ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cortland men's indoor track and field team finished in third place at a quad meet hosted by Ithaca College.
 
TCNJ won the team title with 60 points, followed by Ithaca with 48, Cortland with 39 and Oneonta with 17. First place finishes earned five points, followed by three points for second, two points for third, and one point for fourth (except for relays).
 
The Red Dragons registered three event wins during the meet. Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) won the 60-meter hurdles in 8.12 seconds, which currently ranks fourth nationally in Division III. Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) won the triple jump at 14.49 meters (47' 6.5") and Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) won the weight throw with a distance of 16.70 meters (54' 9.5"). All three performances were AARTFC qualifiers.
 
Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) was second in the 200-meter dash with an AARTFC time of 22.51 seconds. Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) placed second in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.25 seconds, ranked 13th nationally and an AARTFC qualifier. Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) also hit an AARTFC mark with his runner-up pole vault of 4.70 meters (15' 5"). Cortland also earned second-place points from Alex Daniel (Warsaw) in the triple jump (13.00 meters/42' 8") and from Evan Jensen (Red Hook), Douglas Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian), Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) and Goring in the 4x400-meter relay. Their AARTFC time of 3:21.98 currently ranks 11th nationally.
 
Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) and Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) hit AARTFC marks with their third-place efforts in the 800 meters (1:58.21) and weight throw (15.65 meters/51' 4.25"), respectively. Jensen hit the AARTFC standard with his fourth-place 200-meter dash time of 22.76 seconds. Three other Red Dragons posted AARTFC marks despite finishing outside of the top four. Matthew Schaffert (Lockport) and Zaire Higgins (Albany/Colonie) were fifth (7.13) and sixth (7.15), respectively, in the 60-meter dash, and Ryan Serp (Commack/Fayetteville-Manlius) placed fifth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.67).
 
Other Cortland scorers at the meet included Austin Garske (Rocky Point) and Brandon Root (Bellmore/John F. Kennedy), who were third (52.30) and fourth (52.40), respectively, in the 400-meter dash, and Roland Zanger (Port Jervis), who placed fourth in the high jump at 1.81 meters (5' 11.25"). The combination of Garske, Aidan Aguirre (Hicksville), Aidan Garafola (Bayport/Bayport-Blue Point) and Jones was third in the 4x400-meter relay in 3:31.05 but didn't score since Cortland earned second-place points in the event with another relay unit.
 
Cortland returns to action next Saturday at the Nazareth College Conference Challenge Cup.

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

What a fun day! It was great to be able to have a close (and relatively short) meet to attend right before classes begin. Often the low-key environment of the smaller meet does wonders for us.
 
For close to half of the team, today was their first competition of the spring semester, so there was a lot of 'rust' that we needed to get rid of. It can be frustrating to have performances that are 'behind' the ones from December, but when you remember that the meets in December are ones we really 'peak' for, and this meet was certainly not one that we peaked for, it helps keep things in perspective.
 
With that being said, we certainly had some stellar performances today! In the throws Nick LaRocque and Hannah McMasters had breakthroughs, while Nick Kaires and Jen Ndukwu had significant improvements in the weight throw. I'm starting to think that we need to recruit more guys named Nick! In the vertical jumps, Zach Nyhart had a stellar day with some of the best jumps I've ever seen him take, so we're thrilled about the progress there; Danielle Fisk posted an indoor PR to demonstrate really good progress in the event, and take over sole possession of the 4th-best performance ever at Cortland.
 
For the most part the distance squad posted some very nice efforts. In both the 800 and the mile, we were looking for a smooth and controlled start, and some specific goals for finishing really hard. This worked out quite well especially in the men's 800 where three guys dipped under the 2-minute mark; in the women's mile Sydney Smith not only ran a big personal best while working on this strategy, but she also earned the win, which was a first for her in her collegiate career!
 
Of course it would be a little silly to not mention Brett Morse, who ran a big PR to move well up the national rankings and into the #3 all-time spot at Cortland for the 60 high hurdles, but I'm more impressed with the day that his classmate Aaron Jones had. Aaron, coming back from an injury that limited his ability to hurdle in the fall and using a new step-pattern to the first hurdle finished in the finals with a very good time of 8.25 in the 60 high hurdles. I was surprised to discover that this ties his 3rd-best mark ever. Additionally, Aaron requested to run a leg on the 4x4 relay, and dropped one of the fastest splits we had on the day!
 
It will be good to return to some level of 'normal' as classes resume on Monday; next weekend we head to the Golisano Center at Nazareth College for the Conference Cup, which has been a very enjoyable meet in the past.