ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany track & field program heads to warmer climates this weekend in Florida and Puerto Rico to open the 2024 outdoor season.
 
Black & Gold Invitational
March 15-16 | University of Central Florida
Orlando, Fla.
Live Results
 
Spring Break Classic
March 15-16
Carolina, Puerto Rico
Live Results
 
Last Season's Opening Weekend
March 17-18, 2023 | The Great Danes opened the 2023 outdoor season at the Black & Gold Invite at the University of Central Florida and at the Spring Break Classic in Carolina, Puerto Rico.  Travis Williams highlighted the weekend, setting a personal-best in the men's 100m and setting a new outdoor school record in the men's 200m, 21.07, breaking teammate Garry Munro's previous record by three-hundredths of a second.  Additionally, Amanda Chambers set big personal bests in both the women's 800m and 1,500m, as did Alicia Grady in the women's 400m.  Brinesha Derrick-Bain took home the weekend's only event victory, in the women's 400m hurdles in Puerto Rico, while in Orlando, Ja'Lil Reynolds placed second in the men's high jump, and Leann Nicholas and Dominique Clarke placed third in the women's triple jump and women's 100m, respectively.
 
Last Time Out
UAlbany closed the 2023-24 indoor season by bringing a contingent of distance runners to the IC4A & ECAC Indoor Championships in Boston.  The team earned two top-three, and four top-eight, finishes over the weekend, highlighted by Hassan Abidi finishing second in the men's 800m and the men's distance medley relay finishing second overall.  Skyler Smith placed seventh in the women's 1,000m, crossing the line in a personal-best time after winning the same event the previous week at America East Indoor Championships.  Smith joined teammates on the women's distance medley relay to place eighth.
 
America East Outdoor History
UAlbany has won 18 men's outdoor titles overall, and 14-straight women's outdoor titles, and 16 overall.  The men have had the most success in the triple jump, winning 15 event titles.  The women have had the most success in the 400m hurdle, winning 13 titles.  The Great Danes also hold 10 men's and five women's active America East Outdoor Championship meet records.  Overall, the Great Danes have won 268 event titles at America East Outdoor Championships.  The men have won 152, including 93 track events and 59 field events, and the women have won 116, including 72 track events and 44 field events.
 
Sustained Success
Since reclassifying to Division I for the 1999-00 season, the University at Albany track & field program has won a total of 65 America East indoor and outdoor titles.  Thirty-four of those titles have come during the outdoor season.   Additionally, the women's 12 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 17 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 16 rank second behind Monmouth's 18.  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 or share the lead in the country in outdoor conference titles.
 
The women's current streak of 14-straight outdoor conference titles is the longest in Division I, women's or men's.
 
Returning America East Outdoor Champions
Dominique Clarke: 100m, 4x100m – W
Brinesha Derrick-Bain: 400m IH, 4x400m – W
Louis Gordon: Long Jump – M
Alicia Grady: 4x400m – W
Adaliz Hunt: 4x100m – W
Antwone Messado: 110m HH – M
Jazmen Newberry: 200m, 4x100m, 4x400m – W
Leann Nicholas: Triple Jump – W
Efe Omokeni: Long Jump – W
Jared Rogalski: 4x800m – M
Shania Scott: Discus – W
 
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.  Antwone Messado is the fourth to break 8.00 in the men's 60m hurdles.  Finally, Travis Robinson became the first to break 60' in the men's shot put.
 
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 indoor 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 Division I era, after Grace Claxton (300m) and Venique Harris (discus).
 
Coming Down
Continuing her resurgence, Amanda Chambers climbed the ladder of the program's 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 65 of UAlbany's 130 conference titles in the Division I era, through the end of the winter 2023-24 season.  The men have won 18 outdoor and 17 indoor titles, followed by women's outdoor with 16, women's indoor with 12, and men's and women's cross country with one each.
 
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.
 
America East Indoor History
The women won nine-straight indoor conference titles from 2013-22, and further 12 in 14 years, while the men have won 17 since their first in 2003.  Since joining the America East, the program has claimed a total of 245 America East indoor event titles.  The men have won 138, including 81 track and 57 field, and the women have won 107, including 65 track and 42 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 and the triple jump, winning each event 10 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 10 men's indoor championship meet records.
 
2024 America East Indoor Champions
Hassan Abidi: 800m – M
Amelia Benjamin: High Jump – W
Dominique Clarke: 60m – W
Toni Galloway: 60m HH – W
Louis Gordon: Long Jump – M
Antwone Messado: 60m HH – M
Leann Nicholas: Triple Jump – W
Efe Omokeni: Long Jump – W
Ja'Lil Reynolds: High Jump – M
Travis Robinson: Shot Put – M
Skyler Smith: 1,000m – W
Shak Williams: 60m, 200m – M
 
America East Indoor Event Leaders (W/M)
60m: Clarke (7.41) / S. Williams (6.61)
200m: X / S. Williams (21.35)
800m: X / Abidi (1:49.45)
1,000m: X / Abidi (2:23.38)
60m HH: Galloway (8.25) / Messado (7.99)
HJ: Benjamin (5-10.75) / Reynolds (6-11.50)
LJ: X / Gordon (24-10.00)
TJ: Nicholas (42-11.00) / X
SP: X / Robinson (60-09.50)
 
Northeast Indoor Rankings
Week 6: Women (9) / Men (6)
Week 5: Women (11) / Men (9)
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 Indoor Top-25
USTFCCCA #EventSquad rankings places a rank order to a program's "squad" of athletes in a particular event, using the cumulative season-best qualifying marks from a team's top-four ranked athletes on the national descending-order list.  As with the national descending-order list for qualifying and seeding purposes, marks are subject to be converted due to track size and/or altitude.  A team must have four or more athletes with a valid season-best mark to achieve a ranking in a particular event.
 
Women's 60m HH: 23
Men's High Jump: 21
Men's Long Jump: 21
Men's Triple Jump: 22
 
Northeast Indoor Top-8
Hassan Abidi: 800m (8, 1:45.45)
Amelia Benjamin: HJ (2, 5-10.75)
Tyler Charles: TJ (4, 50-04.00)
Dominique Clarke: 60m (1, 7.41); 200m (2, 23.96)
Toni Galloway: 60m HH (2, 8.25)
Louis Gordon: LJ (4, 24-10.00)
Steph Green: WT (4, 64-05.25)
Zhi Luncheon-Lowrie: HJ (6, 6-10.25)
Jazmen Newberry: 200m (4, 24.09)
Leann Nicholas: TJ (1, 42-11.00)
Ja'Lil Reynolds: HJ (5, 6-11.50)
Travis Robinson: SP (1, 60-09.50)
Shavar Staats Jr.: 60m (4, 6.71)
Shak Williams: 60m (1, 6.61); 200m (7, 21.35)
 
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: Mikolaj Gancarz (600m, 1:21.17, freshman)
1/20/24: Charlotte Moscovici (PV, 10-08.75, freshman)
1/27/24: Leann Nicholas (TJ, 42-11.00)
2/2/24: Louis Gordon (LJ, 24-09.25)
2/19/24: Louis Gordon (LJ, 24-10.00)
2/20/24: Toni Galloway (60m HH, 8.25)
2/20/24: Amelia Benjamin (HJ, 5-10.75, freshman & varsity)
2/20/24: Travis Robinson (SP, 60-09.50)
 
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
 
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 visits UConn for the Dogfight on March 30.