STATEN ISLAND, N.Y., ROCHESTER, N.Y. and BOSTON, MASS. – The Cortland men's indoor track and field team sent competitors to three meets over the weekend, with some going to the Fasttrack National Invitational at Ocean Breeze in Staten Island Friday, some at the RIT Friday Meet #2 on Friday, and a handful of runners at Saturday's Boston University Valentine Invitational.
 
Cortland returns to action next Saturday, Feb. 18, at the Cornell Deneault Invitational.
 
Boston University recap:
 
Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) and Evan Jensen (Red Hook) each reached the top 30 on the Division III national charts and the top three on Cortland's all-time performance charts with their efforts in the 400-meter dash. Goring finished 17th out of 246 runners in 48.10 seconds, which currently ranks fifth nationally and second on the Cortland performance chart, and Jensen was 37th in 48.59 seconds, which is 26th nationally and third on the Cortland list.
 
Two other Red Dragons hit All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying marks in the 400 in addition to Goring and Jensen. Douglas Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian) was 71st in 49.39 seconds and Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) placed 86th in 49.66 seconds. The combo of Jensen, Knapp, Gavalas and Goring finished 21st in the 4x400-meter relay with an AARTFC time of 3:19.88.
 
Hunter Brignall (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy) moved into second place on Cortland's performance list in the 3,000 meters with an AARTFC time of 8:27.68. Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) posted an AARTFC time of 4:19.16 in the mile run.
 
Austin Garske (Rocky Point) finished 157th in the 400 meters (51.06) and 175th in the 200 meters (23.18). Oba Awolowo (Hauppauge) was 163rd in the 400 (51.19) and 205th in the 200 (23.39), while Brandon Root (Bellmore/John F. Kennedy) was 177th in the 400 (51.53) and 211th in the 200 (23.46).
 
RIT recap:
 
The top highlights for Cortland at RIT came in the triple jump. Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) finished second out of 24 with a distance of 14.78 meters (48' 6") that currently ranks sixth nationally and places him fourth on Cortland's all-time performance list. Jean-Andre Sassine (Queens Village/The Lawrenceville School (NJ)) placed fourth at 14.24 meters (46' 8.75"), which ranks 22nd nationally, and Hagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) was seventh at 13.73 meters (45' 0.5"). All three of those performance were AARTFC qualifiers.
 
Cortland's other AARTFC qualifier at the meet came from Ryan Serp (Commack/Fayetteville-Manlius), who won the 60-meter hurdles in a field of 17 competitors in 8.52 seconds.
 
Hughes finished 10th of 46 in the long jump with a leap of 6.37 meters (20' 10.75"). Serp was 11th (6.35 meters/20' 10"), followed by Sesay in 12th (6.33 meters/20' 9.25") and Roland Zanger (Port Jervis) in 13th (6.32 meters/20' 9"). Zanger also finished ninth in the 60-meter hurdles (9.34).
 
Justin Schrom (Richmondville/Cobleskill-Richmondville) placed eighth of 48 in the 200-meter dash in 23.79 seconds. Kevin Andreski (Guilderland) was 15th (24.32) and Muiz Bayewu (Lagos, Nigeria/Albany (NY)) finished 16th (24.37). Bayewu was fifth of 26 in the 400-meter dash (52.94), followed by Schrom in eighth (53.67), and Ben Zinger (Liverpool) finished 12th of 25 in the 5,000 meters (16:30.14).
 
Fasttrack National Invitational recap:
 
Cortland posted four AARTFC marks in Staten Island, including two by Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union). Brunache was seventh of 56 overall, and the top Division III finisher, in the weight throw at 16.78 meters (55' 0.75") and was 14th of 61 in the shot put at 14.51 meters (47' 7.25"). In the 60-meter hurdles, Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) was the lone Division III athlete to qualify for the finals and finished sixth in 8.19 seconds, while Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) finished 15th in 8.55 seconds.
 
Morse also finished 16th overall, and fifth among Division III athletes, in a field of 99 in the 200-meter dash in 22.52 seconds. Jones was 19th in 22.58 seconds and Matthew Schaffert (Lockport) was 28th in 22.84 seconds.
 
