ALBANY, N.Y. – Championship season begins Friday for the UAlbany track & field program as the teams look to defend their men's and women's titles at the America East Indoor Championships in Boston.
 
Meet Info
America East Indoor Championships (February 21-22)
Live Results | Day One Video | Day Two Video
 
Entries (W/M)
60m: Coleman, Lacey, Lowe, Magassouba, Matthew, Osei-Boateng, Santana / Casab, Dixon, Gutierrez Almedina, Hermance, Napier, D. Williams
200m: Coleman, Lacey, Lowe, Matthew, Osei-Boateng, Santana / Casab, Cruz III, Dixon, Gutierrez Almedina, Hermance, Napier
400m: Jinks / Cruz III
500m: Archibald, Grady, Owens, Robinson / Banfield, Reagan, Rosenthal, Velasquez
800m: Quarshie / JeanPierre
1,000m: Butterfield, Keown, Nolan, Rutt / A. Beltran, F. Beltran, Somerville
Mile: Coddington / X
3,000m: Guilfoyle, Iocca / Garcia, Menis, Perillo, Ragone, Ramdani
5,000m: Guilfoyle / Perillo
60m HH: Hyde, Jinks, Reid, Robinson, Rowe / Duffield, D. Williams
4x400m: Jinks, Lacey, Owens, Matthew, Lowe, Grady, Robinson, Coleman / Gutierrez Almedina, Cruz III, Reagan, Banfield, Velasquez, Hermance, Duffield, Rosenthal
4x800m: Butterfield, Quarshie, Coddington, Nolan, Keown, Grady / Athanailos, JeanPierre, F. Beltran, Somerville, A. Beltran
DMR: Rutt, Grady, Quarshie, Iocca, Butterfield, Coddington, Robinson / A. Beltran, Velasquez, Athanailos, Menis, Garcia, Reagan, Duffield
HJ: Bailey, Muamba, Reid / D. Gordon, L. Gordon
PV: Martinez / Heatley
LJ: Brundige, Foster, Onah, Rowe, Trott / Blue, Edwards, McFadden, Sturdivant
TJ: Brundige / Blue, Sturdivant
SP: Bigsby, Cooke, Galette-Rowe, Gbadamosi, Harris, Scott / Reid
WT: Bigsby, Campos, Cooper, Galette-Rowe, Gbadamosi / Nicholson
Multi: Hyde, Reid / Jack
 
Leading the Pack

• The women and men lead the America East in eight events each
• The women return 175 of 213 points from last year's championship team
• The men return 102.5 of 178.5 points from last year's championship team
• The women return six of nine 2019 indoor event champions
• The men return two of four 2019 indoor event champions
• Myles Banfield ranks fifth nationally in the men's 500m
• EJ Onah ranks 25th nationally in the women's long jump

 
Last Time Out
UAlbany brought a dozen student-athletes to the Tyson Invitational at the University of Arkansas last weekend, one of the most prestigious meets on the indoor schedule.  Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina highlighted the Great Danes' track performances, placing second overall in the men's 200m in 21.08.  Robert Blue, competing in the men's triple jump, also earned a second-place finish, recording a mark of 50-07.25, just ahead of teammate Omahri Sturdivant in third in 50-04.50.  Garfield Napier set a new personal-best in the 60m, finishing 14th in 6.79.  Napier, who already holds the program's 100m record, is now just two-hundredths of a second off the 60m record, held by sprints coach Junior Burnett.  Asia Jinks continued her dominance of the 60m hurdles, finishing 17th overall, posting times of 8.50 in the qualifying round and 8.55 in the prelims.  Finally, Shelby Bigsby threw a big seasonal-best in the wome's shot put, placing in a tie for seventh in 48-00.75.  Also competing last weekend were pole vaulters Samantha Martinez and Isaac Heatley, at Boston University's Valentine Invitational, with both competitors setting or tying their personal-bests in the event.
 
Last Time at America East Indoor Championships
The UAlbany swept the men's and women's team titles at the 2019 America East Indoor Championships, marking the seventh time the program has completed the sweep at the indoor meet.  The women won their eighth-straight team title, and the men bounced back to start a new streak after placing second to UMass Lowell in 2018, ending their run of 12-straight titles.  The women won a program-record nine events, scoring 213 points to outpace runner-up UMass Lowell's 135.5 points.  The men won four events, also defeating runner-up UMass Lowell by a score of 178.5-148.  Lynda Brundige was named Most Outstanding Women's Field Performer, Chidinma Matthew won the women's Coaches Award, give to the high-scoring individual competitor of the meet, and Shelby Bigsby was named Women's Outstanding Rookie, while the women's team took home the Coaching Staff of the Year Award.
 
