GENESEO, N.Y - The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team earned 14 individual and two relay All-SUNYAC honors, including six league titles, on the way to a second-place team finish at the SUNYAC Championships, hosted by SUNY Geneseo Friday and Saturday.
 
Cortland finished with 216 points. Geneseo won the league crown with 235.33 points points, followed by Cortland, Brockport (172), Oneonta (58), Plattsburgh (45), Buffalo State (32), Fredonia (23.33), Potsdam (15.33) and Oswego (14).
 
Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) earned Most Valuable Performer honors at the meet. The award is giving to the athlete who scores the most team points. Brunache earned 22 team points by virtue of his second-place finishes in the shot put (15.67 meters/51' 5") and hammer throw (55.76 meters/182' 11") and his third-place effort in the discus (47.05 meters/154' 4").
 
Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) won two league titles, capturing the long jump (7.00 meters/22' 11.75") and the triple jump (14.54 meters/47' 8.5"). Nick Kaires (St. James/Smithtown East) won the discus (49.38 meters/162' 0"), Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) was the champ in the 110-meter hurdles (14.59), and Roland Zanger (Port Jervis) tied for first in the high jump (1.80 meters/5' 10.75"). Jones also placed second in the 200-meter dash (21.83).
 
The 4x100-meter relay team of Daniel Cruz (Bronx/Saint Raymond for Boys), Aidan Garafola (Bayport/Bayport-Blue Point), Doug Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian) and Brandon Levin (Baldwinsville/C.W. Baker) finished first in 42.02 seconds. The combination of Knapp, Harrison Gavalas (Southampton), Garafola and Andrew O'Gorman (Melville/Half Hollow Hills East) finished second in 3:18.72.
 
Jack Bisbee (Deer Park/Half Hollow Hills West) was the league runner-up in the 800 meters (1:53.59, 1:53.09 prelims) and Tommy Martin (Middletown, NJ/Middletown South) was second in the javelin (51.22 meters/168' 0"). Gavalas was third in the 400-meter dash (49.61, 48.88 prelims), Hayden Erick (Dundee) finished second in the triple jump (13.61 meters/44' 8") and Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) placed third in the hammer (52.92 meters/173' 7").
 
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.

Numerous Cortland performances in addition to those above ranked in the top eight to score points at the meet. Those performances included:
 
4th place:
Hunter Brignall (Seneca Falls/Mynderse Academy), 800 meters, 1:57.00, 1:55.20 prelims
Austin Garske (Rocky Point), 400-meter hurdles, 55.72, 55.70 prelims
Mitch Diamond (Dix Hills/Half Hollow Hills West), Triple Jump, 13.34 meters (43' 9.25")
Kaires, Hammer, 52.30 meters (171' 7")
Knapp, Javelin, 50.40 meters (165' 4")
Logan Buchanan (Dundee), High Jump, 1.75 meters (5' 8.75") (3-way tie)
 
5th place:
Levin, 200-meter dash, 22.05
Zion Cheatham (Lockport), 400-meter dash, 49.81, 49.33 prelims
Brignall, 1,500 meters, 3:58.01
Brandon Root (Merrick/John F. Kennedy), 400-meter hurdles, 56.84, 55.94 prelims
Evan Collette (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa), Hammer, 52.13 meters (171' 0")
 
6th place:
John Anderson (Ithaca), Decathlon, 5,136 pts.
Levin, 100-meter dash, 10.89
Cheatham, 200-meter dash, 22.09
Knapp, 400-meter dash, 49.96, 48.79 prelims
Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy), 800 meters, 1:57.94, 1:55.91 prelims
Zanger, 110-meter hurdles, 15.77
Matthew Mullen (Medford/William Floyd), 3,000-m steeplechase, 9:38.28
Nick LaRocque (Millbrook), Shot Put, 14.60 meters (47' 10.75")
Tommy Burek (Latham/Shaker), Hammer, 48.56 meters (159' 4")
Ryan Joule (Staten Island/Susan E. Wagner), Javelin, 48.19 meters (158' 1")
 
7th place:
Burek, Shot Put, 14.12 meters (46' 4")
LaRocque, Discus, 42.60 meters (139' 9")
 
8th place:
O'Gorman, 400-meter dash, 50.20, 48.69 prelims
Evan Cruz (Pearl River), 110-meter hurdles, 16.24
Zanger, Long Jump, 6.44 meters (21' 1.5")
Kevin Andreski (Guilderland), Triple Jump, 12.92 meters (42' 4.75")
 
Cortland will potentially compete at "Last Chance" meets over the next week, and the Red Dragons will host the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Outdoor Championships May 15-16 Cortland's AARTFC qualifiers during the SUNYAC Championships were:
 
