Outdoor Track Wraps Last Chance Meet; Bowen Second In Panama
Last Chance Meet Results
ALBANY, N.Y. – The University at Albany outdoor track program concluded its third and final home meet of the 2014 season on Saturday, the Purple & Gold Last Chance Meet. With two weeks between conference championships and IC4A and ECAC Championships, the Danes used this meet, as the name would suggest, as a final opportunity to hit qualifying standards to keep individual seasons going. At stake for UAlbany athletes were berths into IC4A and ECAC Championships and NCAA East Regional Championships.
Field events began at 2:00 p.m. with the men’s hammer, women’s javelin, and women’s pole vault. Simon Cleary placed fifth in the men’s hammer with a throw of 159’-9”. Veleisha Walker, the school record holder in the event, placed first in the women’s javelin with a throw of 139’-5”, a new meet record. Katie Dowd placed second, throwing 136’-8”, a new personal best that also hit the ECAC qualifying standard. Mary Adeyeye placed fourth, throwing 84’-10”, and Allie Trezza placed fifth, throwing 79’-9”. Paige Vadnais tied for third in the women’s pole vault, clearing 11’-1.75”, a new personal best. ToniAnn Werner placed fifth, clearing 10’-8”, also a new personal best.
Following the first run of field events were the women’s hammer, men’s javelin, men’s pole vault, and women’s long jump. Lauren Lopano won the women’s hammer, throwing 155’-2”. Phillip Udeogu was second in the men’s javelin with a throw of 172’-6”, a new personal best. Anthony D’Angelo placed fourth, throwing 167’-11”. Alfonso Scannapieco placed second in the men’s pole vault, clearing a height of 15’-9”. Donald DiBari tied for fifth, clearing 14’-3.25”. Aiyanna James won the women’s long jump in 17’-6.25”.
The third wave of field events included the women’s discus, men’s shot put, and men’s long jump. Lopano repeated her victory in the hammer by winning the women’s discus with a throw of 142’-5”, which is a new personal best and ECAC qualifying mark. Samantha Kosa finished fourth, throwing 122’-2”. Abel Gilet placed fifth in the men’s shot put with a throw of 47’-10”. Youssef Benzamia won the men’s long jump in 22’-3.5”. Justyce Pollitt was third in 21’-5.5”.
The field events then shifted to the men’s discus, women’s shot put, women’s triple jump, and women’s high jump. Gilet placed third in the men’s discus, throwing 148’-11”. Jonathan Eustache was fifth with a throw of 143’. Janice Johnson placed second in the women’s shot put with a throw of 42’-4.25”. Kosa, the school record holder, was third, throwing 41’-6.75”. Solène Bastien was second in the women’s triple jump with a mark of 38’-9.75”. James was fourth in 36’-5.75”, her first time competing in the event as a collegian. T’Sian Haywood was fifth, jumping 35’-2”. Min Pacella placed third in the women’s high jump, clearing 5’-5.25”, which tied the top two finishers. Ashley Grant placed fifth, clearing 5’-3.75”.
The field events concluded with the men’s triple jump and the men’s high jump. Christopher Stephenson placed second in the men’s triple jump, recording a mark of 47’-2.5”. Matthew Campbell won the men’s high jump, clearing 6’-07”. Stephenson and Kingsley Ogbonna tied for second with three other competitors, clearing 6’-5.5”.
The track events began at 4:15 p.m., following a brief ceremony to celebrate and recognize the 2014 senior class. The first event that fielded UAlbany athletes was the 1,500, where Silvia Del Fava and Valentina Talevi earned a sweep of the top two places in the women’s race. Del Fava finished in 4:40.92, and Talevi finished in 4:42.77. Both times are personal bests. Christopher Buchanan placed fourth in the men’s race, finishing in 4:01.35.
The next final event on the track was the 400. Kamilah Williams placed second in the women’s race in 56.14, a new personal best that was also under the old facility record. UAlbany swept the top three places in the men’s race. Jonathan Santana took first in 47.78, breaking his own facility record. Jason Tomlinson was second in 48.12, and Taariq Jones was third in 48.53. The same trio swept the top three places in the 400 at last week’s America East Outdoor Championships.
Kahlia Taylor placed seventh in the women’s 100 in 12.70, after qualifying second in 12.47. On the men’s side, Kareem Morris placed third in 10.72, after qualifying third in 10.78. Derek Boland was seventh in the finals in 11.03, after qualifying seventh in 11.20. UAlbany volunteer coach Junior Burnett placed second in 10.62, after qualifying first in 10.64.
The top four qualifiers in the women’s 100 hurdles were UAlbany athletes. Tynelle Taylor-Chase qualified first in 14.22. Michelle Anthony qualified second in 14.57. CiCi Simon qualified third in 14.78. And Paige Vadnais qualified fourth in 14.99. Only Simon and Vadnais ran in the finals, with Simon winning in 14.49, a new personal best, and Vadnais placing second in 14.55, also a personal best. No UAlbany men ran in the men’s 110 hurdles, which did not feature a qualifying round.
Kathryn Fanning led a UAlbany sweep of the top three places in the women’s 800. Fanning won in 2:10.55, breaking her own facility record with a personal best for the open race. Brianne Bellon was second in 2:10.64, and Dominique Claudio was third in 2:15.16. The men duplicated the women’s feat in their race. John DeLallo won and set a new facility record and personal best in 1:50.37. Dylan Lowry also ran a personal best to finish second in 1:51.39. And Raymond Farinella finished third in 1:54.32, a personal best as well.
Aderinsola Ajala won the women’s 400 hurdles in 1:01.55. On the men’s side, Jeremiah Obeng-Agyapong finished first in a new personal best and facility record 52.14. Larry Ramirez followed in second place with a time of 53.10, also a personal best.
Jillian Haynes placed second in the women’s 200 in 24.92, one-hundredth behind the winner. Morris took second in the men’s race in 21.46. Santana was fourth in 21.79, and Winston McCormack Jr. was fifth in 21.93. Burnett won the race in 21.35.
No current UAlbany athletes competed in either the women’s or the men’s 3,000 steeplechase. But alumna Laura Cummings placed second for the women in 10:22.58, and alumni Ricardo Estremera and Peter Rowell finished first and second in the men’s race, running 9:26.04 and 9:56.36 respectively.
The final event on the track was the 5,000. Jessica Donohue finished third for the women in 18:00.43. Molly Pezzulo was fourth in 18:18.93. On the men’s side, Jonathan Moore tied for fifth, finishing in 15:50.54.
Meanwhile, in Panama City, Alexander Bowen was competing in the Panamanian National Championships in an effort to make Panama’s national squad. He has already set the national record in the high jump, with his 7’-1” effort from America East Outdoor Championships, his first competition following the acceptance of his dual-citizenship. This weekend, Bowen jumped 6’-8.75” to take second place, but he still earned his spot on the national team. Bowen will continue competing for Panama in a number of meets through November.
“Alex told me his legs were a little tired during the competition,” said assistant coach Todd Wolin, “because he was running around Panama City for two days wrapping up some final things with the citizenship process. But he made the team and he’ll keep competing for them.”
Bowen will reunite with his teammates on Monday as they begin to prepare for championship season. IC4A and ECAC Championships begin Friday, May 16 at Princeton University. Most of the seniors will not be in attendance due to their commencement ceremony. Afterwards, any athletes who have qualified will compete in the NCAA East Regional Championships in Jacksonville, Florida, starting on May 29.