America East Leaders (W/M)
60m: Chidinma Matthew, 7.50 / Garfield Napier, 6.79
200m: Chidinma Matthew, 24.34 / Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina, 21.06
400m: X / Myles Banfield, 47.72
500m: X / Myles Banfield, 1:02.88
5,000m: Hannah Reinhardt, 16:21.44 / X
60m HH: Asia Jinks 8.45 / Dawshawn Williams, 8.07
4x400m: X / 3:13.94
DMR: 11:56.01 / 10:08.90
LJ: EJ Onah, 20-03.75 / X
TJ: X / Robert Blue (50-11.50)
SP: Shelby Bigsby, 48-00.75 / X
WT: Ludith Campos, 58-09.50 / X
 
School Records
12/7/19: Myles Banfield (600m, 1:18.81)
2/1/20: Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina (200m, 21.06)
 
ECAC Qualifiers (17)
Bigsby, Campos, Coleman, Galette-Rowe, Gbadamosi, Jinks, Lacey, Matthew, Onah, Owens, Quarshie, Reinhardt, Rowe, Rutt, Scott, 4x400m, DMR
 
IC4A Qualifiers (17)
Banfield, F. Beltran, Blue, Casab, Cruz III, Duffield, Gutierrez Almedina, Hermance, JeanPierre, Napier, Ragone, Somerville, Sturdivant, D. Williams, G. Williams, 4x400m, DMR
 
America East Indoor History
The UAlbany women have won seven-straight America East Indoor titles, and nine in the last 10 years.  The men have won 15 total, and 13 of the last 14, since their first title in 2003.  Combined, since joining the America East, the program has won 193 event titles.  The men have won 112, 64 track and 48 field, and the women have won 81, 54 track and 27 field.  For both teams, the triple jump has provided the most success, with the men claiming 11 individual titles and the women winning eight.  In the 2019 championship meet, the women won a program-record nine events, while the men's record of 10 event victories came during the 2017 championship meet.  The women currently hold six America East championship meet records, and the men own eight.
 
Championship Pedigree
The UAlbany track & field and cross country program won its first America East title in 2003 when the men broke through to claim the indoor track team championship.  Since then, each of the six programs has won at least one America East crown, with women's cross country winning its first in 2018 as the final team to join the group of title-winners.  Overall, the program's six teams have collectively won 55 of UAlbany 116 conference titles in the Division I era, as of the end of the fall 2019 season.  Men's outdoor track & field has won the most, with 16, followed by men's indoor with 15, women's outdoor with 14, women's indoor with eight, and men's and women's cross country with one each.
 
High Standing
In Week 2 of the 2020 U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association indoor regional poll, the UAlbany women jumped two spots to attain their highest-ever regional ranking of second.  The Danes finished behind Northeast regional leader Harvard.  The women's previous high was third, hit on Week 5 of the 2015 indoor season and eight times during the outdoor season, including on seven occasions during outdoor 2019.  Currently, in Week 4, the women rank ninth in the Northeast and the men rank seventh.
 
Reverse Jinks
In her first two meets of 2020, junior hurdler Asia Jinks improved her time in the 60m hurdles to 8.45 through the early part of the season, now ranking third in program history.  Jinks raced in the hurdles four times in January, in trials and finals at each meet, and set a new personal-best in three of the four races.  At the Great Dane Classic, with an existing personal-best of 8.60, Jinks hit 8.52 in the trials and 8.51 in the finals.  At the Dr. Sander Columbia Challenge, Jinks ran 8.53 in the trials before unleashing her current best, 8.45, in the finals.  Jinks owns each of the fastest 11 hurdles times in the America East this season.
 
XC Recap
Senior Hannah Reinhardt dominated the headlines during the 2019 UAlbany cross country season, setting program records in both the 5K and the 6K, as well as establishing a new UAlbany current at overall 5K course record with her second-straight America East individual title.  Reinhardt became the second Great Dane in the Division I era to qualify for NCAA XC Championships, following her victory at the NCAA Northeast Regional XC Championships, a program-first.  Reinhardt led the women to a fourth-place team finish.  Charlie Ragone and Christopher Perillo paced the men's team in 2019, following a 1-2 sweep of the UAlbany XC Invitational with a 21st-and 24th-place finish, respectively, at the America East XC Championships.  The men as a team placed seventh overall
 
Team Captains
After six individuals served as interim captains through the cross country season, the track & field program elected its eight full-time captains on December 5, coming away with a captain class of eight, including one returning captain, Hannah Reinhardt, and one elevated interim captain, Adrian Mitchell.  The other captains elected were Shelby Bigsby, Lynn Gbadamosi, Asia Jinks, Myles Banfield, Bryan Nicholson, and Charlie Ragone.
 
Triple Crown
After winning the 2019 America East XC team title, the UAlbany women went on to claim team victories in the America East Indoor and Outdoor Championship meets, becoming the first women's program in conference history to win all three titles in the same academic year.  Previously, the 2011-12 UAlbany men and 1988-89 Northeastern men had claimed the Triple Crown.
 
Next
Championship season continues next weekend with IC4A and ECAC Indoor Championships at Boston University.