The Kimberly Toone Women’s Track & Field Memorial Scholarship Fund, established last
spring to honor the memory of the late All-America athlete, will be presented to
Janna Johnston, a sophomore from Clifton Park, at the Cross Country/Track & Field
Banquet on Saturday, Oct. 19, in the Patroon Room.
Johnston, an accomplished performer in the heptathlon, pentathlon, long jump and high jump, embodies the same qualities valued by Toone — excellence in academic endeavor and athletic competition, and personal ambition.
Johnston, who has a 3.87 grade point average in mathematics with a minor in physics, won the 1996 Collegiate Track Conference (CTC) heptathlon title, and went to the ECAC Division I championship, where she finished ninth with a school-record 4,536 points. She also captured the CTC indoor pentathlon crown, and owns the second best long jump mark in school annals (18’ 8.25”).
Toone’s parents, Walter and Gwendolyn, will be at the presentation. Their daughter died at the age of 22 in a auto accident last March 6 while returning to campus from the New York City area for a practice. She was a Phi Beta Kappa student and an NCAA qualifier in two events.
Tickets for the banquet are $25. For information, contact head track coach Roberto Vives at 442-3064.
Everything was different at University Field on Homecoming — college football pageantry, parades, bonfires, tailgate parties, and the largest crowd to watch a Albany game in the 1990s — 6,082. But in this battle of unbeaten teams, the results were all too familiar as Union came away with a 23-6 decision.
“Honestly, I feel the game swung on our inability to control the line of scrimmage,” said coach Bob Ford, whose team gone 4-0 for the first time since 1979. Union held Albany to 54 yards rushing.
Albany closed the gap to 13-6 with at 11:13 of the third quarter, as flanker Bob Thorne hauled in an eight-yard TD pass from quarterback Joe Savino — the Danes’ first offensive TD versus Union since 1993. But the Dutchmen used just 35 seconds to reach paydirt on their next possession.
The Great Danes are 7-4-1 overall after upending RPI, 1-0, and battling New York Tech to a 2-2 tie last week. Kevin Koscielniak scored at 31:11 in the first half, as Albany knocked off the Engineers, ranked 12th nationally. Freshman goalkeeper Dean deFreitas, a two-time NECC Rookie of the Week, had six saves to record the shutout.
Senior Tonya Dodge was first in the 5,000-meter race at the Slippery Rock Invitational, covering the course in 18:49.71. UA women were sixth as a team, with 132 points.
Dennis King also turned in a good showing in the men’s 10K event, placing fifth with a time of 34:44.34, while teammate Todd Weiss took 11th in 35:21.20. The Great Danes were second in the team competition with 65 points.
Albany will be one of the favorites at this weekend’s New England Collegiate Conference championships. The defen-ding champion Danes host for the second straight year.
Julie Bliss has had a solid freshman season in leading Albany to a 7-4 dual-match record. owning a 13-5 record at first singles. Last weekend she reached the quarterfinals of the NYS Division I-II championships.
The 8-2 women’s field hockey team heads into an important week. Albany, ranked third in the North Region, faces Div. II foes in Bentley and St. Michael’s. Freshman Tovah Atwell leads the team in scoring with six goals and one assist, while the UA defense has allowed just seven goals this fall.
Rafaela Nikas had 21 kills and 22 digs to lead Albany to a come-from-behind 3-2 non-conference victory over Union, as the Great Danes improved to 7-5 overall. Freshman Cara Convery added season-highs in kills (13) and digs (14) in the triumph.
Tara Ford scored twice to get Albany (4-8) on the winning track last Thursday, a 2-1 triumph over Russell Sage. Ford tallied her first goal of the season, a game-winner nine minutes into the second half, on a feed from Irene Eliea.