Brunache Breaks School Record and Earns First Team All-America Honors; Jeffes and 4x400 Relay Qualify for Finals on Day One of NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships

ROCHESTER, NY – Cortland junior Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) broke his own school record twice, and earned first team All-America honors with a seventh-place finish in the weight throw, and Josh Jeffes (Scotia/Scotia-Glenville) and the 4x400-meter relay team of Jeffes, Evan Jensen (Red Hook), Zion Cheatham (Lockport), and Harrison Gavalas (Southampton) secured places in tomorrow's finals during the first day of competition at the 2025 NCAA Division III Men's Indoor Track and Field Championships at Nazareth University's Golisano Training Center. Evan Jensen also competed individually in the 400-meter dash, finishing 19th.
 
Brunache was seeded tied for eighth in the event with a seed mark of 19.11 meters, the previous school record in the event coming into the day. His first attempt yielded a distance of 18.41 meters to rank fourth after one throw for all competitors. He improved his top mark of the meet over each of his next three throws, with a mark of 18.74 meters on the second throw. Brunache's third throw was 19.12 meters to barely break his own school record, and secured a spot as one of the top nine competitors to advance to the finals. Sitting in seventh place, he bettered his school record with a mark of 19.14 meters on his fourth attempt. Brunache recorded marks of 18.75 meters and 18.31 meters on his fifth and sixth attempts. He finished seventh, as the places remained the same for all competitors who reached the finals. JJ Durr of Wilmington won the event with a mark of 20.14 meters. Brunache secured his second All-America certificate of his career, also placing second in the shot put outdoors in 2023. 

Jeffes had the fifth-fastest preliminary time of 21 competitors in the 400-meter dash to book a spot in the finals. He entered the meet seeded fourth with a seed mark of 47.98 seconds. Jeffes finished first in the third heat of six in the prelims with a time of 48:09 seconds, coming on strong in the second half of his heat to move from third of four to the top spot with the second-fastest time of the competition over the final 200 meters. He was third overall after three heats, and was fifth after the final three preliminary heats were completed.

The 4x400 relay entered the meet seeded fifth, and punched a spot in the finals with the top preliminary time of 12 teams. The relay competed in the first heat, and posted a time of 3:14.26 to win the heat ahead of T.C.N.J., Loras, and R.P.I. The time broke the facility record, set earlier this season by this relay squad, by over two seconds. After none of the relay teams in the second heat bested Cortland's time, with Bethel coming closest at 3:14.85, the relay was safe as one of the top eight into the finals. The quartet watched as Wisconsin-La Crosse, Rowan, R.I.T., and Colby also could not top the Red Dragons' prelim time to secure the top time.

Jensen was seeded tied for 11th in the 400-meter dash, and finished 19th of 21 competitors in the event. He competed in the sixth and final heat, knowing that he needed a mark of 48.44 seconds or better to secure a spot in the finals. Jensen was third in his heat in a time of 49.66 seconds, and finished 0.32 seconds behind 16th place, which would have garnered second team All-America honors. 

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

We had a pretty exciting day overall for the Red Dragons!

With Isaiah, getting on the podium for the first time indoors is pretty fantastic, as is setting two new personal bests! A big thing from our end was how well he improved from throw to throw – that takes a lot of mental skill and focus, which he put on display today. We're excited for tomorrow!

Unfortunately it wasn't the best time of the season for Autumn, but that's OK – the process of getting back to this meet is by itself incredibly challenging, and she was unfortunately battling some illness over the past couple of days into today. She's had an amazing senior indoor season, with a great deal that we are proud of, including finishing off her indoor career as the school record-holder in both the 60 and the 200!

Josh ran a good opening round in the 400, and put himself into a very nice position for tomorrow's final! That should be a great opportunity!

The men's relay really competed well! Hats off first to Evan for battling back from what he felt was a disappointing race in the open 400 to put us into good position. It would have been understandable if he had focused on being negative, but he choose to be positive and tough, which is all we can ask for. The run from Zion was great because he did an excellent job of staying patient in the first lap and then moving us into the lead with a very strong second lap; Harrison started his leg by executing a great changeover of the baton from Zion to extend the lead and then executed his race plan extremely well before handing it off to Josh – who put down a very fast time in his leg. We've very excited for what tomorrow can bring not only for the relay and Isaiah, but of course also for Amarian Hughes in the triple jump.