LEWISBURG, PA. and ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cortland men's outdoor track and field team posted 13 All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifying performances, including national top-10 efforts by Kyler Alston (Latham/Shaker) and Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union), as the Red Dragons sent competitors to both the Bucknell Bison Outdoor Classic and the Cornell Big Red Invitational.
 
Bucknell Highlights:
 
Alston finished first out of 37 competitors in the 400-meter hurdles at Bucknell with a time of 52.40 seconds that ranks third nationally in Division III this season. Declan Kennedy (Lakewood/Southwestern) placed 17th in 55.98 seconds.
 
Marcello Mastrocco (West Islip) was ninth of 68 sprinters in the 100-meter dash in 10.77 seconds, while LeBron Richardson (Pelham/Pelham Memorial) was 11th in 10.84 seconds. Richardson also finished 10th of 27 in the long jump at 6.79 meters (22' 3.5").
 
Zion Cheatham (Lockport) finished 15th of 81 in the 200-meter dash in 21.77 seconds, with Daaron Harrell (Albany) 34th (22.21) and Richardson 37th (22.26). The quartet of Mastrocco, Richardson, Cheatham and Joshua Bishop (Highland) finished fourth of 19 in 41.51 seconds.
 
Carter Naginey (Groton) placed 46th in a field of 157 runners in the 800 meters in 1:54.57, while Travis Iwuagwu (Suffern) was 16th of 35 in the 110-meter hurdles in 15.26 seconds. Cheatham finished 23rd (49.42) and Daniel Kahler (Centereach) was 31st (49.67) out of 71 competitors in the 400-meter dash.
 
Cortland's AARTFC qualifiers at Bucknell were: Alston (400-meter hurdles), Kennedy (400-meter hurdles), Naginey (800 meters), Mastrocco (100-meter dash), Richardson (100-meter dash), Cheatham (200-meter dash), Iwuagwu (110-meter hurdles), and the 4x100-meter relay team (Mastrocco, Richardson, Cheatham, Bishop).
 
Cornell Highlights:
 
Brunache finished in third place in the invitational division of the shot put at Cornell with a distance of 17.43 meters (57' 2.25") that ranks sixth nationallly in Division III. Elliott Supley (Peru) finished ninth at 14.89 meters (48' 10.25"), Evan Collette (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) was 10th (14.43 meters/47' 4.25") and Jason Zaita (Selden/Centereach) was 11th (13.82 meters/45' 4.25").
 
Manuel Sepulveda (East Rochester) finished second of 20 in the long jump with a leap of 7.01 meters (23' 0") and tied for second in the triple jump at 14.43 meters (47' 4.25"). Brady Melious (Tribes Hill/Fonda-Fultonville) finished sixth in the triple jump (13.50 meters/44' 3.5") and eighth in the long jump (6.45 meters/21' 2"). Nicholas Malette (Albany/Colonie) and Maddox Collier-Little (Lindenhurst) placed ninth (6.28 meters/20' 7.25") and 10th (6.11 meters/20' 0.5"), respectively, in the long jump.
 
Supley was fourth of 12 in the invitational division of the discus with a distance of 44.11 meters (144' 9") and Cabe Hogue (Corning/Corning-Painted Post) finished sixth (42.39 meters/139' 1"). Collette finished sixth in the invitational division of the hammer throw at 53.84 meters (176' 8").
 
Hogue won the open division of the shot put with a heave of 14.25 meters (46' 9"), followed by Lucas Chamberlain (Copake/Taconic Hills) in second at 14.08 meters (46' 2.5"). In the open division of the discus, Quinn Jennings (Oneida) finished first (39.65 meters/130' 1"), Jack Smith (Thiells/North Rockland) was second (39.36 meters/129' 2") and Billy Tomas (Stony Point/North Rockland) was third (37.54 meters/123' 2"). Jennings finished second (48.22 meters/158' 2") and Logan Darling (Homer) was third (47.47 meters/155' 9") in the open division of the hammer throw, and Tommy Martin (Middletown, NJ/Middletown South) finished fifth in the javelin (44.60 meters/146' 4").
 
