UAlbany to enshrine four

PHOTOGRAPHER: Bob Weiner

Megan Buchanan, who finished her women’s basketball career third on the University at Albany’s all-time scoring list, heads a group of four former student-athletes who will be enshrined into the Great Danes’ Athletic Hall of Fame Oct. 14 at the 28th annual HOF Dinner and Induction Ceremony.

Joining Buchanan, who is currently the associate athletic director at Skidmore College, will be baseball/football player Steve Checksfield (Class of 2008), track and field star Samantha Cohen (1999) and Howard Sellers (1995), who also excelled in track and field.

Buchanan (2000) finished her career with 1,093 points and is the Great Danes’ all-time leader in three-point field goals with 124. She helped in the transition of UAlbany from a Division II to a Division I program.

Checksfield excelled in both baseball and football. He is the school’s all-time home run hitter with 40 and is also the career leader in RBI (168), runs (173) and games played (167).

Checksfield became the first UAlbany player to be taken in the Major League Baseball draft in 27 years, when the Houston Astros selected him in the 26th round in 2001. He was the 2002 MVP of the Class A Mid-West League all-star game and played two years in the Can-Am league.

As a football player, Checksfield was an outstanding tight end who earned All-NEC first-team honors in 1999. He was also a placekicker and punter.

Cohen was sixth in the 3,000 meter racewalk at the USA Indoor Championships and was second at the 104th Penn Relays in the Olympic Development

5,000-meter racewalk. She was also a star in indoor track.

Sellers was a national champion and nine-time All-America selection. He won the 1993 NCAA outdoor championship in the 800-meter run with a time of 1:51.46.

THOROUGHBREDS HONORED

Skidmore College inducted four student-athletes, two teams, and two administrative staff members to its Athletic Hall of Fame last weekend.

Tennis star Will Crawford (2001) was a 2001 All-America in doubles and led Skidmore to Upstate Collegiate Athletic Association titles in both 1999 and 2001.

Liza Gorman (2004) graduated as the lacrosse team’s all-time leading scorer with 155 goals and 43 assist for 198 points. She was a two-time UCAA all-star and competed in the 2004 Division III North/South All-Star game.

Softball pitcher Maria Nero Morin (1994) was a dominating pitcher with a 38-17 career record. She still holds the program records for most wins (38) and highest winning percentage (.691). She was a three-time league all-star and owns a 439-249-4 record in 18 years as the head coach at Rhode Island College.

Thomas Spinella (2006) was a three-time All-American in men’s lacrosse. He is still second in career goals (143) and fifth in points (170). He also was a three-year member of the men’s hockey team and was the 2006 senior Male Athlete Award winner.

Also honored were administ-rative assistant Sharon Shearman (special recognition), head trainer/men’s lacrosse coach Michael Garcia, the 2005 baseball team, which won 28 games and earned the program’s first trip to the NCAA Division III tournament, and the 1991 equestrian team, which won the national champ-ionship in both 19909 and 1991.

CSR ENSHRINES FOUR

The College of Saint Rose will induct baseball pitcher Chuck Bauer (1995), baseball pitcher Eric LeBlanc (1996), middle distance runner Nora O’Heaney McGrath (1996) and women’s soccer player Drea Porteus (2003) into its Athletic Hall of Fame Saturday.

Bauer played just two seasons but still holds the school records for lowest ERA (2.06) and lowest batting average against (.197).

LeBlanc is the school’s all-time leader in strikeouts (305) and wins (30).

McGrath holds five school records indoors (400, 500, 600, 800 and 1,000 meter runs).

Porteus is second on the Golden Knights’ all-time scoring list with 104 points and is fourth in goals (39).

AROUND CAMPUS

UAlbany’s Herb Glass, a senior placekicker, was named one of 127 candidates for the 2011 National Football Foundation National Scholar-Athlete Awards. He recently became the Great Danes’ all-time leading scorer among kickers with 183 points and has a program-best 29 field goals.

Siena sophomore Kylie Strijek was named the MAAC women’s golfer of the month after finishing ninth at the Dartmouth Inv-itational and 17th at the Princeton Invitational.

Former America East Conference assistant commissioner Amy Hutchthausen, who has worked at four Division I conferences and spent the last five years at the NCAA, has been named the new commissioner of the America East Confernece.

The Skidmore women’s soccer team is 24th in the latest NSCAA Division III national poll, while the Thoroughbreds’ field hockey team has moved up to third in the most recent Kookaburra/NFHCA Div-ision III National Coaches poll.

UAlbany’s field hockey team is 17th in the Kookaburra/NFHCA Division I National Coaches poll after being ranked 16th the prev-ious week.

Cohoes native and former Hudson Valley Community College/SUNY-Brockport player Jenna Smith has been hired as an assistant coach for the RPI women’s basketball team. Smith was a co-captain and MVP for HVCC and was a co-captain for SUNY-Brockport.