ALBANY, N.Y. – More than a year following their last titles, the University at Albany track & field program will visit UMass Lowell for the latest iteration of the America East Outdoor Championships.
 
Meet Info
America East Outdoor Championships
May 1 & 2 | Lowell, Mass. | UMass Lowell
Championship Central | Live Results | Day One Video | Day Two Video
 
Entries (W/M)
100m: Chartier, Clarke, Lowe, Magassouba, Matthew, Osei-Boateng, Waugh / Blake, Casab, Dixon, Edwards, Hermance, Napier, Umuhuza, D. Williams, S. Williams
200m: Chartier, Clarke, Lowe, Magassouba, Matthew, Osei-Boateng / Blake, Casab, Dixon, Gutierrez Almedina, Hermance, Umuhuza, S. Williams
400m: Gray / Greenwood, Gutierrez Almedina, Rosenthal
800m: Butterfield, Quarshie, Rutt / X
1,500m: Chambers, Coddington, Hayes / Athanailos, Beltran, Garcia, Menis, Rogalski
5,000m: Guilfoyle, Sherman / Kiptum, Ramdani
10,000m: Guilfoyle / X
100m/110m HH: Calamunci, Jinks / Reagan, D. Williams
400m IH: DeFilippis, Denis, Jinks / Reagan
3,000m SC: Ka. Iocca, Ke. Iocca, Planavsky / X
4x100m: Gray, Clarke, Matthew, Lowe, Denis / S. Williams, Blake, Gutierrez Almedina, Napier, Casab, D. Williams, Edwards
4x400m: Denis, Gray, Lowe, Jinks / Reagan, Greenwood, Sturdivant, Gutierrez Almedina, Rosenthal
4x800m: Butterfield, Rutt, Coddington, Quarshie, Chambers, Hayes / Athanailos, Beltran, Garcia, Greenwood, Menis, Rogalski
HJ: Bailey / Gordon, Meehan, Munro
PV: Martinez / Baker, Heatley, McDonough
LJ: Addario, Barrientos Alpha, Foster, Omokeni, Onah / Blue, Edwards, Gordon, McFadden, Sturdivant
TJ: Addario, Barrientos Alpha / Blue, Sturdivant
SP: Bigsby, Galette-Rowe, Gbadamosi, Scott / Reid, Robinson
DT: Bigsby Scott / Nicholson, Reid, Robinson
HT: Bigsby, Campos, Cooper, Galette-Rowe, Gbadamosi / X
JT: Collins, Payne, Thier / Heintzelman, Mitchell
Multi: Payne, Thier / Blatche, Jack, Mancabelli, Meehan
 
Leading the Pack

• The men hold 25 performances that rank within the top-eight in the America East. The women hold 34 such marks.
• The men lead the America East in 10 events. The women lead in eight.
• The men return three event champions from 2019.  The women return five.
• The men return 83.5 of 214 points from the 2019 championship meet.  The women return 101.5 of 254 points.
• The men have won 15-straight America East Outdoor titles.  The women have won 11-straight.
• The men boast six of the top eight seeds in the 100m.
• Cara Sherman ranks 29th nationally in the 10,000m.
• Robert Blue ranks 18th nationally in the triple jump.
• Adrian Mitchell ranks 36th nationally in the javelin.

Last Time Out
The final tune-up before championship season sent the Great Danes to Army West Point for a dual meet against the Black Knights and St. John's.  UAlbany claimed victory in five events, including a sweep of the women's hurdles by Asia Jinks.  Additionally, Travis Robinson improved upon his own freshman class records in the men's shot put and discus, and Shania Scott set a new freshman class record in the women's shot put that had stood for 15 years.
 
Last Time at the America East Outdoor Championships
The Great Danes hosted the last America East Outdoor Championship meet, in 2019, and saw the men win their 15th-straight title and the women win their 11th-straight.  UAlbany's men scored 214.5 points, ahead of runner-up UMass Lowell with 132, and won nine total events, including a clean sweep of the seven sprints, hurdles, and sprint relays events.  Walter Briggs was named Most Outstanding Men's Track Performer, and won the Coaches' Award for highest individual scorer.  The women's team scored a championship meet record 254 points behind 10 event victories and two championship records to complete the first women's Triple Crown in conference history, claiming the team cross country, indoor, and outdoor titles in the same academic year.  Tara Belinsky in the shot put and Venique Harris in the discus set championship meet records, and Harris was named Co-Outstanding Women's Field Performer.  The UAlbany coaching staff won the Coaching Staff of the Year award for both the men and the women.
 
