ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany track & field program opens the 2022-23 indoor season with a trip to West Point for the Carlton Crowell Open, their first of two December meets this year.
 
Meet Info
Carlton Crowell Open
December 3 | West Point, N.Y. | Army West Point
Live Results | UAlbany Entries
 
Leading the Pack

• The UAlbany women have won nine-straight America East indoor titles
• The women return of 111.25 of 180 points scored at indoor championships; the men return of 116.75 of 172 points
• The UAlbany women's indoor, women's outdoor, and men's outdoor conference title streaks each rank as the longest among NCAA Division I programs
• The 2022-23 season does not have an indoor home meet 

Last Time Indoors at West Point
February 19, 2022 | The Great Danes competed in a surprise final regular-season meet last week, with a selection of distance runners and pole vaulters making a return to West Point, N.Y. for the West Point Tune-Up.  The Great Danes swept the 1,000m, with Sam Rutt winning the women's race and Jared Rogalski winning the men's race.
 
Last Time Out
May 25-28, 2022 | The Great Danes closed the 2021-22 track & field season with a contingent of 12 student-athletes at the NCAA East Preliminary Championships in Bloomington, Ind.  Three Great Danes advanced in the qualifying process.  On Day One, Shak Williams set a new school record in the men's 100m of 10.26 to advance out of the first round, while Dominique Clarke and Dee Denis set personal-bests in the women's 200m dash and 400m hurdles, respectively, on Day Two to advance in their events.  Williams finished 19th overall in his event, Clarke finished 23rd, and Denis placed 15th.  Denis' second-round race field featured former teammate Asia Jinks, who had transferred to Auburn before the start of the 2021-22 season.
 
Returning America East Indoor Champions

• Shelby Bigsby: Shot Put - W
• Nicardo Blake: 4x400m - M
• Dominique Clarke: 60m - W
• Ludith Campos: Weight Throw - W
• Antwone Messado: 60m HH - M
• Easton Reagan: 4x400m - M
• Travis Robinson: Shot Put - M
• Shak Williams: 60m - M

Team Leader
Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Roberto Vives once again answered the call from Puerto Rico to work with the team at an international competition.  Vives served as team leader for the Puerto Rico qualifiers at the 2022 World Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore.  Vives, who reunited with Grace Claxton at World Championships, previously worked with the Puerto Rico National Team in 2018 and 2019, and worked in 2015 as a member of the Team USA staff.
 
Hall of Fame
Two additional members of the UAlbany track & field and cross country program have been inducted into the Greater Capital Region Track, Field, and Cross Country Hall of Fame.  Head cross country coach and assistant track & field coach Matt Jones was inducted as a member of the class of 2022, as was former men's competitor Felipe Reyes ('09).  Jones and Reyes were inducted in a class of 10, and bring the total number of inductees with ties to the UAlbany program to eight.  Additionally, the Hall of Fame began honoring high school athletes this year, and incoming freshman Alex Saltsman was honored for his career at Fonda-Fultonville.
 
Sustained Success
Since reclassifying to Division I for the 1999-00 season, the University at Albany track & field program has won a total of 61 America East indoor and outdoor titles.  Thirty-three of those titles have come during the outdoor season.  The women's current streak of nine-straight indoor championships is the longest in the country.  Additionally, the women's 11 total indoor titles in UAlbany's Division I era rank tied for ninth among D-I programs overall, and tied for second since the team won its first indoor title in 2010 (North Dakota State, 12; Alabama State, 11).  The men's 16 total indoor titles are 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). 

Since reclassifying the men's 18 outdoor titles rank second behind Liberty's 19, and the women's 15 rank tied for second with Alabama State, behind Monmouth's 17 and Alabama State's 15.  Finally, since winning their first Division I conference titles, the men's in 2003 and the women's in 2006, the Great Dane men and women each lead the country in outdoor conference titles.
 
The men's current streak of 17-straight outdoor conference titles is the longest in Division I, while the women's streak of 13 is currently tied North Dakota State's 13-straight Summit League outdoor championships.
 
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 62 of UAlbany's 125 conference titles in the Division I era, through the end of the winter 2021-22 season.  The men have won 18 outdoor and 16 indoor titles, followed by women's outdoor with 15, women's indoor with 11, and men's and women's cross country with one each.
 
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 makes its first trip to Boston of the season next week for its debut appearance at The Track at New Balance, a new facility that will host the 2023 America East Indoor Championships.