ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany track & field program makes its long-awaited return to the indoor season this weekend with a visit to Army West Point for the Carlton Crowell Open in a soft-open of the 2021-22 season.
 
Meet Info
Carlton Crowell Open
December 4 | West Point, N.Y. | Army West Point
Meet Schedule | Live Results | Heat Sheets | 60m & 200m Start Lists
 
Entries
 

Event	Women	Men
60m	Addario, Barrientos Alpha, Foster, Garner, Gray, Harrison, Hartley, Matthew, McDermott, Omokeni, Pepanio	Allen, Baker, Blatche, Blue, Casab, Cephus, Dengler, Edwards, L. Gordon, Gutierrez Almedina, Hatzmann, McDonough, McFadden, G. Munro, Price, Quinn, Samia, Tapande-Ngombe, S. Williams, T. Williams
200m	Hollis, Hyde, Payne, Thier
400m	Baker, Browne, Joseph, Kaoma, Lowe, Morris	Blake, Gutierrez Almedina, Hames, Tapande-Ngombe, Umuhuza
500m	Brown, Grady, Howard	Colon, Guialdo
1,000m	Butterfield, Hanson, Hayes, Rutt	Athanailos, Diaz, Rogalski, Venson
1-Mile	Chambers, Hanson, Hrelja, Rutt, Zitomer	Athanailos, Rogalski, Venson
3,000m	Chambers, Fitzmaurice, Guilfoyle, Iocca, Planavsky	Beltran
60m HH	Calamunci, Hollis, Hyde, Payne, Thier	Mancabelli, Meehan, Messado, Reagan
4x400m	A: McDermott, Brown, Matthew, Gray B: Garner, Browne, Hartley, Howard C: Morris, Grady, Calamunci, Kaoma	A: Samia, Guialdo, Reagan, Colon B: Casab, Munro, S. Williams, T. Williams C: Blatche, Mancabelli, Meehan, Price
High Jump	Bailey, Bazile, Hyde, Payne	Farquharson, L. Gordon, Harris, Meehan
Pole Vault	Patrick, Solomon-Hollander, Tyler	Baker, Dengler, Hatzmann, McDonough
Long Jump	Bailey, Foster, Harrison, Omokeni, Pepanio, Thier	Blatche, Blue, Edwards, L. Gordon, Mancabelli, McFadden, Price, Quinn
Triple Jump	Addario, Barrientos Alpha, Nicholas	Allen, Charles, Farquharson
Shot Put	Bigsby, Galette-Rowe	Blatche, Mancabelli, Meehan, Price,  Robinson
Weight Throw	Bigsby, Galette-Rowe	Nicholson

Leading the Pack

• Saturday is UAlbany's first indoor meet since March 13-15, 2020.
• The women have won eight-straight America East indoor titles; the men have won two-straight.
• The women return 84.5 of 175 points from the 2020 indoor championship team, including all 27 points from the weight throw; the men return 68.5 of 171.5 points.

Last Time Out
The last time we saw the Great Danes in action was at the 2021 NCAA Northeast Regional XC Championships in Boston's Franklin Park.  Track & field last competed at the NCAA East Preliminary Championships at the University of North Florida, and we last saw the team compete indoors at the 2020 IC4A and ECAC Indoor Championships at Boston University.
 
Last Time at Army
UAlbany last visiting Army West Point indoors in January, 2013 for the Crowell Open.  The meet served as the season opener for the Great Danes that year, and featured a heavier emphasis on field and multis events. 
 
Returning Individual America East Indoor Champions (2020)

• Shelby Bigsby: Shot Put
• Ludith Campos: Weight Throw
• Rori Lowe: 4x400m
• Chidinma Matthew: 60m, 4x400m
• Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina: 200m, 4x400m
• Louis Gordon: High Jump

U23 Pan American Games
Continuing a long tradition of international participation, senior thrower Ludith Campos will compete this weekend for the Dominican Republic in her signature event, the hammer throw, at the U23 Pan American Games held in Cali, Colombia.  Campos holds UAlbany's school record in the hammer, recording a mark of 189-03.00 at last year's Virginia Challenge, and won the event at the 2021 America East Outdoor Championships.
 
