The City University of New York Athletic Conference held the first-ever ATHLETIC ALUMNI CELEBRATION at City College on Saturday, February 27, 2010 in conjunction with the Women's & Men's Basketball Finals at CCNY.
The event was originally scheduled for Friday night, February 26, but the foot of snow the city received the previous night shut down every CUNY campus, including Manhattan's Hunter College, the original site of the event.
"Again, we apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but we wanted to err on the side of safety and caution," said CUNYAC Executive Director Zak Ivkovic, an alumnus of Hunter College, where he was a four-year soccer star for the Hawks. "We are still thankful that our alumni and friends turned out for the Conference's alumni events and championship games. Due to this change, we are planning for an additional celebration later on this spring."
Along with the celebration, an inaugural Basketball Alumni game and the collegiate men's & women's three point shootout were held. For the basketball game, the co-ed teams were randomly divided and an exciting game was held just prior to the women's final.
Coming out to play were former CUNY greats like Shawn McCartney (pictured above), the former Hunter star (1991-95) and all-time men's leading scorer in CUNYAC and CCNY's Dana Warner (2002-03). Both men were named Tournament MVP, while leading their teams to the Championship title during their senior seasons.
On the women's side, former All-Stars Rannie Miles (Medgar Evers, 1999-04), Jen Agosto (Hunter, 2000-04) and Dominique McClendon (Baruch, 2007-08) got on the court for the exhibition game. At the conclusion of the contest, Warner and former Baruch standout Jessenia Marrero (2002-06) were named Players of the Game. The duo is pictured below with the two game coaches Jackee Meadow (left), the former Hunter head coach (winning five CUNYAC titles), who is now the Athletic Director at CCNY; Marrero; Ivkovic; Warner; and Ted Hurwitz (CCNY, '61), the second Director of the Conference and a former CUNY-winning coach at Lehman College.
The preliminaries for the men's & women's college 3-point contest were held with the finalists competing again during the respective title games. When all was said and done, John Jay's Shamil Duran (with nine 3's in the final) and Staten Island's Danielle McLaughlin, who nailed a record 12 treys in the final shootout, won the shootouts.
"It was an exciting day," concluded Ivkovic. "To see the Alumni stay for the games was a treat and we look forward to doing more in the near future. This was just the start."
-- cunyathletics.com --