By Christian Hince
Saturday saw strong performances from both Great Danes indoor teams, with the women’s group taking their ninth-straight conference title and the men finishing runner-up to UMass Lowell.
Women’s Team: Three Victories and Another Banner
This weekend’s victory also marked the 11th America East title in 12 years for the women’s team on a day where they won three events.
Dominique Clarke led six UAlbany scorers in the 60m at 7.55, leading a Great Dane sweep of the first five places. Brynley McDermott, Adaliz Hunt, Imani Gray, and Rori Lowe all followed within 14 hundredths of a second.
In the 60m hurdles event, second and fourth-place finishes from Olivia Nelson Chevry at a personal-best 8.92 and Dee Denis at 9.03 were enough for the win.
Clarke also led multiple UAlbany scorers in the 200m, finishing second with a personal-best 24.15. Following her were Lowe in third, Gray at fifth, and McDermott in seventh.
The Danes saw success off the track as well, with Leann Nicholas’ second-place triple jump at 40-09.75 accompanied by Rebeca Valerie Barrientos Alpha’s sixth-place jump at 38-06.00.
During the shot put, UAlbany’s Shelby Bigsby took first with 46-09.50 and Shania Scott came in at third with 45-05.25.
Men’s Team: Seven Victories for Second and a School Record
The UAlbany men also decisively took the 60m, with Shak Williams coming in first at 6.87. Other scorers included Lucas Casab, Garry Munro, and Travis Williams at fourth, sixth, and seventh respectively.
Antwone Messado won the 60m hurdles at 8.15 with Easton Reagan also scoring fifth at 8.44, enough to tie Maine for first in the event.
The men also dominated the 200m, with a top-three rounded out by Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina at 21.23, followed by Nicardo Blake and Yourre Tapande-Ngombe. Munro and Shak Williams also scored at sixth and eighth respectively.
Gutierrez Almedina also took the 400m at 47.44, again followed by Blake and Tapande-Ngombe who each scored at third and fifth.
The three men and Easton Reagan additionally won the 4x400m relay, placing first at 3:13.94.
On the field side, Travis Robinson’s first-place shot put with a personal-best 55-03.00 was enough for a UAlbany-New Hampshire tied to victory. His mark broke the school’s 2017 record of 54-05.50 set by Eric DelVescovo.
Robert Blue’s first place triple jump of 51-08.50 led three other scorers, with Tyler Charles taking fourth, Isaiah Allen placing seventh, and Stephen Farquharson taking eighth. Blue’s 51-08.50 mark broke a championship meet record set in 2009 by UAlbany’s Nasim Siddeeq at 51-04.25.
Conference Honors
With another America East season wrapping up comes another round of yearly conference honors.
For yet another year of in-league excellence, UAlbany’s women’s coaches were honored as Women’s Coaching Staff of the Year. In addition, graduate student Sydney Coddington won the women’s Elite-18 Award for achieving the highest GPA of individuals at the championship meet.
On the men’s side, Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina was named Most Outstanding Men’s Track Performer, Robert Blue was awarded Most Outstanding Men’s Field Performer, and Travis Robinson was honored as Most Outstanding Men’s Rookie.
On Saturday the Danes will continue their postseason with qualifiers at the ECAC Indoor Championships.
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