WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. - The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team won three events and set two school and SUNYAC records en route to a second-place team finish out of 55 schools at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Championships Wednesday and Thursday at Williams College.
 
Cortland finished with 60 points, trailing only Susquehanna's 72 points. Geneseo (46), Rochester (42) and Penn St. Behrend (41) rounded out the top five.
 
Josh Jeffes (Scotia/Scotia-Glenville) won the 400-meter dash in 46.63 seconds, setting a new meet record and breaking the previous SUNYAC mark of 47.06 seconds held by both teammate Evan Jensen (Red Hook), which he accomplished last weekend, and Buffalo State's Justin Muise in 2003. Jensen finished third at the AARTFC meet in 47.13 seconds.
 
The 4x100-meter relay team of LeBron Richardson (Pelham/Pelham Memorial), Harrison Gavalas (Southampton), Zion Cheatham (Lockport) and Matthew Schaffert (Lockport) posted the top time during the first round at 40.49 seconds, breaking the previous SUNYAC and school record of 40.59 seconds set by Kevin Ma, JJ Reise, Matt Bieringer and Amaan Siddeeq in 2007. Cortland did not run in the finals.
 
Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) won the triple jump with a distance of 15.02 meters (49' 3.5") and Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) won the shot put at 17.64 meters (57' 10.5"). Nick Kaires (St. James/Smithtown East) finished second in the discus (50.58 meters/165' 11") and was seventh in the hammer throw (53.72 meters/176' 3").
 
Brunache placed fourth in the discus (50.17 meters/164' 7"). Also scoring for Cortland with top-eight finishes were Evan Collette (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) with a fourth-place effort in the hammer (56.56 meters/185' 7") and Richardson with a fifth-place showing in the 200-meter dash (21.75).
 
The top eight individual finishers and the top three relays earned All-AARTFC honors.
 
Roland Zanger (Port Jervis) finished 11th in the 110-meter hurdles (15.16) and 15th in the long jump (6.71 meters/22' 0.25"). Gavalas placed 11th in the 400-meter dash (48.37), Tommy Martin (Middletown, NJ/Middletown South) was 12th in the javelin (53.50 meters/175' 6"), Brunache finished 13th in the hammer (51.03 meters/167' 5") and Cheatham was 15th in the 400 meters (48.43).
 
Hughes placed 16th in the long jump (6.71 meters/22' 0.25"0 and Ryan Joule (Staten Island/Susan E. Wagner) finished 18th in the javelin (49.96 meters/163' 11"). Matthew Mullen (Medford/William Floyd) placed 20th in the 1,500 meters (4:03.02), while Travis Firkins (Hilton) finished 22nd (47.65 meters/156' 4"), Logan Darling (Homer) was 23rd (47.43 meters/155' 7") and Sean Keane (Riverhead) was 28th (44.92 meters/147' 4") in the hammer.
 
Cortland awaits the announcement of qualifiers for the NCAA Division III Outdoor Championships, which be held in Geneva, Ohio, May 22-24. The final participant list will be posted on NCAA.com on Friday, May 15 by 6 p.m. Eastern. The top 22 declared individuals in each event and the top 16 declared relay teams in each relay (4x100 and 4x400) qualify for nationals.
 
As of late Thursday night, Cortland ranked in the top 22 in the following events: Brunache in the shot put (tied 5th), Hughes in the triple jump (6th), Jeffes in the 400 meters (8th), Jensen in the 400 meters (12th), Collette in the hammer (21st), and the 4x400-meter relay (Cheatham, Jensen, Gavalas, Jeffes) (8th) and 4x100-meter relay (Richardson, Gavalas, Cheatham, Schaffert) (11th).

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

Well obviously three new school records and two SUNYAC records are pretty exciting, but there's a lot that won't be obvious from just looking at the stats now that the meet is concluded. We go into this meet focusing on taking a 'last chance' in events, as well as to prepare folks for the upcoming NCAA Championships, so it's kind of funny to me that we finished as well as we did on both the men's and women's sides.
 
We had so many people turn up with great efforts over the two days; I wanted to single out a bunch below:
 
LeBron Richardson posted a stellar 200 meters, setting a PR of .4 seconds and crushing the 22-second barrier into a headwind – it was a great effort, and a great race in preparation for next week's NCAA Championships.
 
We ran some nice tune-up efforts with all four of the guys on the 4x400 relay to have us ready for next week as well.
 
Amarian Hughes had some good progress is in his return to regular jumping after some minor setbacks through the spring; being back over the 15-meter mark was a great sign!
 
Isaiah Brunache had a very strong meet especially in the shot put, and really made some improvements on his already stellar technique.
 
Nick Kaires cracked the 50-meter barrier on the final discus throw of his career, which was fantastic to see!
 
Both Autumn Pittman and Alexia Prince ran PRs for the 100; Autumn lowered her own school record, while Alexia solidified her spot in our all-time top 5!
 
Jennifer Ndukwu had a nice PR in the finals of the hammer throw, after battling to earn her spot in those finals.
 
AnJalyna Talmadge set a lifetime best in the shot put to make and score in the finals, and take the team's top spot for the season and the #4 spot on our all-time list. Pretty good for a heptathlete in the final chance of her college career!
 
Lily Swyers set her outdoor PR in the long jump, which is obviously a wonderful way to end her season.
 
Overall, the funniest thing is how many folks – even those who didn't perform at the level they may have hoped for – still put down marks that would have been stellar for most of their careers – or significantly improved versus just the previous year. It's easy to get so fixated on the final result that we forget about the process that is so important to get us there.
 
With graduation coming this Saturday, it's bittersweet especially for the coaches as we say goodbye to so many of our team that have contributed so much to our program. We will certainly miss them for their athletic prowess, but much more for the people that they are.