After recording second and third place finishes at the conference indoor meet at the end of February, the men’s and women’s track and field teams each dropped one spot to take third and fourth, respectively, at the America East Outdoor Championships over the weekend.
The two-day meet occurred over the weekend at Albany’s University Field and featured competition from nine AE teams. The host Great Danes dominated the meet, far surpassing their closest competitors on both the men’s and women’s side. The Albany women tallied 227 points to capture first place for the seventh consecutive season. The men racked up 192.5 points to take the title for the 11th straight year.
The BU men combined to score a total of 113.5 points while the women ended up with 123.33. Though neither squad was able to improve on its score from the indoor season, the Bearcats secured three individual titles awarded by the conference.
Sophomore Keishorea Armstrong earned two of those titles. The BU Women’s Athlete of the Year has had an even more successful outdoor season than her already impressive indoor campaign. She was named the Women’s Most Outstanding Field Performer after sweeping both the long jump and triple jump, with distances of 20-6 ½ feet and 41-1 ¾ feet, respectively.
In the long jump, Armstrong set a new program record, which she had already broken two weeks before at the Bucknell Team Challenge. She also received the Coaches’ Award for scoring 33.5 points — more than any woman in the meet — thanks to her successful participation in five events. She came in second in the 100-meter event and took the bronze in the 200-meter in addition to anchoring the third-place 4×100-meter team.
Senior Brandon Bordeau also received an individual award, the Men’s Outstanding Field Performer, for his first-place finish in the discus (159-5) and runner-up title in the shot put (52-8 ½).
Elsewhere on the men’s side, the 4×800-meter relay pack of sophomore Eric Holt, graduate student Chris Fernandez, freshman Billy Hector and senior Jesse Garn — which entered the event seeded sixth of eight — beat its closest competitor by a full 10 seconds to earn the gold medal. Two members of this squad, Garn and Holt, also ended up on the podium in the 1,500-meter race. Garn won the event while Holt secured third.
The men were also successful in the pole vault, in which sophomore Peter Fagan took second with a vault of 15-11 meters while freshman Charles Villa snagged third with a 14-11 meter performance. Also contributing to the men’s bronze medal finish was sophomore Jon Alkins, who finished second in the 200-meter event and third in the 400-meter.
Top finishers on the women’s squad was senior Daniella Olusoga who claimed second in the heptathlon with 4,787 points across seven events. Senior Christy DiMichele also impressed, taking third in the pole vault with a vault of 11-11 ¾ meters. Sophomore Jackie Crunden won second in the high jump with a jump of 5 feet, 5 inches.
The men’s and women’s teams combined to earn 13 All-Conference honors, which were awarded to first-place relay teams as well as the top three finishers in each event. Eight of these titles were obtained by the men’s squad while the women garnered five.
Next up for the Bearcats is the ECAC/IC4A Outdoor Championships, which will be hosted at Princeton from May 15-17. This competition will allow participants to qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships held in June. The first events are scheduled for noon on Friday.