Cortland's Morse and 4x4 Relay All-Americans on NCAA Final Day; Cortland Ties for 20th as Team
Cortland Sports Information Department
PITTSFORD, N.Y. – Senior Brett Morse (Saratoga Springs) and Cortland's 4x400-meter relay team earned All-America honors during the final day of competition at the NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The three-day event was hosted by St. John Fisher University.
Morse finished eighth in the 110-meter hurdles finals with a time of 14.64 seconds. Enoch Ellis of MIT won the national title in 14.22 seconds.
The 4x400-meter relay team of senior Douglas Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian), senior Coltrane Goring (Los Angeles, CA/Notre Dame), firstyear Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) and graduate student Rich Samuels (Wallkill) finished eighth in 3:16.62. Mount Union won the national title with a Division III record time of 3:07.24. Samuels was a replacement in the finals for Aaron Jones (Buffalo/Hutch Tech), who ran in the prelims Thursday but was unable to compete in the finals due to injury.
The top eight finishers in each event are All-Americans and earn team points.
Also on Saturday, junior Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) finished in 18th place out of 22 competitors in the triple jump with a distance of 14.11 meters (46' 3.5"). Buffalo State's Shevaughn Allen was the national champion at 15.57 meters (51' 1").
Cortland finished in a tie for 20th place out of 141 schools in the final team standings with 12.5 points. It was Cortland's best finish since a tie for fifth place in 2017. MIT won the team title with 60.5 points. In addition to the points scored by Morse and the 4x400-meter relay on Saturday, the Red Dragons earned points Friday from Isaiah Brunache's (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) runner-up finish in the shot put and Zach Nyhart's (Hamburg) tie for fourth in the pole vault.
Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:
There's obviously a lot to celebrate, but also a lot to learn from. Coming home with seven All-American awards is certainly an honor, as is having such a relatively strong team finish!
But I also think there's a good learning experience for us in that we performed pretty tight today. And that's understandable! The national finals are a lot to be excited about, and that's hard to understand until you've been there. While Coltrane Goring and Rich Samuels ran their last race in a Cortland uniform - and we're thrilled to be sending them off as All-Americans - it's fantastic that the rest of the squad has the chance to be back!
We'd like to thank everybody who has been a part of the program this year and who has supported us, and are looking forward to the fall!
