ITHACA, N.Y. – The Cortland men's indoor track and field team won five events at the Cornell University Marc Deneault Invitational as the Red Dragons tuned up for next weekend's SUNYAC Championships.
 
Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) earned two of the Red Dragons' victories. He was first of 18 in the 60-meter hurdles in 8.11 seconds, which ranks sixth nationally in Division III and improves his third-place position on Cortland's all-time performers list, and he placed first of 21 in the long jump at 6.79 meters (22' 3.5"). Both efforts are All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference (AARTFC) qualifiers.
 
Nate Wilsoncroft (Horseheads) won the 600-meter run in 1:23.49 and Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) captured the title in the weight throw with an AARTFC distance of 16.53 meters (54' 2.75"). Cortland also won the 4x400-meter relay as Evan Jensen (Red Hook), Douglas Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian), Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) and Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame) finished with an AARTFC time of 3:21.66.
 
Three other Red Dragons posted AARTFC efforts at the meet. Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech) was fourth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.36), Clayton Santiago (Bethpage) finished fifth in the mile (4:23.54) and Zach Nyhart (Hamburg) was fifth in the pole vault (4.72 meters/15' 5.75"). Nyhart's height currently is tied for 23rd nationally in Division III.
 
Cameron Szabo (Owego/Owego Free Academy) finished second in the 1,000 meters (2:32.32) and Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) was second in the weight throw (15.33 meters/50' 3.5"). Roland Zanger (Port Jervis) finished fifth in the long jump (6.30 meters/20' 8"), followed by Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) in sixth (6.28 meters/20' 7.25") and Matthew Schaffert (Lockport) in eighth (6.04 meters/19' 9.75"). Nick LaRocque (Millbrook) finished fifth in the shot put (13.53 meters/44' 4.75"), with Tommy Burek (Latham/Shaker) turning in a seventh-place effort (12.89 meters/42' 3.5").
 
Eddie Manente (Beacon) placed sixth of 36 in the 60-meter dash (7.23) and eighth of 37 in the 200-meter dash (23.36). Zaire Higgins (Albany/Colonie) was seventh in the 60-meter dash in 7.25 seconds (7.21 prelims). Mike Alvarez (New Windsor/Newburgh Free Academy) was seventh in the 600 meters (1:26.36) and Travis Iwuagwu (Suffern) was eighth in the 60-meter hurdles (8.86, 8.80 prelims).
 
Cortland placed three runners in the top 10 of the 32-competitor field in the 400-meter dash - Austin Garske (Rocky Point) was seventh (51.87), Oba Awolowo (Hauppauge) finished ninth (52.42) and Andrew O'Gorman (Melville/Half Hollow Hills East) placed 10th (52.56).
 
In addition to its win in the 4x400-meter relay, Cortland also claimed two of the next three spots. Garske, O'Gorman, Jones and Awolowo were second in 3:27.39 and Aidan Garafola (Bayport/Bayport-Blue Point), Steven Morrow (Dryden), Aidan Aguirre (Hicksville) and Muiz Bayewu (Lagos, Nigeria/Albany (NY)) were fourth in 3:32.93.
 
The SUNYAC Championships will be held Friday and Saturday at SUNY Brockport.

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

We had quite a number of strong performances today that help set up the team for next weekend's SUNYAC Championships!
 
For the women, some individual highlights would have to start with Becca Bready setting a PR and grabbing the #5 All-Time spot at Cortland, and the SUNYAC lead with her jump in the pole vault. Abbie Gregory in the 60m high hurdles, Hannah McMasters in the weight throw, and Julia Ross in the 60m dash all secured their spot in next weekend's  championships with PRs in their respective events, which is certainly something we are excited about.  Kendall Sobczyk broke the 8-second barrier in the 60m dash twice today, setting a big PR in the process! We also saw strong depth in the long sprints as all four ladies in the women's 400 (Avery Hebert, Yasmine Peralta, Maris Seabury, and Helena Trackey) ran PRs, while four ladies in the 200 (Annabel Jacobs, Faith Nelson, Ross, and Sobcyzk) ran PRs in the 200. Faith broke the 28-second barrier for the first time indoors, which is a great step in the right direction! Finally, all three high jumpers (Danielle Fisk, Mariah Saggese, and AnJalyna Talmadge) either cleared or went out at PRs; more importantly, all three had a significant breakthrough in their understanding of the event today during competition!
 
For the men, two of our strongest performances come in non-conference events, as Nate Wilsoncroft won the 600 with a time of 1:23.49, and Cameron Szabo was the runner-up in the 1000 with 2:32.32. For both of those guys, we were working on some specific preparation for the championship races and we are quite pleased with how things came out. Fellow middle-distance specialist Clayton Santiago put together an excellent mile race to slice a couple more seconds off his PR, and secure his spot in that event for next weekend. In a number of other event areas – long jump, the throws, and the pole vault come to mind – we made a lot of positive progress today that isn't necessarily reflected in the distances or heights, although Tommy Burek (shot put), Michael Iavaroni (weight throw), and Zach Nyhart (pole vault) all had season best efforts today; our 4x4 relay despite some less-than-ideal handoffs still ran a season's best time, so we have a lot of confidence as we move into the championship season.
 
We head to Brockport on Friday to compete in the conference championships and are looking forward to what has historically been a great opportunity to compete and showcase our program!