for their time, effort, and dedication to their teammates, the program, and the greater Red Dragon family:
 
Hunter Braun
Kat Burgess
Craig Denton
Michael Eubanks
Taylor Hunter
Nick LaRocque
John Nethercott
Clay Santiago
Courtney Schoepflin
Morgan Sharer
David Soto
Liz Spencer
Kitty Tang
Mike Verde
 
Congratulations to these folks on their achievements – it will be fun to be able to follow their lives, careers, and progress post-Cortland! I'd also like to note that Catie Lally and Cat Zamroz are finishing their career as Red Dragons as well (both competed as graduate students this year), and that Ryan Cory will be finished with track and field at Cortland this spring, since he will graduate in December of 2022 – a semester early!