CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team recorded eight national top-25 and numerous All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) performances, highlighted by Amarian Hughes' (Newburgh/Marlboro) school record in the triple jump, as the Red Dragons hosted the Cortland Classic on Friday and Saturday. Hughes won the triple jump with a distance of 15.19 meters (49' 10") that ranks second nationally in Division III as of Saturday evening. He broke a 40-year-old school record in the event; the previous Cortland best was 15.13 meters (49' 7.75") by Mark Therrien in 1983.
 
Jean-Andre Sassine (Queens Village/The Lawrenceville School (NJ)) finished second behind Hughes in the triple jump with an effort of 14.57 meters (47' 9.75"), which ranks 15th nationally. Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) was victorious in the pole vault at 4.95 meters (16' 2.75"), which is tied for fourth nationally. Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) won the 110-meter hurdles in 14.36 seconds, with a prelim time of 14.31 seconds that is tied for sixth nationally and first in the SUNYAC. He also won the long jump in a field of 32 competitors with a leap of 7.12 meters (23' 4.5") that is tied for 25th nationally. Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles in 14.72 seconds, and his prelim time of 14.56 seconds is 16th nationally and second in the SUNYAC.
 
Two separate Red Dragon 4x400-meter relay teams posted times that rank in the top 20 nationally. Jones, Austin Garske (Rocky Point), Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) and Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) won the event in 3:14.35, which ranks seventh in Division III, while Douglas Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian), Rich Samuels (Wallkill), Andrew O'Gorman (Melville/Half Hollow Hills East) and Aidan Aguirre (Hicksville) placed second in 3:17.48, which is 20th on the national charts.
 
Samuels finished first of 47 in the 800 meters in 1:56.15. Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) won the hammer throw in a field of 24 athletes at 54.62 meters (179' 2"). Goring was second of 57 in the 200-meter dash (21.68) and Morse finished in fifth place (21.94), and Goring also placed second in the 400-meter dash (49.56). Matthew Schaffert (Lockport) was second of 21 in the 100-meter dash in 10.91 seconds, followed by Gavalas in third in 10.99 seconds. Schaffert placed third in the long jump at 6.93 meters (22' 9"), with Hughes in fifth (6.84 meters/22' 5.25") and Hagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) in sixth (6.77 meters/22' 2.5"). Garske was third in the 400-meter hurdles (55.37). in the 200-meter dash, Jones was sixth (21.96), Schaffert placed eighth (22.01) and Gavalas finished ninth (22.11).
 
Nick Kaires (St. James/Smithtown East) was second of 35 in the discus at 43.59 meters (143' 0") and Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) was seventh at 41.77 meters (137' 0"). Erek Biddle (Fairport) finished fourth of 24 in the javelin throw with a toss of 51.98 meters (170' 6"), and the 4x400-meter relay team of Nate Wilsoncroft (Horseheads), Justin Schrom (Richmondville/Cobleskill-Richmondville), Muiz Bayewu (Lagos, Nigeria/Albany (NY)) and Brandon Root (Bellmore/John F. Kennedy) was fourth in 3:20.70.
 
All of the above performances were AARTFC qualifiers, as was Ryan Serp's (Commack/Fayetteville-Manlius) winning score of 5,742 points in the decathlon. He finished first in five of the decathlon's 10 events: the 100-meter dash (11.22 seconds, 812 pts.), 110-meter hurdles (15.45 seconds, 796 pts.), high jump (1.89 meters/6' 2.5", 705 pts.), 1,500 meters (4:53.62, 597 pts.) and pole vault (3.40 meters/11' 1.75", 457 pts.).
 
Other top-two finishes at the meet included: Hunter Brignall (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy) winning the 5,000 meters (15:29.20), followed by Harry Tomasi (Port Jervis) in second (15:35.47); Wilsoncroft finishing second in the 800 meters (1:57.04); and Nik Knobloch (New Paltz) placing second in the decathlon (5,041 points).

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

There's a lot to process from this weekend.
 
First, we'd like to thank the Cortland Stars for coming out and participating today. Seeing the Special Olympians coming out to compete in the 50m dash, the softball throw, the long jump, and the 100m relay was pretty inspiring! Thanks also to the folks from the Cortland Special Olympics Club, the volleyball team, and the women's ice hockey team for making this event happen.
 
Second, I'd like to commend our team for their resiliency over the weekend. Hosting the two day meet is a long affair, and we had to postpone that final events of Friday evening to Saturday morning. This is a challenge for those athletes, but also for all of the folks that are taking a shift working the meet. Saturday's conditions were nice in terms of temperature and sun, but windy – so windy that we had to move a couple events indoors in order to safely run them – and we certainly passed that test quite well! We preach focusing on what is under out control, and although the wind certainly impacted our performance, I didn't see many instances where it impacted our effort.

We had some exceptional performances over the weekend! I feel fortunate to have another one of those weekends where there are too many exceptional performances to note each one. Briefly, the trio of firstyears in the men's 100 (Harrison Gavalas, Eddie Manente, and Matthew Schaffert) were exceptional. Seeing Brett Morse and Aaron Jones hit some stellar times (and new PRs) in the high hurdles was pretty awesome. Paul Tommolino continued to impress with a strong showing in the 5k, and probably locked up his status as the leader for most improved of the firstyear men. RJ Davis ran a very tough 10k, focused on pacing his teammates early and emphasizing how to close strongly over the final 4000 meters of the race. We saw a LOT of improvement in the men's discus throw and the men's javelin throw and had a pretty dominant night in the 4x400 relay on Friday – with teams running 3:14.35, #2 on our all-time list, 3:17.48, and 3:20.70 in the same race! It was a pretty awesome thing to see! Zach Nyhart setting an outdoor PR in the pole vault to move up the NCAA, was pretty exceptional as well, but the new school record  by Amarian Hughes in the triple jump – taking down one of the oldest school records on the books – was pretty cool to see. Amarian led a stellar night for the horizontal jumps, with the men just soaring over the weekend!
 
The Lady Red Dragons were not to be outdone, as they also posted some exceptional efforts over the conditions. I'm quite pleased with how well the distance races went for the ladies on Friday night, as we had a number of folks that executed the race plans wonderfully and walked away with very strong results. I'll especially highlight our steeple people who competed with a lot of heart to sweep the top four spots in the race, Sydney Smith for a huge PR in the 5k (and the win) and Cherise Mack with another huge PR in the 5k,  and a crew that ran quite tough in the 1500 highlighted by Andie Rice finished quite strong to set a new PR! We saw a lot of positive progress in the throws, probably led by firstyear Megan Spencer who posted new PRs in both the hammer throw and the discus throw As with the men, the ladies saw some strong success in the horizontal jumps, as Caitlin Maher posted big jumps to move up her PR by a significant amount, but also some great depth of performances in the long jump by Alyssa LaBelle, Maher, and Regan Kaiser. Our 'short sprints' had a great weekend, led by LaBelle, Autumn Pittman, and Kendall Sobczyk. We had some exciting runs over the weekend that are very encouraging for what we can do as a team!
 
But despite all that, our senior recognition both at the meet and at an informal event later that evening were probably the highlight of the weekend. It's truly an honor to have worked with these folks over their time with the program, and seeing the support and respect from their teammates was a wonderful way to close out the weekend for us.

We have a busy final week of the 'regular' season, with meets at home on Tuesday and Sunday, as well as travelling with some of the squad to Shippensburg University for the Paul Kaiser Classic on Saturday.