If you go to a Cortland track and field meet, you might see a young man with long red hair flying down the lane, leaping through the air, and gracefully crashing down into the sand pits.
Blink, and you might miss him.
That’s Alhagie Sorie Sesay donning those locks, the senior jumper/sprinter for the men’s track and field team. And he’s climbing up the ranks fast.
‘Hagie,’ as his friends and coaches call him, is making a real name for himself this indoor season, putting the SUNYAC, AARTFC, and nation on notice. He runs the 60 and the 200m and is having a dominant season in the long and triple jump events.
Sesay currently ranks 11th in the SUNYAC for long and 6th in the conference for the triple. His triple ranking puts him 13th in the region and slightly shy of the nation’s top 50. With the strides he’s been making in the event, cracking the top 20 in the next few weeks and going to Alabama for the D3 National Championships has become a realistic expectation for him.
“Nattys… nothing else. That’s where I’m trying to go,” said Sesay. “We’re trying to do some special things there, so I can’t see anything below that for me.”
Sesay has worked hard throughout his four-year career for the Red Dragons, and in his final seasons, he’s finally making the breakthroughs to accomplish his goals, primarily due to newfound health.
Sesay had dealt with many injuries throughout his career, from his back to hips and knees, but lingering issues are more of a problem in track than in other sports because they are harder to fight. One may be able to run through an injury, but that same injury may limit you to a specific event. For a versatile athlete like Sesay, his health problems have caused him to pick and choose event focuses.
“I’m healthy now. That was the only limiting factor my whole career”, Sesay said.
Sesay’s health has allowed him to return to the triple jump, an event he had to give up on in high school and after a single track meet at Cortland due to injury.
Cortland Track and Field Head Coach Steve Patrick enjoys watching Sesay succeed in his return to the event.
“Hagie hasn’t had the best luck with injuries, especially to his knee, but has found his calling this year as a jumper,” said Patrick. “Seeing him progressing to a national-level competitor, especially in the triple jump, has been exciting.”
Like many athletes in the class of 2023, Sesay is no stranger to adversity. Beyond health issues, the Covid-19 pandemic heavily altered Sesay’s career.
In March 2020, the NCAA and SUNY Cortland shut down the season and subsequently canceled the outdoor season that year. The following year, there wasn’t an indoor season, and the outdoor season had low participation throughout the country.
Coach Patrick doesn’t underestimate how much the pandemic impacted athletes nationwide.
“A number of folks at all levels found that they weren’t passionate to train, especially with an uncertain future for the sport,” said Patrick.
But the pandemic taught the Buffalo, NY native some valuable lessons:
“Slow Down,” said Sesay. “Everybody was just go-go-go, and Covid just made everybody stop.”
Sesay says that the pandemic allowed him to take his every day into a better perspective and live in the moment. He added that the pandemic taught him not to panic.
“You can work through any problem; you just have to sit back and reevaluate.”
That positivity is on-brand for Sesay, as he has a reputation for being laid back regardless of the situation”.
Aaron Jones, a senior captain on Cortland’s track and field team, Sesay’s high school teammate and best friend, believes that Hagie’s can-do attitude makes him so unique.
“He was never one to complain,” said Jones. “Since high school, I’d known Hagie would be successful because he never limits himself regardless of the challenge.”
Jones and Sesay became friends at Hutch Tech High School in Buffalo, NY. That friendship is one of the reasons Sesay decided to attend Cortland. Along with the training program and the sports culture, Cortland was the perfect fit.
Sesay is studying for an undergraduate degree in Sport Management, with dreams of coaching track and, eventually, owning his own sports facility in his namesake.
Regardless of how Sesay’s senior seasons end or where his career path leads him, the resilience, self-confidence, and positivity he’s embraced throughout his track and field career will surely be the backbone of his future success.