ALBANY, N.Y. – With two weekends of competition remaining before the 2022 America East Indoor Championships, UAlbany track & field visits the Armory in New York City to compete in the Dr. Sander Invitational Columbia Challenge.
 
Dr. Sander Invitational
February 4-5 | New York, N.Y. | The Armory
Meet Info | Live Results
 
Entries
 

Event	Women	Men
60m	Clarke, Denis, Garner, Hunt, Lowe, McDermott	Casab, Edwards, Munro, S. Williams, T. Williams
200m	Clarke, Garner, Gray, Hunt	Gutierrez Almedina, Munro, S. Williams, T. Williams
400m	Brown, Denis	Blake, Guialdo, Tapande-Ngombe
800m	Butterfield, Hayes, Rutt	Diaz, Venson
3,000m	Fitzmaurice, Guilfoyle	Garcia
60m HH	Calamunci, Nelson Chevry	Messado, Reagan
4x400m	Denis, Lowe, McDermott, Gray, Brown	Gutierrez Almedina, Blake, Reagan, Tapande-Ngombe, Guialdo, Messado
DMR	Rutt, Howard, Hayes, Fitzmaurice, Brown	Venson, Guialdo, Diaz, Rogalski
High Jump	Bailey	Farquharson, Harris
Long Jump	Barrientos Alpha, Foster, Nelson Chevry, Omokeni	Blue, Cephus, Edwards, McFadden, Quinn
Triple Jump	Barrientos Alpha	Charles, Farquharson
Shot Put	Bigsby, Scott
Weight Throw	Bigsby, Campos, Galette-Rowe	Nicholson
Multi	Hyde, Payne, Thier	Meehan, Mancabelli

Leading the Pack

• UAlbany leads the America East in nine events
• This meet will be the first time the multis athletes will compete in their full event
• This is UAlbany's second and final trip to the Amory this season
• The field for the meet includes UCLA, Penn St., Boston College, Maryland, Syracuse, and Virginia

Last Time Out
UAlbany competed in two meets last week, the Great Dane Classic and the Millrose Games.  The former was the first track meet the Great Danes hosted since the 2020 Great Dane Classic, and the latter is the most prestigious meet of the indoor season.  Three women's weight throwers competed at Millrose on Thursday, with Shiana Galette-Rowe and Ludith Campos placing second and third, respectively, with Galette-Rowe recording a new personal-best.  On Friday, the Great Danes won five events and saw Dominique Clark set two freshman class records, in the women's 60m and the 200m.  Saturday, the main day at Millrose, featured UAlbany's men's and women's 4x200m relays, the latter of which set a new program record.
 
Last Time at Dr. Sander
In the scoring section of the 2020 Dr. Sander Invitational, the men placed ninth and the women placed 12th.  Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina claimed UAlbany's lone victory, winning the men's 200m in 21.36.  The Great Danes boasted five additional top-five finishes, including Shelby Bigby's fourth-place finish in the women's shot put and Robert Blue with a fifth-place effort in the men's triple jump.
 
Performers of the Week
 
Week 6
UAlbany swept the field event awards in Week 6 with standout performances from Robert Blue and Ludith Campos, who each won their second-consecutive weekly award.  Blue won the triple jump at UAlbany's Great Dane Classic, recording a mark of 50-02.75.  Campos competed in two meets last week.  First, at the Millrose Games, Campos placed third in the weight throw with a mark of 59-06.75.  The following day, at the Great Dane Classic, she claimed victory in the same event in a personal-best 63-01.25.
 
Week 5
Following UAlbany's second week of competition of the 2021-22 indoor season, Boston University's Battle in Beantown, three Great Danes earned America East weekly awards.  Victories from Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina in the 400m and Robert Blue in the triple jump earned a sweep of the men's track and men's field honors, and Ludith Campos' fourth-place finish in the weight throw garnered women's field honors.
 
Week 1
UAlbany kicked off the 2021-22 indoor season by winning two of the four Week 1 America East Performer of the Week awards.  After their performances at Army West Point's Carlton Crowell Open, Yourry Tapande-Ngombe and Leann Nicholas were named men's track and women's field performer of the week, respectively.  Tapande-Ngombe won the men's 400m with a meet-record 48.49.  Nicholas set a new program freshman class record and meet record of 40-11.00 with her victory in the triple jump.
 
