NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships - Day 2
Cortland, Plattsburgh, Delhi Sports Information
Plattsburgh's Grace Yarkosky Breaks Program 400-Meter Record, Finishes Second at NCAA Division III Indoor Championships, Earns All-America Honors
Senior Grace Yarkosky (South Lyon, Mich. / South Lyon) broke the indoor program record she set just a day earlier in the 400-meter dash, finishing in 54.41 seconds to place second at the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships on Saturday at the Birmingham CrossPlex.
Yarkosky's runner-up finish earned her First-Team All-America honors, the first of her career, and added eight points to Plattsburgh's team total. She becomes the program's first All-American since Elisabeth Plympton achieved the honor in 2018.
Along with setting a new indoor program record, Yarkosky's performance also established a new conference record, ranking among the fastest times in Division III history.
The Plattsburgh State women's track and field team will open its outdoor season on Saturday, March 28, at the UMass Flagship First Meet.
Isaiah Brunache and Manuel Sepulveda Register All-America Performances During NCAA Second Day
Brunache finished seventh in the shot put with a distance of 17.00 meters (55' 9.25"). Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Gage Stankiewicz winning the title at 18.52 meters (60 '9.25"). Sepulveda finished eighth in the triple jump at 14.71 meters (48'' 3.25"). Wisconsin- La Crosse's Carter Pearson was the national champion at 15.01 meters (49' 3"). The top eight finishers in each individual event are first-team All-Americans, while places 9-16 are second-team honorees.
Through his first two attempts, Brunache sat in 17th place, but he surged into the nine-athlete finals with a distance of 16.71 meters on his last attempt of the first round. He then pushed from eighth to seventh place with his 17.00-meter effort on his first attempt of the finals.
Brunache earned his second All-America honor in as many days and sixth of his career - four indoors and two outdoors. He finished fifth in the weight throw Friday, placed seventh in the weight throw and eighth in the shot put at last year's indoor nationals, and was the outdoor national runner-up in the shot put in both 2023 and 2025.
Sepulveda hit his best mark of the day with his third triple jump in the opening round. He did not improve on that distance in his three jumps during the finals.
Sepulveda is a first-team All-American in the triple jump for the second straight year; he finished seventh in the event at last year's indoor nationals as a member of St. John Fisher's team.
Cortland finished the meet tied for 18th place out of 96 competing schools with a total of nine points. Brunache scored six of those nine points (fifth in weight throw, seventh in shot put), Evan Collette (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa) scored two points in the weight throw Friday with his seventh-place effort, and Sepulveda earned one point for his eighth-place triple jump.
Coach's Corner - Comments from Cortland Head Coach Steve Patrick:
Day two certainly brought some excitement!
It was a bit hectic with both of our events for today happening at the same time. Both guys entered their third attempt not in a position to advance to finals, and both came through pretty big on that attempt to advance. It was a bit stressful, but shows a lot about their composure for being able to get it done.
In the finals, Isaiah may have had the best series of throws he has had all season, and cracked the 17-meter barrier again. That's a great way to end your final season of indoor! I'm pretty confident that with this as his 6th All-American award, he now has sole possession of the most All-American accolades of any male Cortland cross country/track and field athlete, which is a pretty amazing accomplishment! That's a testament to his daily commitment to preparation and training, along with his obviously mental toughness to be able to achieve something so incredible!
Considering that Manuel had an injury 9 days ago that we were concerned would keep him from competing in the championships at all, simply being competitive at all – let alone finishing with a spot on the podium- is quite an achievement. It's a little bittersweet for a lot of reasons, chiefly the knowledge that the big jump was right there, but that's also very much that nature of the sport. Earning All-American status and being hungry and ready for the next season is a pretty tremendous combination! I'd like to acknowledge the efforts of Kyle Liang and Hannah Miller over the past week or so to help get Manuel ready to be back on the runway!
It's time for an well-deserved spring break, but we hit the ground running (terrible pun definitely intended) with two meets the last weekend of March and our annual learn-by doing clinic!
The Delhi women's indoor track and field team made history this weekend, sending their first ever representatives to the NCAA Championships for the winter season. The Broncos not only sent two women to the meet, but both came home with All-American Honors.
Sophomore Shaesha Johnson entered the meet ranked number 11 in the nation. On Friday, she placed third in her preliminary heat with a time of 7.57 seconds and earned the eighth spot in the final. On Saturday, she gathered in the blocks for the final and got away to an incredible start only to have the race recalled by the officials to issue a warning to another runner that was not completely still for the start. As they entered the blocks again, Johnson refocussed and ran to a fifth place finish, earning first team All-American recognition.
Sophomore teammate Amanda Intrieri also ran her preliminary heat on Friday. She ran like a seasoned veteran and won the prelim heat to earn one of the automatic advancement spots into Saturday's final and again lowering her program record to 2:10.60. In the final, Intrieri got stuck behind a crowd and made multiple attempts to swing wide and pas sonly to have another athlete also swing wide and block her move. She stayed connected to the group and continued to bide her time before finally getting free and passing two women on the final stretch to place sixth overall and earn first team All-American recognition as well.
With the women earning their spots in the NCAA Indoor championships, the women's indoor program became the tenth one to earn births in the NCAA Championships or tournaments since making the move to NCAA III. This brings the winter season to a close for the Broncos who will now look forward to the spring track season kicking off in just a few weeks.
