Cortland 4x400 Relay Earns Second-Team All-America Honors with 12th-Place NCAA Finish
Cortland Sports Information Department
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – The Cortland men's 4x400-meter relay team of graduate student Doug Knapp (Brooklyn/Xaverian), sophomore Harrison Gavalas (Southampton), firstyear Zion Cheatham (Lockport) and senior Andrew O'Gorman (Melville/Half Hollow Hills East) earned second-team All-America honors with a 12th-place finish during prelims during Day 1 of the NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The three-day event is being held at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium in Myrtle Beach.
Cortland finished sixth in its heat, and 12th out of 16 teams overall, with a time of 3:14.99. The Red Dragons entered the meet seeded 15th. The top two finishers in each of the two heats, along with the next four fastest times, qualified for Saturday's eight-team finals.
Also on Thursday, sophomore Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) finished in 18th place out of 22 competitors in the discus with a distance of 46.38 meters (152' 2"). He entered nationals seeded 21st. Yakob Ekoue of Wisconsin-Eau Claire won the national title at 55.20 meters (181' 1").
The top eight finishers in each event score team points and are first team All-Americans. Places nine through 16 in individual events, and the ninth through 12th-place finishers in relays, are second team All-Americans.
Cortland continues action Friday at 1:30 p.m. when Brunache competes in the shot put. He was the national runner-up in the event last May. On Saturday, senior Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) will compete in the triple jump and graduate student Mitchell Makowski (Webster/Webster Thomas) will compete in the hammer throw.
Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:
Today was a good lesson on how challenging the NCAA Championships are! Isaiah started our meet off in solid fashion: he had the right mental approach, a good series, and took a chance to try and improve on his standing in his third throw. He beat his seed with a throw that three weeks ago we would have been thrilled to see. It's just that at this meet most of the time you need to be close to perfect when you execute.
The men's relay was in the same situation – they ran well and beat their seed – Andrew O'Gorman even had the fastest split of his career! For a team that wasn't even in the meet 12 days ago to finish the year 12th in the country is pretty darn impressive, but it also shows how precise you need to be at this meet. The guys ran well just as Isaiah threw well, and it was just a bit short of what we were hoping for. It's good to keep the perspective that all five of these gentlemen have done quite well at this national meet so far, and leave us proud of their efforts and achievements.
Isaiah gets to come back with the shot put tomorrow, which should be exciting!
