The track and field team has been on a tear this meet-filled February, coming back to Cortland with several new school records, along with over 10 All-Atlantic Region Track and Field Conference marks at these last three meets as we start of conferences and championships in March.
Isaiah Brunache has been having quite the run in February, winning in two events, one in shot put, in which he broke his own school record, and the other in weight throw. Isaiah Brunache continues his dominating run this month in the Utica Blue and Orange Invitational where he broke his own shot-put facility record, putting up a winning distance of 17.32 meters.
“This season, my biggest driving factor has been the work I put in over the summer and the trust I have built with our new throws coach, who is a former teammate,” said Brunache. “Compared to previous seasons, I feel more in control, but there is still plenty to improve.”
Evan Jensen also broke two school records with his second place 400-meter dash at 47.92 sec. Along with that came another relay record being broken, getting first place in the 4×400 with Zion Cheatham, Harrison Gavalas, and Josh Jeffes. The 400-meter record helped Jensen rank seventh in national Division III rankings.
To match with the three winners, the majority of Cortland’s competitors at the Cornel Kane Invitational posted AARTFC qualifying performances.
Cortland was also able to walk away from these past two meets with a decent number of top ten performances.
Amarian Hughes had two victories, a 7.14-meter victory in the long jump, then a 15.09-meter triple jump. Both these victories helped Hughes place 17 in Division III nationally.
Women’s track and field also had some high placing athletes. Jennifer Ndukwu and Lillian Swyers both made AARTFC marks while at the meet at Utica, with Ndukwu placing in third place out of 55 in the weight throw with a 16.10-meter throw, and Swyers placed six out of 50 in the 60-meter hurdles in 9.49 seconds.
Going into the Cornel Kane Invitational, the women’s team racked up nine AARTFC marks. Ndukwu also placed a fourth-place mark of 15.83 meters, also in the weight throw.
Autum Pittman placed two out of the nine marks when she placed fourth in the 60-meter dash at 7.82 seconds and placed in fourth in the 200-meter dash at 25.78 seconds.
Runners Kelly Newman, Kendal Sobczyk, and Alexia Prince all made AARTFC marks as well in the 800-meter, 60-meter, and 200-meter dash.
There are only two more regular meets this week, one being throwing only, before the track and field team take the stage at the conference meets in March.
Faith Nelson was a part of the winning 4×100 relay team that won AARTFC title last year and is looking to repeat that feat this year.
“Honestly, this season has been going way faster than last year,” Nelson said “I’m very excited because I have a good feeling that we can win the meet.”