Anderson, Decathlon (if top 16; currently ranks 24th)
Bisbee, 800 meters
Brignall, 800 meters (prelims), 1,500 meters
Brunache, Shot Put, Hammer, Discus
Cheatham, 400-meter dash (prelims)
Collette, Hammer
Erick, Triple Jump
Garske, 400-meter hurdles
Gavalas, 400-meter dash (prelims)
Hughes, Long Jump and Triple Jump
Jones, 110-meter hurdles, 200-meter dash
Kaires, Discus, Hammer
Knapp, 400-meter dash (prelims)
LaRocque, Shot Put
Levin, 100-meter dash
Makowski, Hammer
Martin, Javelin
Mullen, 3,000-meter steeplechase
O'Gorman, 400-meter dash (prelims)
Root, 400-meter hurdles (prelims)
Szabo, 800 meters (prelims)
 
4x100-meter relay
4x400-meter relay

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

There's quite a lot to be very proud of from this meet! Both teams should a lot of resilience and great competitive spirit as we went through the weekend. While not everything worked out exactly as we may have planned or hoped for the most part we went after things the right way. We never want to be afraid of failure as it is going to happen sometimes; we just want to always be sure that we are taking the chance and being bold with how we compete! We were very good with that over the course of the weekend, which is certainly an achievement!
 
A few things to highlight would include of course our two new school records on the women's side with Jennifer Ndukwu in the hammer throw, and the women's 4x100 relay. Our men's hammer throw showed tremendous depth with earning 5 of the 8 scoring spots; Isaiah Brunache has now joined Mitchell Makowski and Evan Collette in the top 5 list at Cortland, while Nick Kaires's best on the day would have put him in the top 5 before this season, so we know things are going well in that event!
 
Nick Kaires hurled a tremendous throw with the discus to move up to our #2 all-time spot, while Isaiah Brunache closed in on the #4 all-time spot with his new big PR in the discus. Closing out the throws, it was great to see 'Big Nick' LaRocque hit the AARTFC standard in the shot put, and to see Tommy Martin have a great progression in the javelin to earn the runner-up spot in the conference meet.
 
Of the 12 men's events that featured trials and finals, in 10 of the events at least three Red Dragons earned their way to the finals. This added up to a lot of points over the weekend and shows a great deal about the team's depth and competitiveness. Amarian Hughes obviously had a great weekend to be a double winner (with a huge PR in the long jump); in the men's triple jump Hayden Erick and Kevin Andreski both had their best jumps of the day on their final attempt, moving up scoring spots.
 
Firstyear Jack Bisbee posted a new #4 all-time mark in the 800 for Cortland during the preliminaries, while Hunter Brignall had his best weekend at a SUNYAC track and field championships over his three years with the Red Dragons. In both of his 800 races and his 1500 he made a strong move to push the middle of the race and it helped push him into PRs as well as into great scoring position.
 
Finally for the men I'd like to highlight our 4x100 relay of Daniel Cruz, Aidan Garafola, Doug Knapp, and Brandon Levin. We were concerned about the number of races that some of our sprinters might have, so we decided to go with a new combination for the relay. The ran a fast time that was strong enough for the win, under what had to be a pretty high-pressure situation. They each ran strong legs, but also executed the handoffs pretty darn well!
 
Returning to the women's squad, Danielle Fisk posting a big score in the heptathlon in a manner that helps to secure her qualification for NCAAs was great; she also moved into the #4 all-time spot at Cortland. While the open high jump competition was a bit of a gamble, it was a good opportunity for her to work on some specific skills again in preparation for the NCAA Championships. Our depth in the women's high jump was pretty strong over the weekend, especially seeing Reilly Quinn earn an AARTFC qualifying mark! In the other vertical jump Faith Hoyt put together a great day of vaulting on Friday, setting a new PR twice and earning her first AARTFC qualifying mark as well!
 
Our women's distance squad was quite stellar on the weekend! Devin Reilly started us off great on a warm Friday night in the 10k with a new PR and earning team points with her 6th place finish. This was impressive considering how she ran nearly the entire race alone! Adrienne Martin closed off the individual events on Saturday earning a scoring position in the women's 5k. After missing a large chunk of time this semester, to be able to return to score like that was great to see!
 
Sydney Smith had a great effort in the 1500 to earn the runner-up position and a huge PR! About 500 meters into the race she took a chance to really push and it paid off tremendously for her! It was an exciting race to watch and great to see her effort pay off in that way!
 
The track events started on Saturday with the women's steeplechase, where three of our team were in scoring position; Anika Parnell closed out her college career with a new PR and Melissa Innocent made a huge move about halfway through the race to earn the silver medal in the event. Melissa's time broke into our all-time top 5 list, as well as places her nationally in the top 50, and currently as the 5th-fastest firstyear in the country. That's quite an achievement!
 
The outdoor SUNYAC Championships is always bittersweet in that it is the last meet for the year for so many in the program; it is also the final meet of the career for a number of folks. We're obviously sad to see these folks leave – it's hard to believe that graduation is only a week away – but excited for the next step that they are taking.