ALBANY, N.Y. – Championship season begins for the University at Albany track & field program on Monday with the 2024 America East Indoor Championships at The TRACK at New Balance in Boston.
 
Meet Info
America East Indoor Championships
February 19-20 | The TRACK at New Balance
Boston, Mass.
Championship Central
Live Results
Streaming: Day One | Day One Throws | Day Two | Day Two Throws
Heat Sheets: Women | Men
Meet Notes
 
Last Time at America East Championships
February 18-19, 2023 | For the first time in a decade, neither UAlbany team claimed the America East Indoor team championship.  UMass Lowell repeated as men's champion, while the River Hawks' women's team edged the Great Danes by half a point to claim their first title.  UAlbany won a total of 12 events (seven women's events and five men's), while Travis Robinson set America East Indoor Championship meet records in the men's 60m and 200m.
 
Last Time Out
A small contingent of Great Danes split their last weekend before championship season, heading to Boston and New York City for the Valentine Invitational and the 116th Millrose Games, respectively.  Steph Green an Kiki Nosile kicked off the weekend for UAlbany, competing in the weight throw during the Millrose Games' Friday session.  Green placed second overall, and Nosile placed sixth.  In Boston, Skyler Smith set a new personal-best in the women's mile, preceding on Saturday Hassan Abidi recording the second-best time in program history in the indoor men's 800m.  Shak Williams wrapped the weekend with a big personal-best to place sixth in the 60m dash at the Millrose Games in a start-studded field that included world record-holder Christian Coleman.
 
America East Event Leaders (W/M)
60m: Clarke (7.44) / S. Williams (6.61)
200m: Newberry (24.26) / X
800m: X / Abidi (1:49.45)
1,000m: X / Abidi (2:23.38)
60m HH: X / Messado (7.99)
HJ: Benjamin (5-08.75) / Reynolds (6-09.00)
LJ: X / Gordon (24-09.25)
TJ: Nicholas (42-11.00) / X
SP: X / Robinson (57-11.00)
 
Northeast Indoor Rankings
Week 4: Women (8) / Men (7)
Week 3: Women (7) / Men (9)
Week 2: Women (5) / Men (9)
Week 1: Women (8) / Men (13)
 
#EventSquad Top-25
Men's Long Jump: 18
Men's Triple Jump: 21
 
Northeast Top-8
Hassan Abidi: 800m (6, 1:49.45)
Amelia Benjamin: HJ (5, 5-08.75)
Dominique Clarke: 60m (1, 7.44)
Louis Gordon: LJ (3, 24-09.25)
Steph Green: WT (4, 64-05.25)
Jazmen Newberry: 200m (5, 24.26)
Leann Nicholas: TJ (1, 42-11.00)
Ja'Lil Reynolds: HJ (5, 6-09.00)
Travis Robinson: SP (5, 57-11.00)
Shavar Staats Jr.: 60m (4, 6.71)
Shak Williams: 60m (1, 6.61)
DMR: Men (4, 10:04.35)
 
NCAA Indoor Top-16
Shak Williams: 60m (16, 6.61)
 
Indoor Program Records
12/3/23: Amelia Benjamin (HJ, 5-08.75, freshman, ties varsity)
12/3/23: Travis Robinson (SP, 57-11.00)
1/20/24: Hassan Abidi (600m, 1:18.56)
1/20/24: Charlotte Moscovici (PV, 10-08.75, freshman)
1/20/24: Mikolaj Gancarz (600m, 1:21.17, freshman)
1/27/24: Leann Nicholas (TJ, 42-11.00)
2/2/24: Louis Gordon (LJ, 24-09.25)
 
America East Indoor Performers of the Week
2/13/24: Steph Green, Shak Williams
2/6/24: Antwone Messado, Louis Gordon
1/30/24: Leann Nicholas, Shak Williams, Travis Robinson
 
Breaking Barriers
The 2023-24 indoor season has seen Great Dane student-athletes surpass significant competitive milestones in their events.  Steph Green became the fourth woman to record a mark of 64' or greater in the women's weight throw.  Kiki Nosile became the seventh woman to record a mark over 60' in the same event.  Hassan Abidi is the fourth to break 1:20.00 in the men's 600m, and the second to break 1:19.00.  He is also the second to break 2:24.00 in the men's 1,000m, and the third to break 1:50.00 in the indoor 800m.  Finally, Antwone Messado is the fourth to break 8.00 in the men's 60m hurdles.
 
