University of Albany Indoor Track and Field's Luke Schoen and Jenn Gurrant Set School Records At Gotham Cup - UAlbany Sports

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information

New York, N.Y. – Junior Luke Schoen and senior Jenn Gurrant set school records in the pole vault and long jump, respectively, in leading the University at Albany men’s and women’s indoor track and field teams at the New York City Gotham Cup held at the Armory Track and Field Center on Friday, Jan. 16. In addition to Schoen and Gurrant, six other individuals and two relays earned qualifying marks for the IC4A and ECAC Championships at the prestigious non-scoring meet which featured over 1,600 student-athletes.

Schoen’s winning mark of 17 feet, 6-3/4 inches in the pole vault provisionally qualified him for the NCAA Championship, and it bettered the school record of 17-1 he set at the Yale Collegiate Invitational last week.

“I set goals before I compete, and so far they are coming true,” said Schoen, who was named an All-American outdoors for placing fifth in the event at the NCAA Championship last spring. “My ultimate goal is to automatically qualify for NCAAs, which would put me in a good position to finish in the top three.”

Michael Dempsey qualified for the IC4A Championship for clearing 15-9 and finishing third overall in the event. On the women’s side, Celine Cauderlier placed seventh with a mark of 10-4.

Gurrant leaped 19-3.50 in the women’s seeded long jump, which placed her third among 31 competitors and was also a qualifying mark for the ECAC Championship. The previous standard was held by Kimberly Toone, who jumped 19-2 in 1996.

“The women’s team is off to a great start this year,” said Gurrant, who was one of three women to qualify for ECACs. “We have a lot of talented newcomers who have provided us depth. This start definitely gives us hope to win our first America East indoor title.”

Sandy Antenor set a personal record in the event for leaping 17-1.25, which was good for 12th overall. Tiffany Bennett was seventh in the high jump, clearing 5-3, while Jordan Pollock led the men’s jumpers with an eighth-place mark of 44-9 in the triple jump.

After recording IC4A qualifying marks in the 400-meter dash last week at Yale, Joe Greene and Alie Beauvais each qualified for the championship event in the 500-meter dash this afternoon. Greene won the event in 1:03.64, while Beauvais was third in 1:03.95. Zuliana Fontanez and Melissa Lee each finished one second shy of qualifying for the ECAC Championship in the event. Fontanez was third in 1:16.81, while Lee placed fourth with a personal-best time of 1:16.92.

Kamilah McShine qualified for the ECAC Championship in the 60-meter high hurdles, finishing second overall in the finals in a personal-best time of 8.65 seconds. Christen Griffin also fared well in the event, placing sixth in 9.03. Garrett Askew led a trio of Great Danes who made it to the finals on the men’s team, finishing seventh in 8.38 seconds. Alfred Pryor and Mohamed Kanu also advanced to the finals in the event.

Fey Adaramola became the third Great Dane to qualify for the ECAC Championship in March for clocking in a time of 7.69 seconds and placing third in the finals of the 60-meter dash. Quante Harris and Gurrant also advanced to the finals and finished 12th and 14th with times of 8.01 and 8.14, respectively. Mike McCadney’s ninth-place time of 7.11 led the men, while Pat Weider also advanced to the finals. He finished 12th in 7.19 seconds.

Tyler Fogarty turned in the best performance in the middle distance events. His fifth-place time of 2:28.21 in the 1,000-meter run qualified him for the IC4A Championship. In the seeded 800-meter run, Nick Santos and Joe Belokopitsky were each one second short of reaching the IC4A mark. Santos was third in 1:55.86, while Belokopitsky was right behind him with a time of 1:55.96. Laura Cummings led the women’s team with a ninth-place performance of 5:13.23 in the seeded mile.

Two of the three men’s relays finished with IC4A qualifying times. Improving last week’s time by three seconds, the distance medley relay team finished first in 10:10.36. Fogarty led off with the 1,200-meter leg and was followed by Beauvais running the 400-meter leg, John Moore running the 800-meter leg and Jon Juleus anchoring the squad with a 4:16 split. The 4x400-meter relay consisting of Andrew Overbaugh, Peter Rowell, Joe Belokopitsky and Joe Greene was third in 3:18.66.

The best effort by the women’s team came in the 4x400-meter relay. McShine, Adaramola, Elia Francis and Tierra Chavis combined to finish with a second-place time of 3:54.83, which was under a second shy of qualifying for the ECAC Championship.

R.J. Sniffen, Ricardo Estremera Ally Panos and Ada Lauterbach paced the Great Danes in the distance events. Sniffen was fifth in the men’s seeded 5,000-meter run, while Estremera was seventh in 8:34.49 in the seeded 3,000-meter run. Running in the un-seeded women’s 3,000-meter run, Panos’ time of 10:34.08 placed her second. Lauterbach finished third in 10:34.89.

UAlbany got strong contributions from Kadine Johnson and Ashley Lewis in the women’s throwing events, and Will Anger led the men’s throwers. Johnson was second in the weight throw for recording a mark of 51-5, while Lewis was fourth in the shot put with a throw that sailed 39-5.75. Anger’s toss of 52-10.25 in the weight throw placed him eighth.