ONEONTA, N.Y - The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team earned 14 individual and two relay All-SUNYAC honors, including seven league titles, on the way to a second-place team finish at the SUNYAC Championships, hosted by SUNY Oneonta Friday and Saturday. 
 
Cortland finished with 215.5 points, an improvement of 32.5 points from last season. Geneseo won the league crown with 239 points, followed by Cortland, Brockport (114), Oneonta (91), Buffalo State (76.5), Plattsburgh (29), Fredonia (27), Potsdam (15) and Oswego (11). 
 
Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) highlighted Cortland's performances with a school record in the pole vault. He won the event with a height of 5.07 meters (16' 7.5"), breaking the previous school outdoor mark of 5.06 meters (16' 7.25") set by Jake Zanetti in 2009 when he won the NCAA Division III title. Nyhart's effort also tied the SUNYAC championship meet record and as of Saturday evening ranks fifth nationally in Division III. 
 
Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) won the shot put at 16.26 meters (53' 4.25") and was third in the hammer throw at 50.04 meters (164' 2"). The combination of Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs), Harrison Gavalas (Southampton), Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) and Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) won the 4x100-meter relay (41.62). Morse also won the 110-meter hurdles in 14.53 seconds, tying the meet record. 
 
Jones was second in both the 200-meter dash (22.17, 22.06 prelims) and 110-meter hurdles (14.77) and Goring was second in the 400-meter dash (47.95) and third in the 200-meter dash (22.17, 21.87 prelims). 
 
Rich Samuels (Wallkill) won the 800 meters (1:51.92), Austin Garske (Rocky Point) was the league champ in the 400-meter hurdles (53.53) and Ryan Serp (Commack/Fayetteville-Manlius) captured the league crown in the decathlon (5,709 points). Serp's decathlon score included 786 points in the 100-meter dash (11.34), 744 points in the 110-meter hurdles (15.90) and 715 points in the 400-meter dash (52.22). 
 
Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) was second in the triple jump (14.81 meters/48' 7.25") and the 4x400-meter relay unit of Douglas Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian), Garske, Evan Jensen (Red Hook) and Samuels finished second in 3:16.05. Dane Sorensen (Warwick/Warwick Valley) placed third in the pole vault (4.70 meters/15' 5") and Ryan Joule (Staten Island/Susan B. Wagner) was third in the javelin throw (49.77 meters/163' 3"). 
 
The top three finishers in each event earn All-SUNYAC honors – winners are first team, runners-up are second team and third-place finishers are third team, with their official all-league designation from the conference based on their best placement. 
 
Joule was one of three athletes, along with two from Plattsburgh, to be awarded the SUNYAC's Elite 20 Award, which goes to the student-athlete at each of the league's championship finals sites with the highest cumulative GPA. Joule is a sophomore exercise science major who entered the spring semester with a 4.0 GPA.

Numerous Cortland performances in addition to those above ranked in the top eight to score points at the meet. Those performances included: 
 
4th place: 
Andrew Farnsworth (Rotterdam/Mohonasen), High Jump, 1.85 meters (6' 0.75") 
Hagie Sesay (Buffalo/Hutch Tech), Long Jump, 6.89 meters (22' 7.25") 
Sesay, Triple Jump, 14.31 meters (46' 11.5") 
Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas), Shot Put, 13.91 meters (45' 7.75") 
Brunache, Discus, 41.45 meters (136' 0") 
Knapp, Javelin Throw, 49.75 meters (163' 2") 
 
5th place: 
Brandon Root (Bellmore/John F. Kennedy), 400-meter hurdles, 57.08, 56.69 prelims 
Hunter Brignall (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy), 3,000-meter steeplechase, 9:39.72 
Morse, Long Jump, 6.80 meters (22' 3.75") 
Jean-Andre Sassine (Queens Village/The Lawrenceville School (NJ)), Triple Jump, 14.07 meters (46' 2") 
 
6th place: 
Matthew Schaffert (Lockport), 100-meter dash, 11.02, 10.96 prelims 
Gavalas, 200-meter dash, 22.31, 22.00 prelims 
Jensen, 400-meter dash, 49.19 
Nate Wilsoncroft (Horseheads), 800 meters, 1:54.70, 1:53.49 prelims 
Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy), 1,500 meters, 3:56.79 
Hughes, Long Jump, 6.79 meters (22' 3.5") 
Nik Knobloch (New Paltz), Decathlon, 5,199 pts. (679 pts., 1,500m, 4:40.16; 665 pts., 400m, 53.39) 
 
7th place: 
Morse, 200-meter dash, 22.36, 22.23 prelims 
Knapp, 400-meter dash, 49.44, 49.30 prelims 
Jakob Getchell (Windsor), 3,000-meter steeplechase, 9:50.13 
Nick LaRocque (Millbrook), Discus, 39.05 meters (128' 1") 
Tommy Martin (Middletown, NJ/Middletown South), Javelin Throw, 46.75 meters (153' 4") 
(tied) Roland Zanger (Port Jervis), High Jump, 1.80 meters (5' 10.75") 
 