In addition to Brunache, three other Red Dragons finished in the top half of the field in the weight throw. Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) placed 17th (14.85 meters/48' 8.75"), Nick Kaires (St. James/Smithtown East) was 20th (14.59 meters/47' 10.5") and Tommy Burek (Latham/Shaker) finished 27th (13.83 meters/45' 4.5"). Nick LaRocque (Millbrook) finished 21st in the shot put at 13.71 meters (44' 11.75").
 
Among a field of 84 runners in the 800 meters, Clay Santiago (Bethpage) finished 17th in 1:58.15, Nate Wilsoncroft (Horseheads) was 22nd in 1:59.51 and Michael Alvarez (New Windsor/Newburgh Free Academy) finished 28th in 2:01.07. Harry Tomasi (Port Jervis) was 13th of 42 in the 5,000 meters in 15:24.65.

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

There's a lot to talk about!
 
To start with the Fasttrack National Invite at Ocean Breeze, we had a number of good competitive opportunities. I won't say that we took advantage of them all as fully as we could have, but we did show up to compete and make the effort to do the right thing. Sometimes that's a part of the learning process, and why it is important for us to get to these 'bigger' meets like this.
 
Some highlights from the Ocean Breeze meet would have to be the women's pole, as we saw strong performances especially in terms of taking good attempts from Kimmy Arena and Becca Bready, but Faith Hoyt was the real standout! Faith started the meet at a height higher than she has ever cleared in competition – which was a chance to bring her but both myself and Coach Peter McGinnis thought was the right decision – and she ended up clearing it fairly easily for new PR! Also in the field, Megan Spencer had a PR in the weight throw – not only rising the the occasion of the meet, but also taking the #5 All-Time spot at Cortland in the process!  "Big" Nick LaRocque had his 4th PR in as many weeks in the shot put, improving around three feet over that time, while "Little" Nick Kaires matched his PR in the weight throw, and looks ready to push out a big throw sometime soon.
 
On the track, Harry Tomasi completed his first 5k of the season in strong fashion, with a big indoor PR and nearly a lifetime best, while fellow long-distance runner RJ Davis nearly matched his indoor PR in the same event. The Lady Red Dragons in the 3000 came through in pretty stellar fashion, as all five ladies (Rachel Castello, Khalifah Tracey, Adrienne Martin, Sydney Smith, and Devin Reilly) raced very tough to post new PRs! Travis Iwuagwu had a great day, with a PR and a victory in the 'collegiate' section of the 60HH, as well as returning to the track hours later to win his heat of the 200 in a new PR. Last, but certainly not least, Liz Liriano returned off last weekend's great efforts with a new PR in the 200 – taking the #5 All-Time spot at Cortland – but also with a new PR in the 400, cracking the 60-second barrier.
 
The meet at RIT had some wonderful performances as well – and it was a long day, as the meet didn't actually end until after midnight! On the track, Ryan Serp came off his heptathlon last weekend to run a new PR (and take the win) in the 60HH. Both Gianna Motto (60/200) and Helena Trackey (200/400) had earned new PRs in both of their events, which is certainly a nice achievement. Distance runner Deirdre Sullivan had a very strong performance in the 5k, to drop her PR by a significant amount, in what was a very tough effort. In the field events, seven Red Dragon men and four Red Dragon women had season bests (with some PRs out of this group as well), but the real place where the team excelled was in the triple jump. Firstyear Caitlin Maher improved on her team-leading best jump, and did it in the very last event of the day. Alex Daniel had one of his furthest jumps ever, including his second-longest indoors ever. Hagie Sesay posted a significant PR. Jean Sassine posted a big indoor PR to move him well up the national rankings, in what was the second-longest jump of his career. Four of his jumps were over the `4-meter mark, which is a good benchmark for high performance in the event. But Amarian Hughes clearly stole the show posting a big PR that moves him up into 5th in the country right now, along with 4th All-Time at Cortland! What's great here is that like Jean, he did it more than once, as his first jump was nearly as long, and had that been his best on the day, he would be in the same spot on the list.

For the men at Boston University, we started off the meet right in the 400! Seven of the guys ran a lifetime beat in the 400. Not just for indoor track, but for the distance. Considering how much slower the event is indoors with the tight turns, it was a great! Having Coltrane Goring earn the #2 All-Time spot at Cortland with Evan Jensen taking over the #3 spot was certainly pretty special. We also closed out the night in pretty stellar fashion as Hunter Brignall ran a tough 3k that was not only a big PR but also a 2nd best performance ever at Cortland!