University of Albany Sends 12 Track & Field Athletes to NCAA East Regional at Florida State: UAlbany Athletics

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information

Tallahassee, Fla. – Twelve athletes will represent the University at Albany at the NCAA East Regional Outdoor Track & Field Championships on May 30-31. The regional competition will be held at Florida State University’s Mike Long Track.

The list of UAlbany qualifiers include Daniel Avery, Jeffery Barnes, Valete Graham, Jean Juste, Mike McCadney, Kyle Nadler (Colonie Central), Luke Schoen, Laura Cummings, Arina Gerasimova, Jenn Gurrant, Kamilah McShine and Brenna Militello. The top-five finishers in each individual event will automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships on June 11-14 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Avery and Juste will each compete in the 38-member field of the 110-meter high hurdles. Avery, a freshman from Cooper City, Fla., turned in a UAlbany Division I record time of 13.96 seconds at the Florida Relays on April 4. Juste, a junior from Hempstead, N.Y., won the event in a conference-record time of 14.25 seconds at the America East Championship on May 4 in Orono, Maine. Barnes earned entrance into the regional meet by winning the 200-meter dash in 21.62 seconds at the America East Championship.

Schoen, a sophomore from Bohemia, N.Y., will compete in the pole vault after a first-place finish at the America East Championship and a second-place finish at the IC4A Championship. At the America East meet on May 3, Schoen topped the field by crossing the bar at a conference-record and then-school record height of 17-feet, 3-inches. A week later at the UAlbany Spring Classic, Schoen vaulted a program-best 17-feet, 5-inches.

McCadney, coming off victories at the America East and IC4A championships, is a regional competitor in the triple jump for the second straight year. McCadney, a junior from Rochester, N.Y., recorded a program-record leap of 51-feet, 1.75-inches to earn UAlbany’s first IC4A triple jump title. He topped his own school record of 50-feet, 11.50-inches, set at last year’s NCAA East Regional. Graham and Nadler, a pair of sophomores, will represent UAlbany in the long jump. Graham, the America East champion, qualified for regional competition with a distance of 24-feet, 1.50-inches at the Penn Relays on April 25. Nadler registered a regional-qualifying leap of 24-feet, 1.50-inches, the second-best jump in program history, to place third at the IC4A meet.

Cummings, a junior from Bay Shore, N.Y., will compete in her first NCAA regional in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Cummings turned in her fastest time of the season at the America East Championship with a first-place finish in a school-record time of 10:33.60.

Gerasimova and Gurrant will each compete in the 34-member field of the triple jump. Gerasimova, a senior from Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine, recorded a program-best leap of 41-feet, 10.75-inches to capture first place at the New York Relays on April 20. Gurrant, a junior from Batavia, N.Y., is making her second appearance in regional action after competing in the long jump last season. Gurrant finished third in the triple jump at the ECAC Championship with a distance of 41-feet, 7.75-inches, the second-best mark in school history.

McShine and Militello won America East titles in the 100-meter hurdles and high jump, respectively, to qualify for regional competition. McShine won the 100-hurdles in a conference-record time of 13.98 seconds, while Militello cleared the bar at 5-feet, 4.25-inches.