NEW YORK, N.Y- The Cortland men's indoor track and field team finished eighth out of 65 schools at the All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) Championships. The event was held Friday and Saturday at The Nike Track & Field Center at The Armory in New York City.
 
Cortland finished with 26 points. Rowan won the title with 118 points, followed by Geneseo (69) and Ursinus (38) in the top three.
 
Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) won two events at the championship, highlighted by a meet-record shot put of 17.53 meters (57' 6.25"). He won the weight throw with a distance of 19.10 meters (62' 8"). Evan Collette (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) finished sixth in the weight throw (17.88 meters/58' 8"),
 
The top eight finishers in each individual event and the top three in each relay earn All-AARTFC honors.
 
Cortland's 4x400-meter relay team of Aidan Garafola (Bayport/Bayport-Blue Point), Zion Cheatham (Lockport), Ny'Jeme Radcliff (Utica/Thomas R. Proctor) and Kyler Alston (Latham/Shaker) also scored team points by placing sixth in 3:17.16.
 
Cortland's other competitors at the meet included:
 
Cheatham, 12th, 200-meter dash, 22.19
DMR - Jordan Wingert (Verona/Vernon-Verona-Sherrill), Daniel Kahler (Centereach), Jack Bisbee (Deer Park/Half Hollow Hills West), Kyle Friedel (Irondequoit)), 12th, 10:31.14
Deontae Bennett (Riverdale, GA/Greenwich (NY)), 13th, Long Jump, 6.83 meters (22' 5")
Elliott Supley (Peru), 13th, Shot Put, 14.54 meters (47' 8.5")
 
Brady Melioius (Tribes Hill/Fonda-Fultonville), 14th, Triple Jump, 13.77 meters (45' 2.25")
Lucas Chamberlain (Copake/Taconic Hills), 14th, Weight Throw, 16.06 meters (52' 8.25")
Collette, 15th, Shot Put, 14.36 meters (47' 1.5")
LeBron Richardson (Pelham/Pelham Memorial), 18th, 60-meter dash, 7.00
Cabe Hogue (Corning/Corning Painted Post), 22nd, Weight Throw, 15.39 meters (50' 6")
 
Garafola, 23rd, 400-meter dash, 50.11
Chamberlain, 24th, Shot Put, 13.84m (45' 5")
Travis Iwuagwu (Suffern), 26th, 60-meter hurdles, 8.60
Supley, 27th, Weight Throw, 14.52m (47' 7.75")
(Also competing: Chris Mateo (Utica/Thomas R. Proctor) in the high jump and Hayden Erick (Dundee) in the triple jump)
 
Cortland awaits the announcement of qualifiers for next weekend's NCAA Division III Championships, which be held March 13-14 in Birmingham, Ala. The final participant list will be posted on NCAA.com this Sunday, March 8, by 7 p.m. The top 20 in each individual event and the top 12 in each relay (4x400 and DMR) qualify for nationals. As of Saturday night, Cortland athletes ranking in the national qualifying spots are:
 
Brunache, 2nd, Weight Throw and 8th, Shot Put
Manuel Sepulveda (East Rochester), 3rd, Triple Jump
Collette, 18th, Weight Throw
 
Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:

This is a tough meet for a lot of reasons – high level competition, qualifying standards, being held at the historic 168th Street Armory in New York City – all create a circumstance that can be a challenge.
 
We had a number of good performances through the weekend, but unfortunately a number of them came up a bit short for what we wanted on the national level. And that is tough – and shows that we can sometimes our focus is a bit too much on the outcome and the external measurement rather than what level of progress we are making.

We hold our program to a high standard, so that is a tall order to reach on a regular basis. I feel pretty good overall about how folks competed – and where we didn't do as well as we are capable, how we learned – so it is a solid end to the indoor season for most of the squad. I watched an interesting scenario play out prior to our 4x400 on Friday night, where a team just broke 3:19 and were very excited to have set their new school record; a couple of heats later we ran very low 3:17, but it didn't even crack our top-5 list. There's a good lesson in perspective there to consider for us!
 
Some definite highlights would be Isaiah Brunache letting himself throw big in the shot, Cheyenne McPeek tying her PR in the weight, Jennifer Ndukwu with probably the best series of her career in the weight, finishing just 2 centimeters off of her best, a really strong competition from the high jump ladies of Reilly Quinn and Georgia Spuches Jwaskiewicz, a great 3k from Alexa Wolcott (after doubling last weekend), and a double-PR weekend from Lilly Swyers in the long jump and 60 hurdles. I'll also point out what a strong effort the women's distance medley relay team ran at Tufts on Saturday – it's great to have the opportunity and support from the department to split the squad when the circumstances dictate, and that team put down a great time to move up to being the 20th-best program in the nation (as well as being #2 all-time at Cortland) in an incredible race – three teams earned an NCAA berth in that race, with a total of 8 squads running times that put them in the top 30 of the country for the season!
 
We already know that Melissa Innocent (mile), Isaiah Brunache (shot put and weight throw), Evan Collette (weight throw), and Manuel Sepulveda (triple jump) have safely advanced to the NCAA Championships! You never know what happens with entries, so we may get somebody else in! We're flying to Birmingham on Wednesday with a great deal of excitement to compete at the NCAA Championships again!