Layover
Saturday's meet will be UAlbany's first indoor track & field competition since the 2020 IC4A & ECAC Indoor Championships, marking a span of 637 days between indoor meets.  The 2020 indoor season concluded just before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the spring season, which ultimately stretched to the fall and extended to indoor track & field in the winter.  Great Danes track & field and cross country athletes saw three seasons completely or partially eliminated due to the pandemic: 2020 outdoor, 2020 cross country (made up on a modified schedule in spring 2021), and 2021 indoor.
 
Hall of Fame
On October 23, 2021, and after a long delay due to COVID-19, University at Albany Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Roberto Vives was inducted into the Greater Capital Region Track, Field, and Cross Country Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2020, the Hall's third-ever class.  He was enshrined alongside two other Great Danes in Jeoffrey York ('96) and Frank Myers ('68).
 
America East Indoor History
For each of the last two seasons in which it was contested, the UAlbany Great Danes track & field program has swept the America East indoor championships.  The women are riding an active streak of eight indoor conference titles, and 10 of the last 11, while the men have won two-straight and 16 since their first in 2003.  Since joining the America East, the program has claimed a total of 210 America East indoor event titles.  The men have won 119, including 69 track and 50 field, and the women have won 91, including 58 track and 33 field.  In 2017, the men set a single-meet program record with 10 event victories, and the women's record of nine came in 2019, the year of their Triple Crown.  The women's most successful event has been the high hurdles, winning the event nine times, where the men have found the most success in the triple jump with 12 victories.  Currently, the Great Danes hold six women's and eight men's indoor championship meet records.
 
Sustained Success
Since reclassifying to Division I for the 1999-00 season, the University at Albany track & field program has won a total of 57 America East indoor and outdoor titles.  Twenty-six of those titles have come during the indoor season.  The women's current streak of eight-straight indoor championships ranks third behind North Dakota State's 14 Summit League indoor titles and Arkansas' nine SEC indoor titles.  Additionally, the women's 10 total titles in UAlbany's Division I era rank tied for 10th among D-I programs overall, and third since the team won its first indoor title in 2010 (North Dakota State, 12; Alabama State, 11).  The men's 16 total indoor titles tied for second-most among D-I schools since 1999-00 with Houston, behind Liberty's 22, and outright second-most since their first indoor title in 2003 (Liberty, 19).
 
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 59 of UAlbany's 120 conference titles in the Division I era, through the end of the fall 2021-22 season.  The men have won 17 outdoor and 16 indoor titles, followed by women's outdoor with 14, women's indoor with 10, and men's and women's cross country with one each.
 
21
When he won the 2020 America East Indoor 200m championship, Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina crossed the line in 20.98, becoming the first Great Dane in history to break the 21.00 barrier outright.  Gutierrez Almedina previously ran a wind-aided 20.95 during the 2019 outdoor season.  In his career, he has won 10 America East event titles.
 
50
Only two women have hit the 50' mark in the shot put in program history.  Tara Belinsky hit it first, and remains the only woman to throw that far in both the indoor and outdoor events.  During the indoor 2020 season, Shelby Bigsby surpassed Belinsky's indoor record of 50-00.00 by nearly five inches, becoming the second woman to hit or exceed a 50' shot put mark.  Bigsby did not get a chance to carry her momentum to the outdoor season, which was cancelled due to COVID-19.
 
Continued Excellence
The UAlbany men have a stellar recent history in the high jump, featuring three overlapping student-athletes, Alex Bowen, Matthew Campbell, and Kingsley Ogbonna, who each cleared 7-00.00 in the event.  After they had all exhausted their eligibility, a new jumper joined the program.  Louis Gordon became the fourth Great Dane in history to clear 7-00.00 in the high jump, recording a season-best 7-02.25 to win the 2020 America East Indoor Championships as a freshman.
 
Triple Crown
After winning the 2018-19 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: UAlbany visits Boston University for the Battle in Beantown on January 22.