SHIPPENSBURG, PA. and CORTLAND, N.Y. – In its final tune-up meets before the SUNYAC Championships, the Cortland men's outdoor track and field teams sent competitors to the Shippensburg University Paul Kaiser Classic on Saturday and hosted the Cortland Qualifier meet on Sunday.
 
Shippensburg Highlights:
 
Cortland recorded a total of 23 performances that met All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) standards, including four victories. All of the performances mentioned in this section below are AARTFC qualifiers.
 
Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) was first of 27 in the 110-meter hurdles in 14.33 seconds, followed by Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) in third in 14.57 seconds. Austin Garske (Rocky Point) placed first of 27 in the 400-meter hurdles in 53.91 seconds, while Brandon Root (Bellmore/John F. Kennedy) was ninth in 56.97 seconds.
 
Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) helped Cortland claim four of the top five spots out of 59 competitors in the 400-meter dash. He won in 48.51 seconds, Douglas Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian) was second in 49.00 seconds, Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) was fourth in 49.43 seconds and Evan Jensen (Red Hook) placed fifth in 49.84 seconds. In the triple jump, Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) was first of 26 with a distance of 14.49 meters (47' 6.5"). Jean-Andre Sassine (Queens Village/The Lawrenceville School (NJ)) was fourth (14.10 meters/46' 3.25") and Hagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) finished ninth (13.73 meters/45' 0.5").
 
Rich Samuels (Wallkill) finished second out of 69 runners in the 800 meters in 1:52.87, followed by Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) in sixth (1:54.20) and Clayton Santiago (Bethpage) in eighth (1:54.40). In the 200-meter dash, Jones was third of 75 in 22.21 seconds. Gavalas and Goring were each clocked at 22.24 seconds, with Gavalas officially placing fourth and Goring fifth. The 4x100-meter relay team of Eddie Manente (Beacon), Andrew O'Gorman (Melville/Half Hollow Hills East), Gavalas and Matthew Schaffert (Lockport) finished fourth in 43.02 seconds.
 
Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) registered a third-place finish out of 55 competitors in the shot put (15.38 meters/50' 5.5") and was sixth of 52 in the discus (44.90 meters/147' 4"). Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) was fourth of 45 in the hammer throw (53.50 meters/175' 6"), and in the 1,500-meter run Hunter Brignall (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy) was sixth (3:59.41) and Harry Tomasi (Port Jervis) was eighth (4:00.89) in a field of 43 runners.
 
Cortland Highlights:
 
Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) won the pole vault during Sunday's meet with a height of 4.91 meters (16' 1.25"), an AARTFC qualifier. Zaire Higgins (Albany/Colonie) won both the 100-meter dash (11.20) and 200-meter dash (23.53), Nate Wilsoncroft (Horseheads) was the 400-meter dash victor (50.56), and Rob Davidson (Setauket/Ward Melville) won the 10,000 meters (33:20.32).
 
Josh Koeppe (Bridgeport/Cicero-North Syracuse) was the winner in the 3,000-meter steeplechase (10:11.53) and Alex Daniel (Warsaw) won the triple jump (13.14 meters/43' 1.5"). Runner-up finishers included Josh Geschwind (Dix Hills/Commack) in the 200-meter dash (23.73), Aidan Aguirre (Hicksville) in the 400-meter dash (51.76), Tom Adamescu (Canandaigua/Canandaigua Academy) in the 10,000 meters (33:58.76), Andrew Farnsworth (Rotterdam/Mohonasen) in the high jump (1.78 meters/5' 10") and Tommy Burek (Latham/Shaker) in the discus (37.85 meters/124' 2").

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

It was another exciting weekend for Cortland Track and Field, as we were able to both travel to Shippensburg to chase good weather and good competition, and still have strong opportunities to compete at home on Sunday. It's great to have that balance to provide good chances for a program of our size to be able to compete.
 
The meet at Shippensburg provided some good learning opportunities, and a chance to see some competition we don't normally get to. That can be quite helpful in a number of ways, and certainly Autumn Pittman took advantage of that with stellar performances in both the 100 and 200; in the 100 she is now up to the #3 spot all-time at Cortland! The women's 800 crew of Savannah Adami, Marlee Angus, and Kristin Ieva had a great day of racing, especially from Savannah who posted a big PR that puts her into the conference meet. Both ladies in the 400 (Avery Hebert and Maris Seabury) posted strong PRs today in a very exciting fashion, as did Yasmine Peralta in the 400 hurdles. Last but not least Megan Spencer's PR in the shot put also moved her up to be a conference competitor this upcoming weekend.
 
We had a number of strong performances on the men's side at Shippensburg, but the men's distance crew probable shined brightest. Eleven men (Muiz Bayewu, Hunter Brignall, RJ Davis, Jakob Getchell, Marc Lucasey, Matthew Mullen, Rich Samuels, Clayton Santiago, Adam Schreiber, Cameron Szabo, and Harry Tomasi) ran, and eleven men set new college PRs. That's a pretty good feat to have at a meet, especially as we move towards the SUNYAC conference. The strongest aspect on the day was the way those guys competed and responded to what they needed to do during their races. I don't want to forget that Deontae Bennett posted a nice season's best in the 100 to move into the conference meet, and that Douglas Knapp ran a great PR in the open 400!
 
The Cortland Qualifier on Sunday was pretty rainy, and not the warmest meet I've ever been to. It wasn't the coldest, but at the end of the day, it felt pretty close. While I will often use the coach's corner to point out the performances that won't always show up in the 'box score' I think on a day when the weather is uncooperative I definitely want to highlight people that showed a great deal of toughness and determination when competing, even if it seems obvious through an event win. To that end on the track we had definite highlights from Zaire Higgins and Julia Ross in the 100, AnJalyna Talmadge in both the 100HH and the long jump, Alex Daniel in the triple jump, Nate Wilsoncroft in the 400, Josh Koeppe in the steeplechase, Rob Davidson in the 10k, Nick LaRocque, Travis Firkins, and Suzy Conners in the hammer throw, Tommy Burek in the discus throw, Hannah Preble in the javelin, and our pole vault squad (in particular Kimmy Arena, Faith Hoyt, and Zach Nyhart), although they did get to enjoy the benefit of 'hiding' in our indoor facility. I'd also like to make special mention of Tom Adamescu for the role he played in the 10,000 today. After not feeling great last weekend, we decided to take a shot this Sunday to see if he could hit a time to get into the conference meet, as well as to help lead his team through a time for others to have a shot. Well it didn't work out perfectly for Tom, the work he did pacing the race was tremendous, and created the opportunity for Robby to put down the time he did to gain entrance to the meet. Track isn't often a sport where a teammate can assist another in this way, and it was a pretty fantastic thing to be a part of!
 
As our regular season ends, we are looking forward to the short trip over to Oneonta this weekend for the 2023 SUNYAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships.