ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) and Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) each broke school records during Cortland's competition at the Nazareth University Conference Challenge Cup.
 
Cortland finished second out of 10 schools in the team scoring with 114 points. Rochester won with 124, followed by Cortland and Geneseo (105).
 
Brunache broke his own school record in the shot put with a winning distance of 17.04 meters (55' 11"), which also set a meet record. His previous school best was 16.79 meters (55' 1") last February. Brunache currently ranks fourth nationally in Division III, as of Saturday evening, and his mark is an All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifier.
 
Hughes set the school record in the triple jump by covering 15.21 meters (49' 11"), besting the previous school record of 15.00 meters (49' 2.5") set by Micah Assibey-Bonsu during his national runner-up performance at the 2019 NCAA Division III Championships. Hughes set a meet record with his AARTFC qualifying effort, and he currently ranks second nationally in Division III.
 
Cortland set two other meet records. Josh Jeffes (Scotia/Scotia-Glenville) won the 400-meter dash in 48.52 seconds, which ranks fourth nationally in Division III and is an AARTFC mark, and the combination of Evan Jensen (Red Hook), Zion Cheatham (Lockport), Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) and Jeffes broke both meet and facility records with their winning time of 3:16.32. That mark improves on the top national ranking.
 
Andrew Farnsworth (Rotterdam/Mohonasen) tied for first in the high jump with a height of 1.87 meters (6' 1.5"). Brunache placed second in the weight throw at 16.68 meters (54' 8.75") and Matthew Schaffert (Lockport) finished second in the 60-meter dash (6.98 seconds), both with AARTFC marks.
 
Five other Red Dragon performances met AARTFC standards. Mitch Diamond (Dix Hills/Half Hollow Hills West) finished third in the triple jump (13.70 meters/44' 11.5"). Jensen was fourth in the 400-meter dash in 49.15 seconds, which ranks 13th nationally, and Evan Collette (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) finished fourth in the weight throw (16.31 meters/53' 6.25"). Gavalas was fifth in the 400 meters (49.78) and Brady Melious (Tribes Hill/Fonda-Fultonville) placed fifth in the triple jump (13.42 meters/44' 0.5").
 
Other Red Dragons scorers at the meet included:
 
Aidan Garafola (Bayport/Bayport-Blue Point), 5th place, 200-meter dash (23.05), and 7th place, 400-meter dash (50.88)
Taoig Cypher (Irvington), 5th place, High Jump (1.82 meters/5' 11.5")
Marcello Mastrocco (West Islip), 6th place, 200-meter dash (23.19)
Cheatham, 6th place, 400-meter dash (50.47)
Collette, 6th place, Shot Put (14.13 meters/46' 4.25")
Deontae Bennett (Riverdale, GA/Greenwich (NY)), 7th place, 60-meter dash (7.15)
Robert Davidson (Setauket/Ward Melville), 7th place, 5,000 meters (16:06.47)
Daniel Cruz (Bronx/Saint Raymond for Boys), 8th place, 200-meter dash (23.25)
Lucas Chamberlain (Copake/Taconic Hills), 8th place, Weight Throw (15.20 meters/49' 10.5")

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

This weekend felt like much more of a meet where we were back into the swing of things, but we still certainly had an undercurrent of being a bit tired and flat from the hard work put in over the break. That's OK – the work we have put in leads to the potential for some big improvements as we move forward into a more regular schedule.
 
Of course we had some really nice results on the day! Certainly new school records for Amarian and Isaiah are noteworthy – as is improving on our national seed time for the men's 4x400 relay – but we also showed some good performances across all of our event groups. We had a much larger part of our distance squad racing at this meet, and we're quite pleased with how they performed – notably efforts in the mile from Kristin Ieva, Phoebe Peer, and Sammie Salisbury on the women's side and Matt Mullen, Brandon Mulholland and Vincent Smaldone from the men's team; Kelly Newman had a great 800 meter debut, and Jordan Wingert led wire to wire in his heat to drop his college best down a number of seconds. All four ladies in the the 3k (Anne Barney, Julia Benton, Melissa Innocent, and Deirdre Sullivan) performed quite well; Robbie Davidson and Adam Schreiber were strong performers on the day in the 5k.
 
For the field events, the women's triple jump squad of Lilly Swyers, Lexi Clark, and Hannah Nolan all had good efforts – including a PR from Lexi; firstyear Kayla Tretola showed out today in the throws with PRs in both the shot put and the weight throw.
 
The men's high jump was led by season's bests from Andrew Farnsworth and Taoig Cypher; firstyear Brady Melious posted a huge improvement on his college PR in the triple jump today. While we had a lot of good action out of the throws squad, firstyear Jason Zaita had a good measure of improvement in his shot put; fellow firstyear Ramel Radcliff had a great day in the weight throw surpassing the 14-meter barrier, and sophomore Luke Chamberlain got the weight out past the 15-meter barrier!
 
We've seen some exciting progress through these first couple of meets of 2025, and are looking forward to getting into the routine of the semester and seeing how we make the season unfold. Next up is the Ithaca Bomber Invitational, which is a nice short trip to a quality facility with good competition.