Rare Air
The UAlbany record books have seen a rewriting of the throwing events this season.  In the first meet, Travis Robinson broke his own program record in the men's shot put with a mark of 57-11.00.  He threw 57-04.50 two meets later, and is the only Great Dane to record a mark greater than 55' in program history.  Additionally, the women's weight throw saw Steph Green become the fifth Great Dane to record a mark greater than 64', and Kiki Nosile the seventh to record a mark greater than 60'.
 
600
UAlbany's first meet of 2024 brought forth a rewriting of the program record book in the men's 600m run.  Hassan Abidi set the overall school record, finishing second overall, and first among collegiate competitors, in 1:18.56.  He is just the second Great Dane in history to break 1:19.00 in the event.  His time also broke his own Tunisian indoor national record.  Behind Abidi, freshman Mikolaj Gancarz, in his first race in a UAlbany uniform, set the freshman class record, 1:21.17.
 
Millrose Bound
The UAlbany track & field program will, once again, have a presence at the biggest meet of the indoor season, the Millrose Games, at The Armory in New York City on February 11.  Shak Williams was accepted to compete in the men's 60m dash, while Steph Green and Kiki Nosile were each invited to participate in the Games' special weight throw session on Thursday.
 
#1
Following her performance in the first meet of the season, Leann Nicholas ranked first among all Division I competitors in her signature event, the triple jump recording a mark of 41-06.00.  Nicholas is the first Great Dane to hold a #1 ranking at any point during the indoor or outdoor season since Travis Williams in the men's 55m dash, en route, in 2023, and just the third woman during the program's Divison I era, after Grace Claxton (300m) and Venique Harris (discus).
 
Schedule Note
Once again, the 2023-24 UAlbany track & field schedule will not include an indoor home meet.  With the cross country season also not featuring a home meet for the Great Danes, the only time UAlbany will compete at home this season will be the Bobbi Palma Spring Classic, on April 19, during the outdoor season.
 
Coming Down
Continuing her resurgence, Amanda Chambers climbed the ladder of the programs cross country rankings, bringing her personal-best times down in both the 5K and the 6K during the 2023 cross country season.  She now ranks ninth all-time in the 5K and fourth in the 6K, adding to her three other top-10 rankings indoors and outdoors.  Chambers opened the indoor season lowering her 5,000m time once again, to 16:32.02, an improvement over her best time outdoors by more than one second.
 
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.
 
America East Indoor History
The women won nine-straight indoor conference titles from 2013-22, and further 11 in 12 years, while the men have won 16 since their first in 2003.  Since joining the America East, the program has claimed a total of 232 America East indoor event titles.  The men have won 131, including 77 track and 54 field, and the women have won 101, including 62 track and 39 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 13 victories.  Currently, the Great Danes hold six women's and eight men's indoor championship meet records.
 
Returning 2023 America East Indoor Champions
Dominique Clarke: 60m, 200m – W
Brinesha Derrick-Bain: 4x400m – W
Louis Gordon: Long Jump – M
Alicia Grady: 4x400m – W
Antwone Messado: 60m HH – M
Jazmen Newberry: 4x400m – W
Leann Nicholas: Triple Jump – W
Efe Omokeni: Long Jump – W
Travis Robinson: Shot Put - M
 
Next: UAlbany will visit the Ocean Breeze facility on Staten Island for the Fastrack Last Chance Meet on February 23.