ITHACA, N.Y. and UTICA, N.Y. – The Cortland men's indoor track and field team opened its 2025-26 season by sending competitors to both the Cornell University Greg Page Relays Friday and Saturday and to the Utica Holiday Classic on Saturday.
 
Cornell Highlights:
 
Taoig Cypher (Irvington) won the high jump after clearing 1.85 meters (6' 0.35"), while Travis Iwuagwu (Suffern) finished second (8.62, 8.53 prelims) and Evan Cruz (Pearl River) was fourth (8.71) in the 60-meter hurdles. Lassad Richards (Wheatley Heights/Half Hollow Hills West) place fourth of 14 in the 200-meter dash (23.45). Daniel Cruz (Bronx/Saint Raymond for Boys) finished sixth in the event (23.60).
 
Marcello Mastrocco (West Islip) finished sixth and LeBron Richardson (Pelham/Pelham Memorial) placed seventh out of 49 competitors in the 60-meter dash, both officially with times of 6.98 seconds to meet All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) standards. Deontae Bennett (Riverdale, GA/Greenwich (NY)) finished eighth (7.09) after advancing to the finals by winning his heat. Richards was officially ninth, just missing the finals after posting a time of 6.99 seconds in his heat.

Richardson finished seventh of 20 in the long jump at 6.60 meters (21' 8"). Kyle Friedel (Irondequoit) was ninth of 21 in the 3,000 meters (9:12.66).
 
Utica Highlights:
 
Three Red Dragons earned wins in field events. Elliott Supley (Peru) was first of 60 in the shot put at 16.26 meters (53' 4.25"), followed by Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) in second place at 16.20 meters (53' 1.75"). As of Sunday evening, Supley ranks fourth nationally in Division III and Brunache is fifth in the event.
 
Brunache won the weight throw in a field of 58 competitors with a distance of 18.05 meters (59' 2.75"), which ranks sixth nationally. Supley finished sixth at 15.83 meters (51' 11.25"). Manuel Sepulveda (East Rochester) won the triple jump with an effort of 14.54 meters (47' 8.5"), which ranks 11th nationally, and he was second of 39 in the long jump at 7.12 meters (23' 4.5").
 
Evan Collette (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) finished third in both the shot put (14.67 meters/48' 1.75") and the weight throw (16.63 meters/54' 6.75").
 
Five Red Dragons placed in the top seven among 35 competitors in the 400-meter dash. Kyler Alston (Latham/Shaker) was the runner-up in 50.26 seconds and Aidan Garafola (Bayport/Bayport-Blue Point) was third in 50.77 seconds. Ny'Jeme Radcliff (Utica/Thomas R. Proctor) finished fourth (50.86), Christian Kahrs (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) was fifth (50.93) and Daaron Harrell (Albany) placed seventh (51.39). Khars finished fifth of 63 in the 200-meter dash in 22.43 seconds. Garafola was 12th in 23.13 seconds.
 
Cortland had four finishers in the top eight among 20 total competitors in the 5,000 meters, led by Brandon Mulholland (Syracuse/Westhill) in third place (15:38.18). Vincent Smaldone (Red Hook) finished fourth (15:46.48), Hunter Rautenstrauch (Buffalo/West Seneca West) was fifth (15:47.15) and Jonathan Slick (Beekmantown) finished eighth (16:16.83).
 
Brady Melious (Tribes Hill/Fonda-Fultonville) turned in a fourth-place finish in the long jump (6.74 meters/22' 1.5") and was eighth in the triple jump (13.27 meters/43' 6.5"). Hayden Erick (Dundee) finished seventh in the long jump (6.66 meters/21' 10.25").
 
In the pole vault, Skylar McFarling (Manassas, VA/Brentsville District) finished fourth out of 18 with a height of 4.00 meters (13' 1.5"). John Anderson (Ithaca) finished sixth (3.85 meters/12' 7.5") and Andrew Klammer (Carmel) was seventh (3.70 meters/12' 1.5").
 
Cabe Hogue (Corning/Corning Painted Post) placed fifth in the shot put (13.68 meters/44' 10.75"), with Sean Keane (Riverhead) in seventh (13.17 meters/43' 2.5") and Jason Zaita (Selden/Centereach) in eighth (13.15 meters/43' 1.75"). Keane also was seventh in the weight throw (15.44 meters/50' 8"). Lucas Chamberlain (Copake/Taconic Hills) finished ninth in the event (15.20 meters/49' 10.5") and Quinn Jennings (Oneida) placed 12th (14.61 meters/47' 11.25").
 
Cortland athletes who met AARTFC qualifying marks at Utica were Supley (shot put and weight throw), Brunache (shot put and weight throw), Collette (shot put and weight throw), and Sepulveda (triple jump and long jump).

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

It was a pretty crazy weekend for us with nearly the whole squad in action across two different meets! We're fortunate to have the support to be both relatively local (at Cornell) and to make the trip to Utica, as each meet/facility has different advantages for different events. Choosing one meet would be less than ideal for a good chunk of the squad, so having that flexibility is great for us!
 
