CORTLAND, N.Y. – Cortland broke a pair of SUNYAC records that dated back more 40 years and finished with three school records at the Cortland Classic men's outdoor track and field meet Friday and Saturday at the SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex.
 
The 4x400-meter relay team of Zion Cheatham (Lockport), Evan Jensen (Red Hook), Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) and Josh Jeffes (Scotia/Scotia-Glenville) finished first in a school and conference record time of 3:10.32. The previous SUNYAC record was 3:10.99 by Buffalo State in 1983 and the previous school mark was 3:11.72 by Aaron Jones, Coltrane Goring, Gavalas and Doug Knapp in 2023. Cortland currently ranks third nationally in Division III in the event for the season.
 
Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) won the shot put with a heave of 17.77 meters (58' 3.75"), breaking the previous SUNYAC record of 17.64 meters set by Dan Mlodzeniac of Fredonia in 1983. Brunache improved upon his own school record of 17.60 meters, and he currently ranks fourth nationally in Division III.
 
Jeffes broke the school record in the 400-meter dash with his winning time of 47.17 seconds. He broke his own record of 47.42 seconds from earlier this season. Jeffes is eighth in the latest NCAA Division III rankings.
 
Jeffes was one of five Red Dragons to place in the top six of the 200-meter dash. He won the event in 21.25 seconds, which ranks 11th nationally, followed by Jensen in second (21.53), Gavalas in third (21.66), Matthew Schaffert (Lockport) in fifth (21.67) and Cheatham in sixth (21.70). Schaffert won the 100-meter dash in 10.87 seconds (10.72 prelims), while Jensen was second in the 400-meter dash in 47.84 seconds, which ranks 22nd nationally. The 4x100-meter relay unit of LeBron Richardson (Pelham/Pelham Memorial), Gavalas, Cheatham and Schaffert won in 41.15 seconds. That time ranks 23rd nationally.
 
Brunache, in addition to his win in the shot put, was victorious in the discus with a toss of 50.82 meters (166' 9"). He ranks 12th nationally with that distance. Nick Kaires (St. James/Smithtown East) finished in third place (46.72 meters/153' 3") and Ramel Radcliff (Syracuse/Henninger) finished fifth (44.65 meters/146' 6").
 
Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) won the triple jump at 14.92 meters (48' 11.5") and finished second in the long jump at 7.13 meters (23' 4.75"). John Anderson (Ithaca) won the decathlon with a score of 5,422 points. Evan Collette (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) won the hammer with a distance of 58.44 meters (191' 9") that ranks 12th nationally. Kaires finished fifth (54.47 meters/178' 8") in the event, Travis Firkins (Hilton) was eighth (49.73 meters/163' 2") and Logan Darling (Homer) placed ninth (49.10 meters/161' 1").
 
Brandon Mulholland (Syracuse/Westhill) took top honors in the 10,000 meters in 32:26.91 and Robert Davidson (Setauket/Ward Melville) placed second in 32:31.47. Paul Tommolino (Stony Brook/Ward Melville) finished second in the 5,000 meters (16:10.16), with Christian Wissa (Somers) placing fourth (16:39.38). Andrew Farnsworth (Rotterdam/Mohonasen) finished third in the high jump (1.88 meters/6' 2"), Matthew Breslin (Islip) was third in the pole vault (4.00 meters/13' 1.5") and Roland Zanger (Port Jervis) was third in the 110-meter hurdles (15.28, 15.10 prelims). Zanger also posted a fifth-place finish in the long jump (6.77 meters/22' 2.5").
 
The 4x800-meter relay team of Carter Naginey (Groton), Zachary Arria (Baldwinsville/C.W. Baker), Kyle Friedel (Irondequoit) and Jordan Wingert (Verona/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) placed second in 8:20.16 and the combination of Aidan Garafola (Bayport/Bayport-Blue Point), Brandon Root (Merrick/John F. Kennedy), Declan Kennedy (Lakewood/Southwestern) and Aidan Aguirre (Hicksville) finished fifth in 3:23.04. Kennedy finished third (56.66) and Root was fourth (58.48) in the 400-meter hurdles. Wingert ended fourth (1:57.13), Matthew Mullen (Medford/William Floyd) was fifth (1:57.36) and Naginey finished sixth (1:57.55) in the 800 meters.
 
Mullen finished third in the 1,500 meters (4:07.55) and Wingert placed seventh (4:11.17). Mitch Diamond (Dix Hills/Half Hollow Hills West) was fourth in the triple jump (13.76 meters/45' 1.75") and sixth in the 100-meter dash (11.06, 10.87 prelims). Richardson qualified for the finals in the 100-meter dash with his prelim time of 10.84 seconds but did not run in the finals.
 
Chris Dalton (Howard Beach/Archbishop Molloy) finished sixth in the 10,000 meters (36:48.87) and Travis Iwuagwu (Suffern) finished sixth in the 110-meter hurdles (15.93, 15.85 prelims). Taoig Cypher (Irvington) was seventh in the javelin (37.38 meters/122' 8") and eighth in the triple jump (13.19 meters/43' 3.25"), and Lucas Chamberlain (Copake/Taconic Hills) finished eighth in the shot put (13.56 meters/44' 6").
 
