Women Second, Men Third At Upstate Challenge
Meet Results ǀ Pentathlon ǀ Heptathlon
Athletes of the Meet: Grace Claxton, Paige Vadnais, Jason Tomlinson, Matthew Campbell
ITHACA, N.Y. – Competing in the second meet of the season, the University at Albany indoor track & field program traveled to Cornell University on Saturday to take part in the Upstate Challenge. The meet featured 10 teams from New York State, including Binghamton, Buffalo, Cornell, Syracuse, Colgate, Army, Canisius, Cortland, and Ithaca. The Great Danes increased their total IC4A and ECAC qualifiers to 20, including relays, up from 12 from the first meet.
The women took second place overall, scoring 129.5 points. The men scored 95 points to take third place. Cornell won both team titles, with the women scoring 187 points, and the men scoring 198 points. Army placed second for the men, scoring 103 points.
Cornell's Barton Hall features a 200-meter flat track, meaning that conversion times are used for more accurate comparisons to 200-meter banked tracks and qualifying purposes. With conversions, some of the UAlbany student-athletes' performances on the oval today satisfy postseason qualifying standards and place them higher on the conference leaderboard.
Continuing the tradition started last week, the coaching staff named men's and women's track and field performers of the week. Grace Claxton was named women's track athlete for the second consecutive week after winning the 500. Paige Vadnais was named women's field athlete after winning the pentathlon. Jason Tomlinson, like Claxton, was named to his second consecutive track award for the men, placing second in the 500, while Matthew Campbell was named for men's field, placing first in the high jump.
The meet actually started on Friday with the first set of events in the women's pentathlon and the men's heptathlon. Paige Vadnais set a personal best in the pentathlon, scoring 3,349 points to take first overall. Vadnais won three of the five contested events, and placed second in the remaining two. She won the 60 hurdles in 9.23, placed second in the long jump in 17', won the high jump in a personal best of 5'-4.5”, placed second in the shot put in a personal best of 29'-9.5”, and won the 800 in 2:35.43. Her point total in the event now stands at second in the America East.
Also in the women's pentathlon, Solène Bastien placed third overall, scoring 2,821 points in her first multis event since high school. Bastien placed third in the 60 hurdles in a personal best of 10.22, won the long jump in 17'-3.5”, placed second in the high jump in 5'-3.25”, placed third in the shot put in a personal best of 29'-2.5”, and placed fifth in the 800 in a personal best of 3:06.15.
On the men's side, Philip Blanda placed fourth overall in the heptathlon, scoring a personal best 4,090 points. Blanda set personal bests in six of the seven contested events, with his best finish coming in the shot put where he placed second with a personal best mark of 39'-1”. Stefan Beuchele also competed in the heptathlon, but did not continue past the first event.
On the track, Michelle Anthony qualified second in the women's 60 hurdles with a time of 8.64. In the finals Anthony ran 8.55 to take second overall, a mark that is just one-hundredth off her personal best. Freshman Halie Snyder placed second in the women's 400 with a time of 58.68. The time converts to a 57.92, which places her fourth on the America East leaderboard. Taariq Jones placed third in the men's 400 in 49.60, a time which satisfies the IC4A standard. The time also converts to 48.83, which places him atop the America East leaderboard.
The Great Danes swept the top three places in the women's 500, with all three hitting the ECAC standard. Additionally, all three hold the top three spots in the event in the America East. Claxton led the way with a personal best of 1:14.22, which converts to 1:13.29. Kamilah Williams placed second with a personal best of 1:15.97, which converts to 1:15.02. Aderinsola Ajala placed third with a personal best of 1:16.23, which converts to 1:15.27. Tomlinson placed second in the men's 500 with a personal best time of 1:04.09, which converts to a conference-leading 1:03.12. Tomlinson also hit the IC4A standard.
Youness Benzaid placed sixth overall in the men's 1,000, with a time of 2:33.15, which converts to a 2:31.07. Anthony doubled-up in the women's 200, placing fifth overall in 25.33, which converts to 24.95 and satisfies the ECAC standard. Kahlia Taylor placed sixth overall in 25.47, which converts to 25.08. Anthony's and Taylor's times are third and fourth in the conference. Winston McCormack Jr. led a trio of UAlbany athletes to place in the top-six in the men's 200. McCormack Jr. placed third in 22.57, which converts to 22.18, satisfies the IC4A standard, and is second in the conference. Robert Harris III placed fifth in 22.76, which converts to 22.36 and is fourth in the conference. Jaymen Teemer placed sixth in 22.80, which converts to 22.40 and is sixth in the conference.
Jessica Donohue placed second in the women's 3,000 in a personal best time of 10:25.11, which converts to 10:19.80. Colleen Maloney placed fifth in 10:35.57. The women's 4x800 relay 'A' squad of Breanna Cummings, Nira Lovick, Schuyler Pruyn, and Hannah Smith placing second in 9:34.58.
The women's 'A' 4x400 relay team improved upon their ECAC qualifying time from last week, placing second in 3:48.53, which converts to 3:45.54 and leads the conference. Ajala led off in 57.0, Williams ran second in 57.7, Dominique Claudio ran third in 57.9, and Claxton anchored in 55.7. The men's 'A' 4x400 relay placed third in 3:22.09, which converts to 3:18.92 which satisfies the IC4A standard and is second in the conference. Jones led off in 50.1, Tomlinson ran third in 48.4, Jeremiah Obeng-Agyapon ran third in 51.9, and McCormack Jr. anchored in 51.5.
Moving to the field events, Briana Cherry-Bronson won the weight throw for the second consecutive week with a mark of 64'-1.75”, improving on her week-old school record by half an inch. Chinwe Igwe placed third in 54'-02”, and Lauren Lopano was fourth in 52'-2.5”. Jonathan Eustache placed fourth in the men's weight throw with a mark of 61', a new personal best by almost four feet, satisfying the IC4A standard. Eustache is second in the conference. Janice Johnson placed fourth in the women's shot put in 42'-9”.
Aiyanna James won the women's long jump in a conference-leading 18'-10”, hitting the ECAC standard. Alexx Baum was fourth in 18'-3.25”, and is fourth in the America East. Bastien also competed in the triple jump, placing third in 38'-10.25”, good for fourth in the America East.
Jordan Crump-King placed third in the men's long jump in 22'-11.25”. He already leads the conference in the triple jump, after his performance last week, and now leads in the long jump as well. Mande Semon also jumped 22'-11.25” to take fourth on second-best marks and share the conference lead with Crump-King.
Freshman Devon Willis won the men's triple jump in 49'-1.75”, hitting the IC4A standard. Willis also qualified for USA Junior National Championships, and is currently second in the conference behind Crump-King. Alexander Bowen placed second in 49'-1”, also hitting the IC4A standard. Bowen's mark is a personal best and is third in the conference. Colonel Fakarode placed fourth in 47'-4.5”, which is fourth in the conference.
Rochelle Reid placed third in the women's high jump, clearing a height of 5'-5”. Campbell and Bowen each cleared 7'-0.5” in the men's high jump to take first and second respectively, with Campbell winning the tiebreaker on fewer missed attempts. The height is a personal best for Campbell, leads the conference, and satisfies the IC4A standard. Additionally, Campbell and Bowen are tied for 14th on the national performance list, and the top-16 at the end of the season earn qualifying berths into national championships.
Next up for UAlbany is a trip to the Armory in New York City, which will host the America East Indoor Championships in February. The Danes will compete in the restructured Armory Collegiate Invitational on Friday, January 30 and Saturday, January 31.
