UAlbany Men’s Track Ties For Second At IC4A Championships

BOSTON – Following the first full day of competition at IC4A Championships, the University at Albany men’s indoor track team found itself sitting in third place in the team standings. UAlbany ended the meet tied for second as a team with defending champion Connecticut, scoring 54 points. Cornell won the team title, scoring 76 points. Youssef Benzamia, starting the proceedings for the men, placed third in the long jump with a mark of 24’-4.75”. Alfonso Scannapieco was ninth, jumping 22’-8”. Scannapieco later returned to action in the pole vault, earning a victory by clearing 17’-6.5”, taking some chances by skipping some heights along the way. John DeLallo placed third in the mile in 4:06.09, which a new personal best by over two seconds, marking the second time in consecutive days he has run a new best time. In the trials yesterday, DeLallo ran 4:08.80, which was itself a two-second personal best. His trial time bumped him from ninth to eighth on UAlbany’s all-time indoor list, and the time he ran today moves him from eighth to fifth. The distance medley relay team placed second in 9:50.57. The time is five seconds faster than UAlbany’s best time on the year, and 15 seconds faster than their qualifying run, where they dropped the baton during the second leg. Zachary Cook led off in a personal best 3:02.7, Jason Tomlinson ran a personal best on the second leg with a 47.8, DeLallo ran 1:50.3 coming off his personal best in the mile, and Christopher Buchanan closed in 4:09.1. UAlbany’s 4x800 relay team placed third, with a new season best time of 7:26.02. Their qualifying time from yesterday, 7:27.68 was already the second fastest mark ever in UAlbany history. Dylan Lowry Led off in 1:53.0, Larry Ramirez ran second in 1:51.0, Andrew Pirnie ran third in 1:51.3, and Youness Benzaid anchored in 1:50.2. Rounding out the UAlbany competitors, Abel Gilet was 24th in the shot put, throwing 49’-10”. Nathan Hiett placed 12th in the pole vault, jumping 16’-2.75”, tying his season best from the America East Indoor Championships. Donald Williams Jr. and Kareem Morris placed 10th and 11th respectively in the 60 semi-finals, failing to advance. Williams Jr. ran 7.00, and Morris ran 7.03. Alexander Bowen will continue his indoor season for one more week to compete in the high jump at indoor nationals in New Mexico starting Friday, March 14. He departs for the meet on Wednesday. For everyone else, indoor has come to an end, and the transition to outdoor begins. The first event on the schedule for the outdoor season is the Spring Break Classic on Saturday, March 22 in Puerto Rico.