Kennedy Joseph | February 27, 2023
UAlbany track athlete Travis Williams
Photo Credit: Jaime Dickinson
The University at Albany men's track and field team competed this weekend at the America East Indoor Championships at The TRACK at New Balance in Boston. Besides finishing second overall, the team had a lot of standout individual performances.
Travis Williams, a sprinter for the Great Danes, set two championship meet records and won two individual events. Williams won the 60m dash in a time of 6.64 seconds, surpassing the previous record of 6.75 seconds set in 2017 by Binghhamton’s Jon Alkins. He also won the 200m in a personal-best time of 20.89 seconds, breaking the championship meet record and the indoor program record. He is now just the second individual in UAlbany's history to break 21 seconds in the 200m.
Moreover, he broke the indoor program and the America East Indoor championship meet record in the 200m of 20.98 seconds, which was previously set in 2020 by Jan Michael Guiterrez Almedina. He also surpassed the outdoor program record of 21.10 seconds set in 2022 by another UAlbany sprinter, Garry Munro. It also broke the program’s all-conditions record of 20.95 seconds set outdoors in 2019 by Guiterrez Almedina.
In the 60m hurdle event, Antwone Messado repeated as a champion and won with an 8.23 seconds. In the 400m, Nicardo Blake finished second in 48.01 seconds. In the 1,000m dash, Gio Henry finished seventh with a personal best in 2:29.92 while Antonio Beltran placed fifth in 2:30.50.
On the field, the Great Danes also had another show which included Pete Meehan placing eighth in the heptathlon, scoring 4,102 points. Ja'Lil Reynolds placed second in the high jump, clearing 6-07.00 feet, and Stephan Farquharson placed fifth, clearing 6-05.00 feet which matched his personal best.
Travis Robinson repeated a champion from last year in the shot put with a mark of 53-08.50 feet. Meehan set a personal best record of 8.78 seconds in the 60m hurdles during his heptathlon. Isaiah Allen placed sixth in the triple jump with a 45-10.75 foot mark, Tyler Charles placed seventh with a 45-09.25 foot mark, and Farquharson placed eighth with a 44-09.50 foot mark.
Travis Williams received the Most Outstanding Track Performer award and also shared the Coaches’ Award for the highest individual scorer with NJIT’s Jacob Leigh.