The Rensselaer track and field team competed in their second meet of the season on Saturday, January 31, at West Point. The Howie Invitational was a non-scoring meet hosted by the United States Military Academy which included many tough competitors from Binghamton, Ithaca, Cortland, Jersey City, and Springfield as well as from the Academy.
On the women’s team, leading runners in the sprint events were Jennifer Dias who won the 500m dash in 1:21.65, Alysia Evanitsky who placed third in the event with 1:23.1, and Alyssa Coffey who placed second in the 800m run with a time of 2:23.6. In addition, the women’s 1600m relay team placed second with a total time of 4:16.19.
For the field events, Sue Madden won the shot put with a mark of 12.30m, and Felicia Tsai placed in the weight throw with a mark of 13.8m earning fourth. Carol Scalice placed second in the long jump with a mark of 5.22m, and Jennifer Dias similarly earned a second place finish in the triple jump with a mark of 10.87m. Finally, in the pole vault, Allison Benson won with a jump of 3.22m.
Among the sprint events for the men’s team, Joe Otto captured a win in the 800m run with a time of 1:57.4 and Dwaine Alleyne won the 60m hurdles in 8.50.
Other leading sprint athletes included: Owen Kellet placing fifth in the 200m with 23.45, Vincent Hood who placed sixth in the 400m with 52.90, Paul Legac placing fifth in the 500m dash with 1:09.14, Derek McGough who placed fourth in the 60m dash in 7.27. For the distance events, Marty Blatz ran a 2:39.2 in the 1000m run placing third for the team, then in the 3000m run, and Greg Mariano placed fifth with 9:22.94. In the relay events, the 1600m relay captured third place in the time 3:29.89.
On the field, Lance Chase earned sixth place in the weight throw with a mark of 14.72m, Derek McGough placed fifth in the long jump with 6.51m, Trevor Tersmette placed fourth in the high jump with 1.94m, and in the pole vault, Jason Langley placed fourth with a jump of 4.30m while Jason Legualt placed sixth with 4.00m.
There were also three scoring athletes in the triple jump which include Dwaine Alleyne who won the event with a mark of 13.93m, Sharath Alampur placing second with 12.97m, and Carl Hartford who placed fifth with a jump of 12.47m.
The team’s next competition will be held Saturday, February 7 hosted by Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.