Hughes, Jeffes, Jensen Earn All-America Honors During Final Day of NCAA Championships

GENEVA, OHIO – Graduate students Amarian Hughes (Newburgh/Marlboro) and Josh Jeffes (Scotia/Scotia-Glenville) and senior Evan Jensen (Red Hook) earned All-America honors during the final day of competition at the 2025 NCAA Division III Men's Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The three-day event was conducted at the SPIRE Institute.
 
Hughes finished third in the triple jump at 15.18 meters (49' 9.75"), a season best and just one centimeter shy of his school record 15.19 meters set in April 2023. He opened with a distance of 14.82 meters and was third after one round. That was his best result in the prelims, however, and he earned the ninth and final spot into the finals, out of 22 competitors, by one centimeter. In the finals, he failed to improve on his opening effort in his first two attempts and was ninth entering the sixth and final rotation before posting his third-place jump.
 
Matayo McGraw of Widener won the title at 15.32 meters (50' 3.25"). He tied Montclair's Hiven Biffot on his final attempt and earned the national crown based on a better second distance.
 
Hughes finishes his Cortland career as a combined outdoors and indoors four-time All-American in the triple jump. He won the indoor national title this past March, and last year he finished sixth outdoors and seventh indoors. Hughes also competed in the event in 2023, placing 11th indoors and 18th outdoors (prior to the introduction of second-team All-America honors for ninth through 16th places).
 
In the 400-meter dash finals, Jeffes earned first-team All-America honors with a seventh-place time of 47.28 seconds and Jensen is a second-team All-American after finishing ninth in 47.34 seconds. Jensen missed first-team honors, which go to the top eight finishers, by just four thousandths of a second as he officially finished at 47.336 seconds compared to eighth-place Chase Doornink of Wisconsin-La Crosse at 47.332 seconds.
 
The title also was decided by thousandths of a second as Bethel's Grant Nelson won in 46.678 seconds and Wisconsin-La Crosse's Collin Consemius was the runner-up at 46.680 seconds.
 
Jeffes earned All-America honors in the 400 meters for the fifth time between outdoor and indoor competition. He was sixth at indoor nationals last March, and while at SUNY Delhi he finished fifth nationally last year, seventh indoors last year and eighth indoors in 2022. He also competed in the event outdoors in 2022 (15th) and 2023 (18th) and indoors in 2023 (14th).
 
Jensen competed in an individual national final for the first time. He finished 19th in the indoor 400 meters this past March.
 
Also for Cortland, sophomore Evan Collette (Clifton Park/Shenendehowa), making his first NCAA appearance, competed in the hammer throw on Saturday. He fouled on all three of his attempts and did not officially place. Collette entered seeded 21st with a distance of 58.44 meters (191' 9"), which is the second-best in school history.
 
Cortland finished tied for 13th place out of 126 schools competing with 16 points in the final team scoring. The Red Dragons earned six points from Hughes in the triple jump and two points from Jeffes in the 400 meters, along with eight points on Friday when Isaiah Brunache (Bennington, VT/Mount Anthony Union) finished as national runner-up in the shot put. Wisconsin-La Crosse was the team national champion with 84 points.

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

Amarian started us off today, and in a lot of ways this was a more impressive final jump to move up from 9th than he had during the indoor season to take the win. He's battled through a number of injuries this spring, including a hip flexor strain that happened during the warmup before finals today, and really put it together on the final attempt of his college career. It was a great effort to put himself up the leaderboard!

It was a good effort from Josh and Evan Jensen to earn first and second team All-American honors respectively in the 400! Josh really went for it on the final straight, and it nearly carried him through! He made a good decision and just didn't quite have it on the day. The times show how close Evan was to nabbing 8th place - think about how small 4 thousandths of a second is - but what they won't show is him literally laying it all out there as he dove across the line!

Evan Collette closed us out for the 2025 season. He had the challenge of being here just waiting to compete, and thinking about it a little too much. He had a rough start, putting his first two throws into the net, but really put it together for his final attempt! He had a nice throw, but had a bit more momentum then he could handle and stumbled out the front of the circle. It's a challenging experience, but also one I know he'll take a lot from moving forward.

That closes our 2025 season - it's been quite a year to remember! We appreciate the efforts of our student-athletes, the example and support that our alumni have provided, and the support from family, friends, loved ones, and the greater college community.