In the 110-meter hurdles, three Red Dragons advanced to the finals. John Anderson (Ithaca) finished fourth in 15.57 seconds, Rowan Fox (Lansing) was fifth in 15.97 seconds, and Malette was seventh in 16.63 seconds (16.20 in prelims). Jacob Sandak (Mount Sinai) finished ninth (2:01.36) and Zachary Arria (Baldwinsville/C.W. Baker) was 10th (2:01.42) out of 25 competitors in the 800 meters, and in a 34-runner field in the 1,500 meters, Kyle Friedel (Irondequoit) placed 11th (4:03.55), Declan Butler (Yonkers/Archbishop Stepinac) was 12th (4:03.74) and Landon Fracasse (New Paltz) finished 14th (4:05.41).
 
Cortland's AARTFC qualifiers at Cornell were: Brunache (shot put), Supley (shot put, discus), Sepulveda (long jump) and Collette (hammer throw). Additionally, Sepulveda and Melious both hit AARTFC marks in the triple jump, but are currently not being labeled as qualifiers in the TFRRS reporting system, possibly due to wind speed.

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

It was quite a busy weekend as we split the squad between the "Nells" with trips to Bucknell and Cornell! Having the flexibility to do things like this is incredibly important – and on the eve of giving day, we want to thank all the folks that have supported the program in the past as it helps to allow us to do things like this!
 
Bucknell mostly offered us the trifecta of great conditions, a great facility, and great competition, and we had a number of folks take advantage of it; I'm pretty confident that those that may have stumbled a bit will learn from the experience. Some obvious highlights would be Kyler Alston with the new PR to take the victory, strong 100s from Marcello Mastrocco and LeBron Richardson, a speedy 200 from Zion Cheatham, and a big PR from Carter Naginey in the 800. Marcello, LeBron and Zion teamed up with firstyear Joshua Bishop to run the #3 all-time 4x100 at Cortland, with some definite growing pains present as they haven't raced as a quartet yet this year. Daniel Kahler had a very nice run in the 400 to break the 50-second barrier for the first time ever, which is certainly exciting!
 
Speaking of the 400, Sophia Hotaling ran an excellent race to set a new PR, while both 1500 runners Melissa Innocent and Phoebe Peer did as well; Melissa moved into the all-time top 5 at Cortland with her effort on Saturday evening. Eilise Marino, after a strong lead-off leg in the 4x100 relay (that set a season's best), came back with a big new PR in the high hurdles as well!
 
The squad at Cornell had to fight against some challenging weather – it wasn't particularly warm, and it was quite windy, which can really play havoc especially in longer races and the jumps. On an already cool day, it can make it pretty long and chilly! So while not all of the performances were personal bests, we had a very large majority of folks that competed quite well! Tyler Italiano had a nice 100 early in the day, but I'm more impressed with the PR in the 200 at the end of the day where he received almost no help from the wind. Similarly both Anna Miller and Emily Pierro impressed in their open 400s – always a challenge on a cold and breezy day; Anna's twin Drew Miller led the way in the men's 400 hurdles, while Aidan Aguirre had a strong day running his best time in quite a while in the same event! Moving back to the women's side, Dahiana Martinez opened up her season with a good effort in the IH as well, and Amelia Konstanty ran her season's best in the same race!
 
The mid distance races went quite well at Cornell; I'll especially commend Kyle Friedel and Declan Butler for tough efforts in the men's 1500, Zachary Arria and Jacob Sandak in the men's 800, and Mia Hannan (800) and Bri Ostheller (1500) – both of whom had to lead nearly from the gun, and both of whom hit big PRs,. It's always tough to lead the whole race to a fast time, and it is doubly tough on a less than ideal day, so kudos to both for those big efforts!
 
The throws squad had a decent amount of positive movement up the conference rankings list through the weekend, which is of course nice to see! Hannah Nolan not only had a strong day in long jump, but also improved on her best in the javelin; John Genova had double season's best in both the javelin and the discus. Grace Boland came up big with double college PRs in the shot put and discus; Quinn Jennings did the same in discus and the hammer throw!
 
We had a lot of good progress with both High Hurdle squads, which was nice to see, along with some positive results out of both triple jump squads. Gusty winds can play havoc in those events over the course of the day, and as the day went on the team did a better job of handling the challenge. But the most challenging event has to be pole vault – Joffre Proano had a nice effort to clear a high opening bar (raising his best of the year, and nearly touching is lifetime best); Faith Hoyt handled the challenge with aplomb, setting a new personal best cracking the 11' barrier for the first time. That's quite an impressive achievement under the best of conditions; to do it on a cold windy day is something special!
 
We're of course excited for the upcoming Challenge Day (Wednesday, April 15th) as we know that we will see a great amount of support from alumni, friends, and family; this upcoming weekend we host the Cortland Classic over Friday and Saturday!