Despite heavy rain and cold weather the Rensselaer men’s and women’s track & field teams competed this past Saturday in Worcester, Mass. Both Engineer teams successfully tallied enough points to place fourth in the Holy Cross Invitational, which boasted a field of mostly Division I competition.
Dealing with less than ideal weather conditions, the Engineers took their current situation in stride. Knowing that times or marks might not be season bests, Coach Tory took an optimistic approach by stating, “Having bad weather was good practice. Should bad weather occur again in our upcoming championship meets, we will be more prepared.”
Facing D-I opponents did not faze either the men or women. Kemar Brown won two individual races for the second week in a row. This feat was accomplished by edging out the other athletes in the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. Senior Trevor Tersmette won the 110-meter high hurdles and the 400-meter intermediate hurdles. Joe Otto captured the win in the 800-meter run by easily handling the field with a time of 1:54.34, a full second ahead of the second place contender. Sophomore Jen Dias, posted a season best of 63.99 seconds while winning the women’s 400-meter intermediate hurdle and helped inspire her teammate Becky Lock to a third place finish.
When asked how he felt about the teams’ performance Tory stated, “[I am] very pleased. RPI was very competitive in all event areas.” The pleasure of seeing his athletes win on the track was complemented with winning performances in field events. Graduate student Sharath Alampur leaped to a first place finish in the triple jump. Alampur’s mark of 42 feet, 10.75 inches was over a foot beyond any of his challengers. Teammate Jimmy Motzkin, who has not placed less than first so far this season in the Javelin throw, continued his trend of winning. Female counterparts Sue Madden and Heather Maffei also had victories in field events. Madden placed first in the shot put while Maffei won the discus. Another notable performance was Carol Scalice’s second place mark of 17 feet, 1.5 inches in the long jump.
The outstanding collective and individual performances by the Engineers did not escape the attention of those in the Liberty League, as six RPI athletes were awarded weekly honors. Tersmette and Dias were tapped as the men’s and women’s Track Performer of the Week and Motzkin and Maffei took men’s and women’s Co-Field Performers for the week. Both Freshmen Joe Doran and Marion Albert earned the men’s and women’s Rookie Performer of the Week after finishing third in the 200-meter sprint.
Next week will be the only time this season that the Engineers will compete on their home turf. The RPI Invitational will occur on the newly resurfaced Harkness outdoor track and field facility. When asked about future goals, Tory’s response held hope for his athletes both on the track and in the classroom. “Our upcoming goals are top level performances at the NYSCTC Championship May 6 and 7 as well as successful end of the semester tests, projects, and finals.”