ECAC Indoor Qualifiers (9)
Bigsby, Campos, Clarke, Galette-Rowe, Gray, Hunt, Lowe, McDermott, Nicholas
 
IC4A Indoor Qualifiers (11)
Blake, Blue, Casab, Charles, Guialdo, Gutierrez Almedina, Messado, Robinson, Tapande-Ngombe, S. Williams, T. Williams
 
Great Danes Around the World
Continuing a long tradition of international participation, senior thrower Ludith Campos will competed for the Dominican Republic in her signature event, the hammer throw, at the U23 Pan American Games held in Cali, Colombia.  She placed ninth overall, recording a mark of 188-05.00, her second-best performance of her career.
 
America East Leaders (W/M)
60m: Dominique Clarke (7.59) / X
400m: X / Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina (46.98)
500m: X / Raiden Guialdo (1:04.73)
60m HH: X / Antwone Messado (8.24)
TJ: Leann Nicholas (40-11.00) / Robert Blue (50-02.75)
SP: Shania Scott (43-06.50 / Travis Robinson (54-11.25)
WT: Ludith Campos (63-01.25) / X
 
School Records
12/4/21: Travis Robinson (SP, 54-11.25, school & freshman)
12/4/21: Brynley McDermott (60m, 7.64, freshman)
12/4/21: Leann Nicholas (TJ, 40-11.00, freshman)
1/28/21: Dominique Clarke (60m, 7.59, freshman)
1/28/21: Dominique Clarke (200m, 24.50, freshman)
1/29/21: Dee Denis, Rori Lowe, Brynley McDermott, Imani Gray (4x200m, 1:39.05)
 
USTFCCCA Regional Rankings
The second regional poll of the 2021-22 season saw the women jump two spots to 12 and the men fall three to 13.  UConn jumped to the top of the men's poll, displacing Army West Point, who fell to second, followed by Harvard, Cornell, and Northeastern.  Harvard's women also jumped one spot to first, displacing Cornell in second, followed by Army West Point, UConn, and St. John's.  UAlbany was the only America East team in the men's top-15 while the women's poll featured Binghamton in sixth and UMass Lowell in 10th.
 
Week 2: Men (13) | Women (12)
Week 1: Men (10) | Women (14)
 
Northeast Region Top-8
Robert Blue: Triple Jump: (2, 50-02.75)
Emily Brown: DMR (8, 12:38.70)
Ludith Campos: Weight Throw (3, 63-01.25)
Dominique Clarke: 60m (4, 7.59); 200m (4, 24.50)
Shiana Galette-Rowe: Weight Throw (6, 61-01.50)
Imani Gray: 60m (6, 7.60)
Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina: 400m (2, 46.98)
Chloe Hanson: DMR (8, 12:38.70)
Erin Hayes: DMR (8, 12:38.70)
Leann Nicholas: Triple Jump (1, 40-11.00)
Sam Rutt: DMR (8, 12:38.70)
Yourry Tapande-Ngombe: 400m (6, 47.73)
 
47
With his winning time of 46.98 in the 400m at Boston University's Battle in Beantown, Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina became the fifth Great Dane in program history to break 47 seconds in the event, and just the third to do so during the indoor season.  He follows former Great Danes Taariq Jones, Myles Banfield, Joe Greene, and Jason Tomlinson.  Only Jones and Banfield broke 47 seconds both indoors and outdoors.
 
Millrose Bound
When the field for the 114th Millrose Games was announced, included five entries for UAlbany, which was making its first appearance at the indoor season's most prestigious meet since the 2015 season.  Three women's throwers, Shelby Bigsby, Ludith Campos, and Shiana Galette-Rowe, will compete in the weight throw on Thursday, while the Great Danes qualified both the men's and women's 4x200m relay teams into Saturday's competition.  The women's team consists of Dee Denis, Imani Gray, Chidinma Matthew, and Rori Lowe, and the men will bring Nicardo Blake, Jan Michael Gutierrez Almedina, Yourry Tapande-Ngombe, and Shakur Williams.
 
Layover
The 2021-22 season opener was 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).  The trio joins in the Hall of Fame Bobbi Palma, UAlbany's first women's track & field coach, who was enshrined as part of the Hall's inaugural class in 2018.
 
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 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).
 
Outdoors, the Great Dane men hold the longest active streak of consecutive conference titles at 16.  The women's active streak of 12 is second nationally, one behind North Dakota State's 13-straight Summit League outdoor titles.  Since reclassifying the men's 17 titles rank second behind Liberty's 19, and the women's 14 rank tied for third with Bucknell, 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.
 
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 will compete in two meets next weekend, the Fastrack National Invitational at Ocean Breeze and the Valentine Invitational at Boston University.