UTICA, N.Y. and STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – The Cortland men's indoor track and field team sent competitors to both the Utica Blue and Orange Invitational on Saturday and to a pair of meets on Staten Island - the Fastrack National Invitational on Friday and the Big Apple Invitational Saturday.
 
Utica Highlights:
 
Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) won two titles at Utica, placing first of 49 in the weight throw at 18.75 meters (61' 6.25") and first of 48 in the shot put with a heave of 16.08 meters (52' 9.25"). His weight throw effort currently ranks 11th nationally in Division III. Elliott Supley (Peru) finished second in the shot put (14.61 meters/50' 5.5"), and Evan Collette (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) finished fifth in both the weight throw (17.45 meters/57' 3") and the shot put (14.61 meters/47' 11.25"). Lucas Chamberlain (Copake/Taconic Hills) was eighth in the shot put (13.96 meters/45' 9.75").
 
Brady Melious (Tribes Hill/Fonda-Fultonville) placed third of 25 in the triple jump at 13.28 meters (43' 7") and Taoig Cypher was eighth with a distance of 12.94 meters (42' 5.5"). Andrew Farnsworth (Rotterdam/Mohonasen) was eighth in the high jump (1.88 meters/6' 2"). Travis Iwuagwu (Suffern) posted an eighth place finish out of 38 in the 60-meter hurdles (8.78, 8.59 in prelims), with Evan Cruz (Pearl River) finishing ninth (8.73).
 
Cortland's All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifiers at Utica were Brunache (weight throw and shot put), Collette (weight throw and shot put), and Supley (shot put).
 
Staten Island Highlights:
 
Cortland began the weekend with a few competitors at the Fastrack National Invitational on Friday. Zion Cheatham (Lockport) placed 13th (50.08) and Aidan Garafola (Bayport/Bayport-Blue Point) was 19th (50.36) out of 132 competitors in the 400-meter dash. Carter Naginey (Groton) was 30th (1:58.93) and Jordan Wingert (Verona/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill) finished 42nd (2:00.06) out of 85 in the 800 meters.
 
On Saturday at the Big Apple Invitational, Kyler Alston (Latham/Shaker) finished second of 56 in the 400 meters (49.39) and third of 82 in the 200 meters (22.07). Ny'Jeme Radcliff (Utica/Thomas R. Proctor) was sixth in the 400 meters (50.98) and Christian Kahrs (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) finished ninth in the 200 meters (22.66).
 
Hunter Rautenstrauch (Buffalo/West Seneca West) earned a fifth-place finish (8:50.18) and Vincent Smaldone (Red Hook) was ninth (8:52.29) out of 43 runners in the 3,000 meters. Kyle Friedel (Irondequoit) was sixth out of 53 in the mile (4:30.11), with Daniel Dunn (Oswego) finishing 10th (4:32.74). In the 60-meter dash, LeBron Richardson (Pelham/Pelham Memorial) finished ninth of 64 in 7.07 seconds.

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

We had a pretty exciting weekend of track and field with 3 meets over two days in two locations! We're fortunate to have the support of the college, the department, and our alumni to allow us to do this – our program is almost a village in and of itself, and it really 'takes a village' to keep things going in the right direction.
 
I think based off of this weekend, we can identify some event groups that really had stellar weekends. To start, women's triple jump showed a lot of depth and quality while at Utica, led by Gianna Boland breaking the 11-meter mark! Also at Utica, the men's weight throw squad showed out, with new season bests from Isaiah Brunache, Evan Collette, and Cabe Hogue! The men's vault squad put together a strong showing, as five different men hit a new season best, led by Skylar McFarling and John Anderson. The long sprints were quite productive – mostly at Ocean Breeze – with a number of PRs across the 200 and 400 distances. We've struggled a bit at this meet in the past as it falls into a bit of a harder training cycle, so this was very encouraging! In particular Brianna Gabbidon was strong in both the 200 and 400; Kyler Alston breaking the 50-second barrier indoors is quite a thing to be excited about!

The distance squads put together a really strong weekend, mostly at Ocean Breeze. Going to that meet allows for some fast races where people are motivated to keep the pace honest, and we took good advantage of it! Every miler that raced ran a season's best, as did every nearly everybody racing the 3000 – 18 out of 19 performances were the fastest of the year (and the 19th had the second-best performance of their life) – which is a really exciting place to be in! Of course, Melissa Innocent beating all the collegians at Ocean Breeze and breaking the 5-minute barrier in the mile to move up to #4 on our All-Time list is quite an accomplishment as well.
 
We are once again scattered across the Northeast this upcoming weekend, with small squads at Boston University, and the bulk of the team split between Utica and Cornell.