For T&F, the Great Indoors

Victory poses: The men's and women's teams celebrate after winning America East titles in Boston.

ALBANY, N.Y. (Feb. 26, 2019) — Great Dane men and women track & field teams assumed their usual spots atop the America East this past weekend at Boston University. The men won their 13th title in the past 14 years at the conference championships, while the women won their seventh straight.

The 178.5-148 points victory over second place UMass Lowell by the men was a return to form after they were edged by that school last year for the title, 173 to 168.5. That loss ended the UAlbany men’s run of 12 straight victories.

For the women, it was another relative romp, as they bested UMass Lowell by 77.5 points, 213-135.5. Sophomore Chidinma Matthew earned the Coaches' Award for compiling the most points by a female student-athlete during the weekend: winning the 60 and 200-meter dashes and running the second leg of UAlbany’s winning 4X400 meter relay.

"Our Women had a dominating performance and were great throughout the meet," said Head Coach Roberto Vives. " The men were about 30-point underdogs to the defending champions, UMASS-Lowell, but really stepped up to the challenge. It was truly a great team effort and both teams lived up to our mantra “Greatness Lives Here.”  I am proud of the efforts of our coaches, staff and our student-athletes. Go DANES!"

Other outstanding performances by the women came from triple jump winner Lynda Brundige, a junior, who was named the Most Outstanding Field Performer. Freshman Shelby Bigsby was tabbed the Most Outstanding Rookie after winning the shot put and placing second in the weight throw. Senior Anika Hibbard won her third stright women’s high jump title.

The men had wins from Sidney Gibbons, a senior, in the 60-meter hurdles, junior Omahri Sturdivant in the triple jump and junior Jan Michael-Gutierrez Almedina in the 200-meter dash — the last in a school record 21.20 seconds.

Depth of quality, of course, proved to be the deciding factor in these conference championships, and once again the squads of Head Coach Roberto Vives and his staff grabbed points (1st to 8th place) in nearly every event.

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