America East Leaders (W/M)
100m: Dominique Clarke, 11.74 / Shak Williams, 10.52
200m: X / Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina, 21.60
400m: X / Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina, 47.13
10,000m: Cara Sherman, 34:01.72 / X
100m HH / 110m HH: X / Dawshawn Williams, 14.73
400m IH: Asia Jinks, 1:00.38 / X
4x100m: 45.92 / 40.49
4x400m: 3:54.58 / X
4x800m: 10:01.63 / 8:22.93
HJ: X / Louie Gordon, 6-08.00
LJ: EJ Onah, 19-11.75 / X
TJ: X / Robert Blue, 52-06.00
DT: X / Travis Robinson, 175-05.00
HT: Ludith Campos, 189-03.00 / X
JT: X / Adrian Mitchell, 221-07.00
 
School Records
3/19/21: Travis Robinson (SP, 52-06.50, freshman)
3/20/21: Robert Blue (TJ, 52-06.00, tied)
4/3/21: Shak Williams (100m, 10.52, school & freshman)
4/10/21: Casab, Blake, Gutierrez Almedina, Napier (4x100m, 40.49)
4/10/21: Travis Robinson (DT, 171-03.00, freshman)
4/10/21: Louie Gordon (LJ, 24-07.75, freshman)
4/16/21: Ludith Campos (HT, 189-03.00)
4/16/21: Dominique Clarke (100m, 11.74, freshman)
4/16/21: Cara Sherman (10,000m, 34:01.72)
4/16/21: Robert Blue (LJ, 24-10.00)
4/17/21: Dominique Clarke (200m, 24.30, freshman)
4/23/21: Travis Robinson (SP, 52-06.75, freshman)
4/23/21: Travis Robinson (DT, 175-05.00, freshman)
4/23/21: Shania Scott (DT, 158-00.00, freshman)
 
Returning Individual America East Outdoor Champions (2019)

• Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina: 200m, 4x100m, 4x400m
• Asia Jinks: 400m IH
• Chidinma Matthew: 100m, 200m
• Garfield Napier: 100m, 4x100m
• Bryan Nicholson: Discus
• Alex Payne: Heptathlon
• EJ Onah: Long Jump
• Cara Sherman: 10,000m

America East Outdoor History
The UAlbany track & field program has swept the team titles at the America East Outdoor Championships each season from 2009-19, before the 2020 championship meet was cancelled due to COVID-19.  The women have won the team title 13 times, including each of the las 11, and the men have won 16, including each of the last 15.  Since joining the America East, UAlbany has claimed 217 total event titles.  The men have won 126, including 76 track and 50 field events, and the women have won 91, including 59 track and 32 field.  The men won a program-record 11 titles in 2007 and 2009, and won nine in the most recent championship meet in 2019.  The women set their record of 10 event titles in the 2019 championship meet.  The women's most successful event has been the 100m and 400m hurdles, with Great Danes winning those events 10 times each.  The men boast the highest number of event titles in the triple jump, winning 14 times.  Currently, UAlbany holds four women's championship meet records and five men's.
 
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 57 of UAlbany 118 conference titles in the Division I era, through the end of the winter 2020-21 season.  The men have won 16 indoor and outdoor titles each, the most in the program, followed by women's outdoor with 13, women's indoor with 10, and men's and women's cross country with one each.
 
New Blood
During the 2021 regular season, UAlbany freshman set nine class records.  Travis Robinson currently holds freshman program records in the men's shot put and discus, having broken each twice this season.  Shak Williams now holds the freshman and varsity records in the men's 100m.  Louie Gordon set the freshman record in the men's long jump, his secondary event.  Dominique Clarke set new freshman records in the women's 100m and 200m.  Finally, Shania Scott set a freshman record in the women's discus.
 
