Indoor Track Wraps Last Chance Meet
Results
BOSTON – This weekend marked the final opportunity for indoor track & field athletes to satisfy qualifying standards for late-season championships meets. For the University at Albany, that meant hitting qualifying marks to earn berths into IC4A and ECAC Championships next weekend, or recording a mark that would land an individual within the top-16 performances in an event nationally to earn a berth into NCAA Indoor National Championships in two weeks. The Great Danes visited Boston University to take part in BU's Last Chance Meet in the hopes of having additional student-athletes earn the right to extend their seasons.
The meet started with the women's long jump, high jump, shot put, and pole vault. Rochelle Reid hit the ECAC standard in the high jump, placing second and clearing a season-best height of 5'-7”. Solène Bastien placed sixth, clearing 5'-1”. Bastien placed second in the long jump, recording a mark of 17'-11”. Niamani Morrison was fourth in 17'4-.25”, and T'Sian Haywood was fifth in 15'-9.5”. Kaytlin Mack placed fourth in the pole vault, clearing 11'-3.75”.
The men followed the initial round of women's field events. Alexander Bowen won the high jump clearing a season-best height of 7'-1.75”. Bowen, who is the Panamanian national record holder in the high jump outdoors, set a new Panamanian indoor national record with his performance today. Matthew Campbell placed second, clearing 6'-8.75”. Youssef Benzamia placed fifth in the long jump in 22'-0.25”. Mande Semon was eighth, jumping 21'-2”.
In the women's triple jump, Haywood paced third with a mark of 35'-10.75”. In the women's weight throw, Briana Cherry-Bronson once again broke her own school record, throwing 65'-6.75”. The previous mark owas 65'-6.25”. Cherry-Bronson was competing for the second time this weekend, having placed seventh in the weight throw at USA Indoor National Championships on Saturday at Boston's Reggie Lewis Center. The final field event was the men's weight throw, where Jonathan Eustache set a new personal best of 64'-5.25” to win the event.
The track events began one hour after the first round of field events started. In the first event on the track, the men's 60 hurdles, Devon Willis qualified for finals in eighth with a time of 8.56. Christopher Buchanan placed 13th in the men's mile in 4:10.36, hitting the IC4A standard. Grace Claxton broke her own school record in the women's 400, placing fourth with a time of 53.59 in a race that featured Olympian Francena McCorory. Jason Tomlinson placed fifth in the men's 400 with a time of 48.99.
Paige Vadnais placed fourth in the women's hurdles with a time of 8.98. In the men's hurdle final, Willis placed fourth with a time of 8.40. Taahira Butterfield and Chanel Smith each competed in the women's 60 and 200. In the 60, Butterfield finished second in 7.73 and Smith was third in 7.82. In the 200, Smith finished ninth in 25.25 and Butterfield was 10th in 25.37.
Dominique Claudio placed eighth in the women's 800 in 2:12.41. Youness Benzaid placed fourth in the men's 800 in a new personal best time of 1:50.60, which moves him into fourth place on UAlbany's all-time list. The final event for UAlbany was the women's 5,000, where Valentina Talevi placed fifth in a season-best 17:34.70.
With no additional opportunities to qualify for late-season meets, the competition roster for the Great Danes trims down to those who have earned their entries for further championship events. Those who have qualified will return to Boston University next weekend for IC4A and ECAC Championships, while those without qualifying marks will begin the transition to the outdoor season. IC4A and ECAC Championships begin Friday, March 6 and run through Sunday, March 8. UAlbany's first outdoor event will be the Shamrock Invitational in South Carolina on Thursday, March 19.
