University of Albany Sends Six Individuals to USA Junior and Senior Track and Field Championships - UAlbany Sports 2009

Courtesy: UAlbany Sports Information

Albany, N.Y. – Three-time All-America 400-meter hurdler Joe Greene leads a group of six student-athletes who will represent the University at Albany at the 2009 USA Track and Field Junior and Senior Track & Field Championships. The national competitions will be held from June 25-28 at the University of Oregon’s Hayward Field, the site of the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in 1972, 1976, 1980 and 2008.

Joining Greene at the senior level will be Alie Beauvais in the 400-meter intermediate hurdles as well as triple jumpers Jenn Gurrant, Mike McCadney and Nasim Siddeeq. The senior competition is the qualifying meet for the right to represent Team USA in Berlin, Germany this August at the IAAF Championship, which will be the first major international track and field event held at Olympic Stadium since the 1936 Olympic Games.

R.J. Sniffen will compete in the 5,000-meter run at the junior national competition, the selection meet for the 2009 Pan American Junior Athletics Championships which will be held at the Hasley Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain, Trinidad from July 31 through August 2. USA Junior Nationals competitors must be at least 14 years old on the day of competition but not turn age 20 during 2009.

Greene and Beauvais most recently competed at the NCAA Track and Field Championships at the University of Arkansas’ John McDonnell Field earlier this month. Greene became the first Great Dane to earn outdoor All-America honors three times in an event for placing fourth in 49.67 seconds, which was also a school record. Beauvais, who just picked up the event as a sophomore at Lincoln (Mo.) University, finished 10th overall and ninth among the Americans at the NCAA meet to fall one spot shy of All-America status. He also placed second in the event behind Greene at the IC4A and America East championship meets.

NCAA East Regional Championship qualifiers McCadney and Gurrant eclipsed the program standard in the men’s and women’s triple jump this spring. Gurrant, the ECAC indoor and outdoor champion, leaped 42-feet, 0.75-inches to place second at the America East Conference Championship, while McCadney recorded a mark of 51-3.25 at the regional after finishing second at the IC4A meet and winning the America East title in the event. Competing unattached, McCadney and Gurrant posted marks of 52-2.75 and 43-0.25, respectively, at the Constitution Classic held at Averill High School on June 7 to qualify for the senior meet. Siddeeq’s best performances this year came indoors to be named the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) Northeast Field Athlete of the Year and the America East Conference Field Athlete of the Year. A transfer from Robert Morris where he held school and Northeast Conference records in the event, his best showing of 51-7.25 was the winning mark at the Great Dane Classic and a program standard at the time.

Sniffen was the number two runner on the cross country team this past fall and carried the same effort over to be one of the Great Danes’ premier student-athletes in the distance events on the track. An all-state second-team cross country selection at Shaker, he qualified for this week’s national competition when he finished second in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 8:31.12 at the Great Dane Classic. Sniffen also accumulated points for UAlbany at the America East indoor meet.

In previous USA national competitions, the Great Danes have produced seven junior All-Americans, including Greene in the 400 hurdles, Tyler Fogarty in the 800-meter run, Ryan Gaedje in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, Alyssa Lotmore at 1,500 meters, John Moore in the 800, Jenna Ortman in the 1,500 and Jessica Ortman at 800 meters.

PAW PRINTS: UAlbany head coach Roberto Vives announced the track and field program’s most valuable player awards for the 2009 outdoor season ... Joe Greene, who earned his third All-America honor in the 400 hurdles and was named the America East Conference Most Outstanding Track Performer, was the men’s MVP ... Fey Adaramola, the America East 100- and 200-meter dash champion, Jenn Gurrant, the ECAC triple jump winner and Kamilah McShine, an All-East selection in the 400 hurdles who also won both AE hurdles titles, shared women’s MVP honors.