Secondary Success
Two men's field athletes have set school-record marks in secondary events this season.  First, Louie Gordon, primarily a high jumper, set the freshman record in the long jump, recording a mark of 24-07.75 at UConn's Dog Fight.  Next, Robert Blue, primarily a triple jumper, who had already tied the school record in his primary event, broke the school record in the long jump with a mark of 24-10.00 at the Virginia Challenge.  Finally, Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina, whose best event is the 200 where he is the only UAlbany sprinter in history to record a time under 21 seconds, has improved his mark in the 400m to 47.13, leading the America East by more than a second.
 
Frontrunners
Beyond holding conference leading marks, the UAlbany men further hold a total of 24 marks that rank within the top-five of their events, and 18 that rank within the top three, including all three best marks in the 100m, the top two marks in the discus, and the first and third marks in the high jump and triple jump.  The women hold 28 top-five marks and 19 top-three marks.  The women have four performances each in scoring positions in the 100m and 200m, and hold the top three spots in the long jump, the top two spots in the 400m hurdles, and the second and third spots in the discus.
 
First Impressions
Freshman Shak Williams, in his second meet as a Great Dane, broke teammate Garfield Napier's school record in the 100m dash, winning the race at the Virginia Invitational in 10.52.  The mark, already the fastest in program history in his first year, bested Napier's time by two-hundredths of a second.
 
One Last Rodeo
Five Great Danes exercised their additional year of eligibility granted by the NCAA following the cancellation of the 2020 spring season.  Four men, Jean Michael Gutierrez Almedina, Adrian Mitchell, Dom Reid, Omahri Sturdivant, and one woman, Cara Sherman, each of whom were seniors or graduate students in 2020, returned to compete in 2021.  The five individuals have won a combined 10 event titles at America East Indoor and Outdoor Championships with 24 All-Conference performances during their careers, in addition to one IC4A/ECAC event title and one All-America honor.
 
Olympic Dreams
In 2016, UAlbany sprinter/hurdler Grace Claxton qualified for the semifinal round at the Olympic Games in Rio.  Competing for her native Puerto Rico, Claxton placed 14th overall in the event in a personal-best time 55.90.  She continues her Olympic training, gearing up for another run at the Tokyo Games, to be held this summer after a one-year delay.  Claxton headlines a small group of hopefuls with UAlbany connections training for an Olympic push, including:

• Grace Claxton – Puerto Rico
• Ricardo Estremera – Puerto Rico
• Abel Gilet – Haiti
• Venique Harris – Jamaica
• Adrian Mitchell – Jamaica
• Diamond Thomas – Trinidad and Tobago

Reverse Jinks
In her first two meets of 2020, hurdler Asia Jinks improved her time in the 60m hurdles to 8.45 through the early part of the season, jumping to third-best 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.  By the end of the 2019-20 indoor season, Jinks owned each of the fastest 13 hurdles times in the America East.
 
21
When he won the 2020 America East Indoor 200m championship, Jan Michael Gutierrez 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 six America East event titles.
 
Dashing
The men's 100m dash record was set at the 2019 America East Outdoor Championships when Garfield Napier qualified first in the preliminary round in 10.54.  Not to be outdone, on the women's side, Chidinma Matthew has won seven America East even titles, including each of the three most recent short sprints.
 
Yo, Adrian!
Adrian Mitchell makes his return to active competition this season, having not competed for UAlbany since the 2018 outdoor season.  Mitchell burst onto the scene with the second-best javelin mark in program history in his first season, 227-02.00, back in 2016.  That same year he earned All-America Second Team honors in his signature event, placing 14th at NCAA Outdoor Championships.
 
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.
 
Long Jumping
Junior EJ Onah remains undefeated in America East championship meets in her signature event, the long jump.  Announcing her presence as a freshman by winning the long jump at the 2019 America East Indoor Championships, Onah has successfully defended her inaugural victory at each of the following two conference championship meets held since then.  She has recorded marks exceeding 20-00.00 both indoors and outdoors.
 
Go the Distance
Cara Sherman returns to the Great Danes' squad this season as a graduate student and the women's top distance runner.  Sherman, who is an 11-time All-America East performer, is the defending America East 10,000m champion, an event she won on her home track in 2019.  She ranks no lower than fourth in all of the indoor and outdoor long-distance events in UAlbany history.
 
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: The Great Danes will host their long home meet of the season, the Bobbi Palma UAlbany Spring Classic, on Friday, May 7.