Five UAlbany Athletes to Compete at USA National Track and Field Meets

Albany, N.Y. – All-America hurdler Joe Greene leads a group of five athletes who will represent the University at Albany at the 2007 ATandT USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships and 2007 Finish Line USA Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The national competitions are being held in conjunction from June 20-24 at the Michael A. Carroll Track and Soccer Stadium on the campus of IUPUI in downtown Indianapolis.

The junior national competition, with athletes entered ranging from 14 to 19 years-old, is the qualifying meet for the 2007 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships.

Greene, who will run in the 400-meter hurdles preliminaries on Thursday at 5:25 p.m., and Gered Burns are competing in the AT&T outdoor meet. Greene recently finished fourth at the NCAA Division I track and field championships in a school-record 49.92 seconds. He represented the United States at the World Juniors in China last August. Greene, a two-time IC4A champion, was the America East Conference championship’s most outstanding performer. Burns, who also qualified for the NCAA championships in Sacramento, competes in the 800-meter run on Thursday at 5:05 p.m. He posted a time of 1:48.20 to set the UAlbany standard in May.

Luke Schoen, the school record holder in the pole vault who advanced to the NCAA East Regional, John Moore and Valete Graham will compete at USA Junior Nationals. Schoen placed second at the America East championships when he cleared the bar at 16-feet, 8.75-inches and was third at the IC4A meet. Moore finished second in the America East 800-meter run with a time of 1:52.56. Graham, who was third in the long jump at the conference championships, had a season-best leap of 23-feet, 11-inches at the UAlbany Spring Classic.

In previous USA national competitions, the Great Danes have produced five junior All-Americans, including Greene, Jessica Ortman, Jenna Ortman, Alyssa Lotmore and Ryan Gaedje.

Track Notes: UAlbany head coach Roberto Vives announced the track program’s most valuable player awards for the 2007 outdoor season ... Joe Greene and Marc Pallozzi, who finished eighth in the javelin at the NCAA championships, earned the men’s awards ... Adanna Andrews, the America East 800-meter champion and Sarah Charles shared women’s MVP honors ... Charles set the triple jump record with a mark of 41-feet, 2.5-inches and was fourth at the ECAC meet ...