Across all the event groups, we had a pretty good weekend. Not everything worked out exactly as we had hoped for, but very little went poorly. For the speed and power athletes, this is the culmination of practices over the past 11 weeks, something that is pretty new to most of our new folks. We had so many instances where the first effort/event wasn't as strong as we had hoped for, but the rebound for the second event when there were a few less nerves was pretty significant!
 
In most places the process of how we competed was pretty positive! There was room for improvement but often that was linked to the first effort of the year, and not entirely being used to what competition looks like.
 
In looking at the various event groups, a few different things stand out to make note of in alphabetical order:
 
Distance: There were some exceptional opening efforts for the season, which can be really challenging after long cross country season – both emotionally and because of the faster turnover needed to run well. At Utica both Vinny Smaldone and Hunter Rautenstrauch ran a very well-executed race, and closed very well over the final 1000. At Cornell, Melissa Innocent led a great effort in the 3k squad, running a huge new PR; teammates Alexa Wolcott, Jewel Jones, and Phoebe Peer all came through with excellent performances as well – all four ladies had a phenomenal closing 1000 as well. In the men's 3k, Carter Naginey did fantastic work setting the pace for the first 2k; Kyle Friedel closed the race well to set a new PR in the race. Zach Arria – in what was probably the longest track race of his career – had a solid effort in the new distance, including a good strong finish. Before this section gets too long, I'll also make note of the good work done today by Cassidy Wendt in the 3000, Kelly Newman in the mile, and literal newcomer to the event group Hannah Strom in the 500.
 
Jumps: The jumps squad got a lot of quality work in today! We saw a number of strong performances today at both meets. For the high jump, having all five athletes clear a bar is a solid starting point, especially considering that two (Georgia Spuches Jwaskiewicz and Kam Martinichio) are both competing in their first college meet. With Taiog Cypher being a centimeter under his best, and Reilly Quinn tying hers, that group certainly started off strong! In the horizontal jumps, we had a good problem with the number of folks that made finals for both long jump and triple jump, in that we ran into some flat tired legs by the end of the meet. Having five women (Annabelle Schuck, Lily Swyers, Gabby Raymond, Reilly Quinn, and Grace Reed) over 5 meters in the long jump is a great start of the season; the biggest breakthrough on the men's side is between LeBron Richardson with a big PR, Brady Melious with an even bigger PR, and Manuel Sepulveda not quite achieving a PR but having a very strong series over 7 meters on 3 out of his 6 attempts. The pole vault squad had a very nice day overall, especially considering that two of the men (Andrew Klammer and Wyatt Fifield) were firstyear athletes in their first college meet. That's a lot of pressure! Decathlete John Anderson hit a new PR while in the middle of hurdling (where he also got a PR) and long jumping; senior Faith Hoyt, in her first competition since knee surgery in March, opened her comeback tour with her third highest clearance ever!
 
Sprints and Hurdles: There was a lot to be excited about across this event group! All three returning men in the 60HH (Travis Iwaugwu, Evan Cruz, and John Anderson) opened up the year with new personal bests. That's quite an achievement! For the Lady Red Dragons, Kendall Sobcyzk led the way with a well-executed race in the 60, Sophia Hotaling, Dahiana Martinez, Anna Miller, and Ava Negrino came back with great runs in the 200 after earlier racing the 400, while Abby Hardy threw done a big new indoor PR (with a bigger margin of victory) in the 400. For the men's squad, opening with 4 men under 51 seconds (led by newcomer Kyler Alston) in the 400, a huge lifetime PR for Christian Kahrs in the 200, and a strong contingent of Marcello Mastrocco, LeBron Richardson, and Lassad Richards all breaking the 7-second barrier in the 60 is quite an achievement. I'd like to make note of Daniel Cruz and Lassad for what happened in the 200, as both were impeded during the race by an elderly gentleman who got confused and wandered onto the track. Daniel had to slow down and lost his rhythm, while Lassad spun out like it was a NASCAR event and literally hit the wall rather than plowing over the guy. It's too their great credit that both of our men handled this in the best way possible – nobody would have blamed them for being upset and yelling at the guy, and both handled it with a tremendous amount of class! Lassad even chose to re-run the race about 5 minutes later! It's easy to be impressed by how Lassad and Daniel chose to respond to this setback!
 
The Throws: There was a lot going on with this group over the weekend! Besides the victory she earned in the weight throw at Utica, Hannah McMasters's mark is not only a new PR, but also moves her into 4th place on the all-time list at Cortland! Some big results that might go relatively unnoticed from the women's weight throw would be that firstyear Grace Boland opened her career with a very strong throw  - nearly reaching 11 meters – and that senior Jess Neubert had a PR over well over a meter in the weight throw to go along with a PR of well over a meter in shot put! For the men,  Sean Keane had a strong day in weight as well, with a nearly 1 meter PR; sophomore Jason Zaita had a nearly 2 meter PR in the event as well! The biggest mover on the day, however (pun mostly intended) has to be Elliott Supley, who not only had a great weight throw, but moved into third place on the all-time list in shot put with his winning throw!
 
Up next is finals and some well-deserved rest from training; the first Red Dragons will be back on January 3rd to get back to work!