8th place: 
Gavalas, 400-meter dash, 49.60, 49.01 prelims 
Harry Tomasi (Port Jervis), 1,500 meters, 4:01.06 
Zanger, Long Jump, 6.51 meters (21' 4.25")

 
Cortland will potentially compete at "Last Chance" meets next Saturday as well as at Swarthmore on Monday, May 15, and the Red Dragons will be at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Outdoor Championships May 18-19 at Susquehanna University. Cortland's AARTFC qualifiers during the SUNYAC Championships were: 
 
Brignall, 3,000-meter steeplechase 
Brunache, Shot Put, Hammer Throw 
RJ Davis (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse), 9th place, 10,000 meters (32:32.00) 
Garske, 400-meter hurdles 
Gavalas, 200-meter dash, 400-meter dash 
Getchell, 3,000-meter steeplechase 
Goring, 200-meter dash, 400-meter dash 
Hughes, Triple Jump, Long Jump 
Jensen, 400-meter dash 
Jones, 200-meter dash, 110-meter hurdles 
Knapp, 400-meter dash 
Knobloch, Decathlon 
Morse, 110-meter hurdles, Long Jump, 200-meter dash 
Nyhart, Pole Vault 
Root, 400-meter hurdles 
Samuels, 800 meters 
Clayton Santiago (Bethpage), 10th place, 800 meters (1:55.67) 
Sassine, Triple Jump 
Schaffert, 100-meter dash, 200-meter dash (11th place, 22.34) 
Serp, Decathlon 
Sesay, Long Jump, Triple Jump 
Sorensen, Pole Vault 
Szabo, 1,500 meters 
Tomasi, 1,500 meters 
Wilsoncroft, 800 meters 
4x100-meter relay 
4x400-meter relay


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

This is always a bittersweet weekend for me as a coach, since it is the end of the season for so many on the team, as well as the end of a collegiate career for many of our seniors! To think that the folks who are at the end of the fourth year didn't have an outdoor track and field season during their first year makes their accomplishments all the more remarkable.
 
While we want to celebrate our event winners, two new school records, and a co-performer of the meet (Autumn Pittman) as well as a co-Elite 20 winner (Ryan Joule), we also want to make sure to celebrate all of the 'unsung heros' that had tremendous performances today.
 
For the Lady Red Dragons, the 1-2-3 sweep in the 100 (by Autumn Pittman, Kendall Sobczyk, and Alyssa LaBelle) was a pretty cool sight to see! You don't get a lot of results like that over a coaching career, so that will be a pretty fun memory! The distance squad on the women's side did incredibly well – nearly everybody ran a PR over the weekend, or at least a season's best. Only one runner didn't, and she ran a gutsy race to get herself into scoring position, which is certainly a strong move.
 
The women's 400 hurdle squad certainly ran well, as all four ladies posted PRs over the weekend; three of that squad came back to pair with Maris Seabury (who had a huge 200 PR on Friday) to run a strong season's best in the 4x400 relay. In the throws, firstyears Jennifer Ndukwu and Megan Spencer had big PRs in shot put, while classmate Hannah McMasters finished her season with a new PR in the hammer throw.
 
The tangible progress that we saw across the team – across all the events – is really encouraging for us! A year ago we were over 100 points behind 2nd place; today we narrowed the margin to only 34 points. Today we earned conference championships in four different events; a year ago we had none. This team has put in a great deal of work, and they've earned the successes so far. It's very exciting to think about what our future holds moving forward!
 
On the men's side, there are also so many positives to identify! Hagie Sesay had a great weekend in both the long jump and also the triple jump, where he has moved himself up into contention on the national list with a huge jump! Aaron Jones put together a great weekend with strong runs in the 200, the high hurdles, and anchoring our 4x100 relay to victory. Coltrane Goring dipped under the 48-second mark in the finals of the 400, which is quite an accomplishment; in the steeplechase Jakob Getchell and Josh Koeppe certainly ran well, but I'd like to highlight Matthew Mullen, who got up after a pretty horrific fall over a barrier to run incredibly tough and nearly score! It was an incredibly tough race!
 
Speaking of tough, Andrew Farnsworth – who was a 'wildcard' entry into the meet – set 2 PRs today to earn 4th overall in the high jump. That took a lot of focus to get to that point! A similar situation was seen with Dane Sorensen, returning from injury, who was tremendous in his third competition since December to earn third overall.
 
Just as with the women's program, while the place was the same as last year, the tangible measures of progress are pretty remarkable – only 23.5 points out of the victory as a team, compared to well over 100 points away last year. Seven conference titles – a third of what is contested – were earned over the weekend by Cortland student-athletes, which is certainly something to be proud of!
 
We will have some 'last chance' opportunities next weekend (which the weather will dictate somewhat); as well as the AARTFC Regional championships next on May 17th and 18th before closing out our year with the NCAA Championships the final weekend of the month. Before 'signing off' we had a tremendous amount of support from family, friends, team members that didn't qualify, and alumni over the course of the weekend, and we thank everybody who supported in person and virtually.