CORTLAND, N.Y. – The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team won seven individual events plus both relays as it hosted the Red Dragon Open Saturday at the SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex.
 
Austin Garske (Rocky Point) won the 400-meter hurdles in 54.31 seconds, an All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying time that currently ranks 12th nationally in Division III and first in the SUNYAC. Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) placed first of 26 in the 400-meter dash in 48.34 seconds. The AARTFC effort is presently 18th nationally and first in the SUNYAC. The Red Dragons claimed the top four spots in the race, all with AARTFC times. Following Goring was Evan Jensen (Red Hook) in 49.18 seconds, Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) in 49.35 seconds and Douglas Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian) in 49.69 seconds.
 
Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) and Jean-Andre Sassine (Queens Village/The Lawrenceville School (NJ)) finished first and second in the triple jump with AARTFC efforts. Hughes covered 14.14 meters (46' 4.75"), which ranks 19th nationally, and Sassine hit a mark of 13.96 meters (45' 9.75"). Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) won the long jump in a field of 22 competitors at 6.72 meters (22' 0.75"), an AARTFC distance. Morse also was the top Division III finisher, and third overall, in the 110-meter hurdles with an AARTFC time of 14.68 seconds that ranks 16th nationally and first in the SUNYAC.
 
Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) won the discus in a field of 28 competitors at 41.67 meters (136' 8") and was second of 27 in the shot put at 14.76 meters (48' 5.25"), both AARTFC marks. Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) finished first of 26 in the hammer throw at 52.56 meters (172' 5"), also an AARTFC standard. Makowski finished third in the shot put (13.31 meters/43' 8").
 
Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) won the 100-meter dash among 33 competitors in 10.95 seconds. He also placed fourth in the 110-meter hurdles in 14.95 seconds, an AARTFC qualifying time.
 
Cortland had two 4x100-meter relay teams meet AARTFC standards. The combination of Knapp, Andrew O'Gorman (Melville/Half Hollow Hills East), Jensen and Goring won the event in 42.32 seconds and the foursome of Eddie Manente (Beacon), Gavalas, Aidan Garafola (Bayport/Bayport-Blue Point) and Matthew Schaffert (Lockport) finished second in 43.44 seconds. In the 4x400-meter relay, Brandon Root (Bellmore/John F. Kennedy), Rich Samuels (Wallkill), Muiz Bayewu (Lagos, Nigeria/Albany (NY)) and Garske won with an AARTFC time of 3:22.70. Aidan Aguirre (Hicksville), Nate Wilsoncroft (Horseheads), Justin Schrom (Richmondville/Cobleskill-Richmondville) and Oba Awolowo (Hauppauge) placed second in 3:24.82, missing the AARTFC mark by less than a second.
 
Root and Aguirre finished second (57.47) and third (57.78), respectively, in the 400-meter hurdles. Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) was second of 31 in the 800 meters (1:57.09), while Jakob Getchell (Windsor) and Daniel Patrick (Manlius/Fayetteville-Manlius) were second (10:21.86) and third (10:23.88), respectively, in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Manente was third of 35 in the 200-meter dash (22.64), Zach Nyhart finished third in the pole vault (4.45 meters/14' 7.25"), Hagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) placed third in the triple jump (13.03 meters/42' 9") and Erek Biddle (Fairport) was third in the javelin throw (47.74 meters/156' 7").
 
On Thursday and Friday, Cortland had two decathlon competitors at a meet hosted by Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania. Ryan Serp (Commack/Fayetteville-Manlius) finished sixth with 5,665 points and Nik Knobloch (New Paltz) was 11th with 5,028 points. Serp scored 792 points in the 110-meter hurdles (15.48), 784 points in the 100-meter dash (11.35) and 709 points in the 400-meter dash (52.37). Knobloch tallied 643 points in the 100 meters (12.04), 631 points in the 1,500 meters (4:47.97) and 615 points in the 400 meters (54.61).

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

It's hard to believe as I write these comments that the combined-event started in Susquehanna just three days ago, as it seems much further in the past than that! I'm very grateful that we had the opportunity as a program to allow our combined-event athletes to have an early-season decathlon, and am understandably quite pleased with the results. AnJalyna Talmadge had a number of strong individual event performances, and overall a strong performance in her first-ever heptathlon along with a really good learning experience. Both of the guys (Nik Knobloch and Ryan Serp) had fairly significant improvements to their overall best score as a result of what they accomplished over the two days, and both did very good work in terms of how they were mentally engaged and prepared for each event over the two days. It was certainly a great start to a long weekend!
 
Mother Nature was fairly kind to us on Saturday for our home opener. Having the chance to compete at home is always fun, and a pretty important part of how we run our program, but if you're reading this you know what the weather can be like in Central New York. I wouldn't describe today as perfect, but it was certainly pleasant and while the weather didn't help with any performances, it also didn't do very much to limit anything, which was really great!
 
The team had a number of great efforts on the day, so it's quite a challenge to pick a few stellar performances to highlight here. For this week, I'd like to focus on things that won't show up in any of the results online, and I'll start how exciting the women's 4x100 relay was, as the win was a dramatic come-from-behind run by Autumn Pittman to put the team under 50 seconds. The four legs ran great efforts, but we didn't have the cleanest handoffs and lost a lot of time as a result, so I'm very excited to see where that team can go with more time to practice! As long as we are on the subject of relays, Savannah Adami was asked at the last minute to step in as the anchor due to a teammate being able to run so that the other three ladies would be able to get their work in. Anybody who's been around the sport of track knows that being available for the 4x4 at the end of the meet is often an 'unwelcome gift' but Savannah was great about this unexpected challenge – something great to see as a coach – and then ran a very competitive leg, pushing right from the exchange to compete well with the team in front of us.
 
On the men's side, we had a fun opportunity to use the 4x100 relay as a chance to train, and it worked out to have a relay of returners versus a relay of firstyears. The biggest difference was the handoffs as the returners prevailed, but it's important to note that the firstyear team was able to drop a time – without the strongest exchanges – that was a qualifier for the regional championships! That's a pretty exciting indicator of our overall depth. I'll also highlight that Jakob Getchell, in the first steeplechase of his running career, took a nasty fall into the water pit, and not only got up, but still hit a very solid SUNYAC qualifying time!
 
We're looking forward to some warmer weather, and the opportunity to compete again at home and on the Road at Bucknell this upcoming weekend!