The York College Women's and Men's Indoor Track & Field teams swept the 2010 CUNY Athletic Conference Championships at the ArmoryTrack & FieldCenter in Washington Heights, NY, on Sunday evening. It marked the first time the York Women have ever won the Women's Indoor Championship and the school's fifth men's indoor title since 2000. In addition, Kingsborough Community College took home the Women's Community College crown and Queensborough Community College captured the title men's side.
"Its tremendous feeling to be able to win both titles tonight," said York College head coach Tom Pope, who has also led the Cardinals to ten CUNYAC Men's & Women's Outdoor CUNYAC Championship titles, by far the most in the 15-year history of the event. "Twenty years from now these kids will be able to look back and remember this. I'm a wealthier person for knowing young people like that."
The men's senior college title race went down to the wire with York finishing with 102 points to take the Championship, just ahead of Lehman College (95 points), the two time defending champions. The City College of New York took the bronze with 70 points, one ahead of Medgar Evers College, while HunterCollege finished fifth with sixty points. LehmanCollege's Phillip Akogu was named the Most Valuable Performer of the Championship meet.
"I was definitely surprised to get the award tonight," said Akogu, a 6'0" junior from the Bronx. "I was glad to be able to contribute to our team's overall score and we have to work harder for the Outdoor Championships to make up for those seven points," he said referring to the margin between the first place Cardinals and second place Lightning. "We need eight."
The run for the women's title was over before the final stretch, as York (202 points) easliy outdistanced second place Lehman (113) by 89 points. Both the Cardinals' total points and margin of victory are new CUNYAC records. CCNY (55) and Medgar Evers (33) finished third and fourth, respectively.
"I feel happy and sad at the same time," said Nkumrah, a senior from Brooklyn, NY. "It feels great to finally help York to be able to win the Championship. But sad because I can no longer help York continue this tradition after this year." Nkumrah has now won four straight CUNYAC Track and Field MVP awards, as she was the MVP of both the Indoor and Outdoor Championships last season and the top individual at the outdoor meet in 2008.
The Queensborough women easily repeated their title, outscoring Kingsborough, 114-34, while KCC topped QCC on the men's side by a 73 points (194-121).
Senior Men's College Scoring
York College • 102
Lehman College • 95
City College of New York • 70
Medgar Evers College • 69
Hunter College • 60
NY City College of Technology • 18
Men's Most Valuable Performer
Phillip Akogu, Lehman
Senior Women's College Scoring
York College • 202
Lehman College • 113
City College of New York • 55
Medgar Evers College • 33
Women's Most Valuable Performer
Alexandra Nkrumah, York
Community College Men's Scoring
Kingsborough Community College • 194
Queensborough Community College • 121
Bronx Community College • 33
Community College Women's Scoring
Queensborough Community College • 114
Kingsborough Community College • 34
-- CUNYAthletics.com --