Cortland athletes who met All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying marks included the winning and fifth-place 4x400-meter relay teams, the 4x100-meter relay team, Schaffert (100-meter dash and 200-meter dash), Diamond (100-meter dash in prelims and Triple Jump), Richardson (100-meter dash in prelims), Jeffes (200-meter dash and 400-meter dash), Jensen (200-meter and 400-meter dash), Gavalas (200-meter dash), Cheatham (200-meter dash), Hughes (Triple Jump and Long Jump), Brunache (Shot Put and Discus), Kaires (Discus and Hammer), Radcliff (Discus), Anderson (Decathlon), Mulholland (10,000 meters), Davidson (10,000 meters), Collette (Hammer), Firkins (Hammer), Darling (Hammer) and Zanger (110-meter hurdles).

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

It's hard not to start by acknowledging five new school records, two of which broke conference records from 1983! Those are pretty tremendous achievements!
 
The program had so many exceptional performances over the weekend that it is hard to decide which ones to focus on. So instead for this week I'd like to first comment on a few things that don't show up in the results at all, even if you were to go through them with a fine tooth comb.
 
The first thing I'd like to mention is thrower Ryan Joule. Ryan is out with a minor injury right now, but it's incredibly frustrating for him (and the coaches), in that he is really putting things together and ready to put a huge throw out there in his final season. Ryan's job for us over the weekend was to act as a "marshall" to help keep the pace of competition for the hammer throw in particular moving quickly enough so that we didn't have to stop due to darkness. This requires a lot of attention to the order, and a gentle but firm touch to have the competitors ready to go. Ryan did this for 5 hours on Friday! And it was magnificent – to the point where other coaches commented to me on how well things were moving. There's a level of self-sacrifice to do that for the program as well as for the other competitors along with taking pride in how we host these events. We're at our best when we have people that are focused on how to do their best but also more than willing to help for the greater good, and Ryan certainly exemplified that today.

SUNY Cortland President Dr. Erik Bitterbaum and his wife Ellen Howard Burton were popular figures at the meet this weekend; I can't express how special that is. I don't have a recollection of seeing any other college presidents that regularly attend home track meets; our President and First Lady are on the field, often right at the finish line, shaking hands, high-fiving, talking with parents, alumni, coaches from other institutions, officials - you name it, they probably spoke to them! We'll often talk about what a special place Cortland is, and this is one of those tangible examples of who unusual we are in all the right ways!
 
On to the performances:
 
With the men's 10km Brandon Mulholland and Robby Davidson did an excellent job of working together and grinding it out – they alternated leading each 2k (or 5 laps), and kept rolling off a very consistent pace that was beneficial for both. That's a hard task, and they executed it wonderfully!
 
For the women's 5k, having 5 women under the 19-minute mark (Deirdre Sullivan, Alexa Wolcott, Melissa Innocent, Julia Benton, and Jewel Jones) is a nice showcase of our depth; three more ladies were under the 20-minute mark (Phoebe Peer, Rowan Leddy, and Anne Barney) just adds to it. Jewel put together a really exceptional weekend as she came back on Saturday to do a workout which resulted in her leading the team in the 400 hurdles, and running a 2:25 split on the 4x800!
 
Travis Iwuagwu, battling back from injuries that have kept him out since the indoor SUNYAC meet, showed himself to be in strong form with his first race of the season being under 16 seconds to qualify for finals, he came back with a strong showing under the 16-second barrier on Saturday as well.
 
In women's shot put, Jennifer Ndukwu posted a slight PR, while Cheyenne McPeek moved into the #5 position on Cortland's all-time list just one spot behind Jen. Evan Collette jumped up the SUNY Cortland leaderboard in the hammer throw, just one centimeter behind the school record, while the men's 4x100 relay squad of LeBron Richardson, Harrison Gavalas, Zion Cheatham, and Matt Schaffert ran the #2 all-time performance at Cortland. Josh Jeffes (now #3) and Evan Jensen (now #5) posted some great 200m times, while Evan joined Josh on the 400 meter list, taking over 3rd place.
 
I'd like to close with highlighting a few other performers – in the women's 100 and 200, Alexia Prince, Yasmine Peralta, and Faith Nelson all set new personal bests in both events, which is certainly a strong achievement! Firstyears Carter Naginey, and Zachary Arria both had strong Saturdays with collegiate bests in the open 800 to go along with strong legs on the 4x800, and junior Aidan Garafola broke through the 50-second barrier as a leadoff on a 4x400 relay on Friday night and then officially in the open 400 on Saturday.
 
We're fortunate to have two different opportunities next weekend between heading to St. John Fisher and to Shippensburg University for competitions next weekend. The teams are moving along in the right direction, and we're excited to keep things rolling!