NEW YORK, N.Y - The Cortland men's indoor track and field team, ranked 13th nationally in Division III and third in the Niagara Region, finished in second place out of 42 schools that scored points at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Indoor Championships. The event was held Friday and Saturday at The Armory in Manhattan.
 
Geneseo won the team title with 72 points, followed by Cortland with 66 points and Rowan with 65.5 points. Brockport (52) and Ithaca (39) rounded out the top five.
 
Cortland earned three titles at the meet, led by the 4x400-meter relay team of Evan Jensen (Red Hook), Douglas Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian), Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) and Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) that set a meet record of 3:17.00. Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) won the 60-meter hurdles in 8.11 seconds and Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) won the triple jump with a distance of 14.81 meters (48' 7.25").
 
Jean-Andre Sassine (Queens Village/The Lawrenceville School (NJ)) finished second in the triple jump behind Hughes at 14.42 meters (47' 3.75"). Ryan Serp (Commack/Fayetteville-Manlius) placed second in the heptathlon with 4,508 points. That score included 827 points for a second-place time of 8.64 seconds in the 60-meter hurdles, 775 points for a winning time of 7.31 seconds in the 60-meter dash, and 702 points for a time of 2:56.21 in the 1,000 meters.
 
The 4x200-meter relay of Morse, Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech), Matthew Schaffert (Lockport) and Goring finished third in 1:28.62. Jones finished fourth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.23) and Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) was fourth in the pole vault (4.83 meters/15' 10"). Goring finished seventh in the 200-meter dash (22.06) and Jensen was seventh in the 400-meter dash (49.35).
 
The top eight individual finishers and the top three relays earn All-AARTFC honors.
 
Hagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) placed 10th in the long jump (6.55 meters/21' 6") and 13th in the triple jump (13.26 meters/43' 6"). Jensen was 14th (22.39), Gavalas finished 22nd (22.54) and Knapp was 26th (22.71) in the 200-meter dash, while Austin Garske (Rocky Point) was 14th (50.36), Gavalas 15th (50.38) and Knapp 34th (54.34) in the 400-meter dash. In the 800 meters, Clay Santiago (Bethpage) finished in 14th place (1:56.96) and Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) ended in 18th place (1:57.56).
 
Roland Zanger (Port Jervis) finished 14th in the high jump (1.85 meters/6' 0.75") and Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) was 16th in the shot put (13.88 meters/45' 6.5"). Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) finished 17th in the weight throw (15.90 meters/52' 2"), and in the 60-meter dash Schaffert finished 29th (7.17) and Zaire Higgins (Albany/Colonie) was 45th (7.29).
 
Cortland awaits the announcement of qualifiers for next weekend's NCAA Division III Championships, which be held at the Birmingham Crossplex in Birmingham, Ala., March 10-11. The final participant list will be posted on NCAA.com this Sunday, March 5, by 7 p.m. The top 20 in each individual event and the top 12 in each relay (4x400 and DMR) qualify for nationals. As of late Saturday night, Cortland athletes ranking in the national qualifying spots are:
 
Morse, tied 4th, 60-meter hurdles (8.08)
Dane Sorensen, tied 7th, Pole Vault (5.01 meters/16' 5.25")
Hughes, 7th, Triple Jump (14.81 meters/48' 7.25")
Goring, tied 10th, 400-meter dash (48.10)
Nyhart, tied 11th, Pole Vault (5.00 meters/16' 4.75")
4x400-meter relay (Jensen, Knapp, Gavalas, Goring), 12th (3:15.39 adjusted)
Brunache, 13th, Shot Put (16.31 meters/53' 6.25")
Sassine, tied 19th, Triple Jump (14.42 meters/47' 3.75")

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

I'm only going to provide some quick notes as I have to start with final preparations for travel for NCAAs. Obviously finishing as the runner-up on the men's side is a strong testament to how the team has been functioning over the year! Some notable performances – outside of the obvious wins and scoring performances – would be that Coltrane Goring's 200 broke into our all-time top 5 list, as did the 4 x 400 relay (of Evan Jensen, Douglas Knapp, Harrison Gavalas, and Goring), along with the 4 x 200 relay (of Brett Morse, Aaron Jones, Matthew Schaffert, and Goring). Triple jump was probably our strongest individual event on the day, as Amarian Hughes was able to move up a spot in our top-5 list with an improvement on his national mark, but Jean-Andre Sassine may have had the clutch performance of the day, as his best jump moved him up enough in the national rankings to probably be safe for entry into the national meet. His previous best is outside the top 20, so that was a huge performance to have!
 
Generally the Lady Red Dragons did a nice job of competing on the day; the highlight was probably Autumn Pittman, who had individual PRs in both the 60 meters and the 200 meters, and ran a great anchor leg on our 4 x 200. We saw a number of strong performances in a high-pressure situation, so I'm quite proud of how we showed up to compete over the two days. A lot of this was a positive learning experience to carry forward into the outdoor track and field season.
 
Entires are being submitted for next weekend's NCAA Championships in Birmingham, Alabama – we should have official notification on the accepted entries tomorrow afternoon!