ROCHESTER, N.Y. – The Cortland men's indoor track and field team finished third in the team standings and combined with Geneseo to give the SUNYAC the two-team title at the Nazareth College Conference Challenge Cup.
 
The meet featured 10 schools - two each from the SUNYAC (Cortland/Geneseo), Liberty League (Rochester/Ithaca), Empire 8 (Nazareth/St. John Fisher), Landmark (Susquehanna/Scranton) and MAC (Stevens/Misericordia). In the individual team standings, Geneseo finished first with 152 points, followed by Rochester (149.5), Cortland (111), Ithaca (73.5) and Susquehanna (45) in the top five. As conference duos, the SUNYAC won with 263 combined points, followed by the Liberty League (223), Landmark (52), MAC (50) and Empire 8 (49).
 
Cortland scored 70 of its 111 points as a result of three first-place and five second-place finishes - all with AARTFC qualifying performances. Evan Jensen (Red Hook) won the 400-meter dash (50.38), Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) won the mile run (4:21.78) and Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) captured the 60-meter hurdles (8.19).
 
Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) was second in both the shot put (14.61 meters/47' 11.25") and the weight throw (16.19 meters/43' 1.5"), Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) placed second in the triple jump (14.24 meters/46' 8.75") and Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) was second in the 400-meter dash (50.41). The combination of Jensen, Douglas Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian), Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) and Goring was runner-up in the 4x400-meter relay (3:22.30).
 
Cortland recorded seven other AARTFC qualifying efforts at the meet. Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) finished in a three-way tie for third in the pole vault (4.40 meters/14' 5.25"), Matthew Schaffert (Lockport) was fourth in the 60-meter dash (7.13), and Morse placed fourth in the 200-meter dash (22.57). Hunter Brignall (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy) finished fifth in the 3,000 meters (8:38.45), Jean-Andre Sassine (Queens Village/The Lawrenceville School (NJ)) was fifth in the triple jump (13.73 meters/45' 0.5"), Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) placed sixth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.58), and Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) was sixth in the weight throw (15.50 meters/50' 10.25").
 
Cortland's other scoring performances included: Roland Zanger (Port Jervis) in sixth place in the high jump (1.81 meters/5' 11.25"); Nick LaRocque (Millbrook) in sixth place in the shot put (13.27 meters/43' 6.5"); Schaffert in seventh place in the 200-meter dash (23.17); Makowski in seventh place in the shot put (13.15 meters/43' 1.75"); Knapp in eighth place in the 400-meter dash (51.64); and Alex Daniel (Warsaw) in eighth place in the triple jump (12.89 meters/42' 3.5").
 
Cortland will compete at the Ithaca Bomber Invitational next Saturday and Sunday.

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

After a long first week of classes and a hard segment of training, there's a lot to be happy about from some fairly tired Red Dragons.
 
This week, I'll probably emphasize where we are by group. For the throwers, the breakthrough performances would probably have come from Suzy Conners in the weight, and Nick LaRocque in the shot put. Both added significant distance to their PRs, and competed quite well in those events. Moving to the jumps, Danielle Fisk not only won the high jump competition, but had a significant PR in the long jump, while Becca Bready improved on her season's best in the pole vault with not only a strong clearance at 3.20 (10'6"), but also some great attempts at 3.35 (10' 11.75"), which is certainly exciting for only the third meet of her college career!
 
On the track for the sprints the highlights that might not show up as easily on the scoreboard would be Matthew Schaffert, who posted a big PR in the 200 after tying his PR in the 60; teammate Maris Seabury posted PRs in both her 200 and 400 efforts. It was nice that at the end of the day, six different women's team members posted season bests in the 200, with four posting college bests in the event!
 
In the distance events, I'd like to make mention of Tom Adamescu in his section of the 5000 meter race. Tom really led not only his group but also the entire race for a large potion of the event, and was narrowly outkicked over the final lap. Without his work up front, I'm not sure the rest of his teammates in the race would have posted results that were quite as strong, so we greatly appreciate how he took charge this morning.  Rachel Castello deserves similar recognition for her efforts in the 3000 meter race at the end of the day. She had to make a couple of hard decisions at points in the race to make some significant moves to stay connected to the race, or even to move to the front of the group. Rachel, like Tom, seemed to make just about all the right decisions out there today, and it benefited not only her, but also her team.
 
As we settle a bit more into the routine of being in classes again, we look forward to returning to Ithaca College this weekend.