ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany track & field program is set to begin the 2018 outdoor season with two meets at the tail end of Spring Break. After a one-year hiatus, the Great Danes will return to Myrtle Beach for the Shamrock Invitational while a smaller group will visit Puerto Rico for the Spring Break Classic.
The indoor season ended with the women placing second in the ECAC Indoor Championships one week after winning their sixth-straight America East Indoor title. The men saw their streak of 12-straight conference indoor championships snapped by UMass Lowell in the final event of the meet.
“I think the indoor season went really well,” said Director of Track & Field and Cross Country Roberto Vives. “Especially for the women, who won the conference and were second in the ECAC. For the guys it was an unfortunate situation with the way the conference meet ended, but they all progressed, and they progressed well. People really peaked at the conference championship, which is what we hope for. Now, we're all very optimistic about the outdoor season. The kids are excited, reenergized, and ready to go.”
During the indoor season, the Great Danes set records in 10 events. In the women's sprints, Dayleen Santana Rodriguez and Stephanie Osuji ran matching times of 7.40 in the 60m, and Osuji became the first woman under 24 seconds in the indoor 200m, lowering her own record three weeks in a row ultimately to 23.53. Tiguida Toure ran 1:35.17 to break the indoor record in the 600m, and Cara Sherman ran 9:33.18 to set a new mark in the 3,000m. In the throws, Tara Belinksy became the first woman to throw 50-00.00 in the shot put, indoors or outdoors. The men's sprints saw records from Osiris Nicholson, who ran 21.37 in the 200m, and Myles Banfield, who ran 33.62 in the 300m. Ryan Udvadia claimed a pair of distance records, running 8:13.50 in the 3,000m and 14:09.44 in the 5,000m. Finally, Sidney Gibbons lowered the 60m hurdles mark to 7.82.
UAlbany also saw four freshman school records rewritten this season. For the women, Águeda Muñoz Marqués ran 4:53.56 in the mile. On the men's side, Harmodio Cruz III broke the 200m freshman record with his 21.54, while Victor Ortiz Rivera claimed freshman records in the mile at 4:04.93 and 3,000m at 8:17.40.
Since no UAlbany competitors advanced to indoor nationals, the entire team has been off since at least the first week in March. They will finally get another chance to compete when the outdoor season starts this weekend.
“Having these trips is tremendous,” said Vives. “We're not putting a lot of stock performance-wise in these first meets. We just want them to go and look at it more like training. If someone gets a mark early, then great, but it's not our emphasis because it's a long season for those who go on to regionals and nationals in late May and early June.
“It's a slightly different philosophy this year,” Vives continued. “Sometimes you get the mark early and it's hard to hold up. You don't want to emphasize so heavily the end of the indoor season that it sacrifices outdoor. Sometimes you can sacrifice the end of the season by going too hard early. Our goal is 20 student-athletes at the regionals, as has been our goal for the last few years. We've been short of that but this year that is our focus.”
One noteworthy change in the schedule this season is a trip to Jamaica in the middle of April for the UTech Classic.
“We try to go to Jamaica the year after each Summer Olympics, every four years,” saiv Vives. “We've signed a memorandum of understanding with UTech in Jamaica, where we compete at each other's meets. They've come here twice and we've gone there twice. The relationship is good. That's actually where Matthew Campbell saw us, when we went in 2013, and decided to attend UAlbany. Right now we're the only U.S. college scheduled to compete there, but they're working on getting another so any qualifying performances we might produces would count.”
Another change this season will come at IC4A and ECAC Outdoor Championships, which will no longer feature qualifying rounds, switching instead to timed finals for most events.
“They changed the format of IC4A and ECAC Outdoor Championships this year,” said Vives. “Except for the hurdles and the dash, everything else will be a seeded final. All of the distance events will go on Saturday and all the sprints and relays will be Sunday. The new format makes it more conducive to qualify for regionals. It's more of an all-comers meet now but it still has the team scoring aspect.
“The motivation for the switch came from last year when we had the big rainstorm that cancelled events on the second day,” Vives continued. “They had to fit everything in on Sunday, where everything was a timed final. And it worked out well. Kids are in finals, and have all had their conference championships. Some other schools created invitationals a few days before the meet, which drew participants away. But now this meet is set up differently so it helps people who are looking for both a qualifying opportunity and the team competition.”
The move to outdoor track features a change in the regular events contested at meets. The weight throw is dropped from indoor in favor of three other throwing events, the hammer, discus, and javelin. The 3,000m is dropped in favor of a 10,000, and the intermediate hurdles and steeplechase events are added into the mix.
“I think we're a little stronger outdoors in that there are four throwing events instead of two,” said Vives. “Those events help us. And looking at who is coming back for outdoor who didn't compete indoors, we should have a very solid roster.
“Last year UMBC had some good intermediate hurdlers who benefited from the season change,” Vives continued. “They tend to be a little bit better outdoors. But it's hard to tell. The early meets will let us know who has what filling in the outdoor events.”
Though not everyone will compete this weekend, each and every student-athlete on the roster has the opportunity to earn their spot for the championship meets at the end of the season.
“One of the components we added to our philosophy is that student-athletes have to earn their right to trips,” said Vives. “We have 43 student-athletes going to South Carolina and seven going to Puerto Rico who we think are our 50 best after indoor and those who compete in outdoor-specific events. It keeps the student-athletes on their toes. Everyone has a minimum of three competitions to prove themselves. Everybody will compete at UConn, here at the Spring Classic, and at RPI. These early season meets are going to be a good start to the season that will tell us where we are.”
The meet in Puerto Rico this year holds a particular significance for Coach Vives in the wake of the destruction caused by Hurricane Maria. Two weeks ago, Vives was the head coach of the Puerto Rico delegation at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham, England.
“We're bringing the student-athletes who are from Puerto Rico to the Puerto Rico meet,” said Vives. “It's a chance for their families to see them, and see them compete at home. After the hurricane this meet originally wasn't going to happen. But I received a call saying the meet was back on and if there was any way we could attend. It's a big deal for them to have outside teams come in and compete. To have a U.S. college participating is a big deal for them, especially one like UAlbany that they're connected with. I'd like to see the people recover and just lift hope. It's a Friday/Saturday that they'll be out there and the last thing on their minds is what they're going through.”
The Shamrock Invitational begins Thursday, March 15 at 7:00 p.m. with the women's and men's 10,000m. The Spring Break Classic begins Friday, March 16 at 8:00 a.m. local time with the men's and women's hammer.
