Entering the New York State Championship meet, Rensselaer men’s track & field team sat on a comfortable lead thanks to Trevor Tersmette’s school record victory in the pentathlon. And after another outstanding performance by the senior from Barneveld, N.Y., in the spring season’s outdoor decathlon, the Engineers will again be starting a state championship meet ahead.
On Sunday and Monday, several members of RPI’s squad traveled to Ithaca College to compete in the New York State Multi-Events Championships. Tersmette let his presence be known as he won the New York State decathlon, compiling a school-record 6,610 points. It was the co-captain’s first state decathlon title of his career. Sophomore teammate Okechuku Ekwuaba also had a strong showing, coming in sixth in the event.
Three of the Engineers’ female competitors also performed exceptionally well in the heptathlon event. Senior Heather Maffei, sophomore Nora Hartnett, and freshman Melissa Megna finished eighth, ninth, and 10th, respectively.
With his record-breaking victory, Tersmette was named Liberty League Men’s Field Performer of the Week and has now automatically qualified for the NCAA Championship meet to be held in Waverly, Iowa, later this month while the first of several championship meets will be held this Thursday and Friday when Rensselaer travels to Rochester to compete against other high-caliber opponents in the New York State Meet.
The rest of the Rensselaer men’s and women’s track & field teams were in action in Troy as they held their annual RPI Invitational home meet on Saturday at Harkness Field. In what could be considered adverse weather conditions, the visiting teams, Union and Colby-Sawyer Colleges, watched as both home teams strolled to an easy victory.
The male Engineers gobbled up 380 points, compared to second place Union’s 99 points, by winning 18 of 20 events. Though not as dominant, the female engineers won by a margin of over 30 points. These two showings are more impressive considering that many of Rensselaer’s competitors were resting in order to run fast times this coming Thursday. Athletes were told by RPI Head Coach Colin Tory to treat the meet as, “a great ‘practice meet’ as prep for the state meet next weekend.”
In a crowd favorite, the steeplechase, senior Josh Schuster was the first harrier of the day seen striding to victory. Schuster’s victory was in a season best time of 10:09.34, despite the fact that the race was delayed. Interestingly, during this delay Schuster had to use his car jack to raise the steeple barrier, located next to the water pit. After the women’s race this barrier was stuck, due to rust, below the required male height of 36 inches.
There were several multiple event winners this weekend. On the men’s side, Kemar Brown’s explosiveness won him both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. Sharath Alampur, a graduate student, was the winner of the long and triple jumps. It is hoped that these winning performances by Alampur, which aggravated one of his hamstrings, will not affect him in weeks to come. On the field, Corey McCormack’s throws in the hammer and discus events earned him two victories. There were no double event winners by the women. Sue Madden, however, had an outstanding performance by winning all three throwing events. The discus, hammer, and javelin throws comprised Madden’s triple victory, which resulted in the sophomore’s selection as Liberty League Women’s Field Performer of the Week.
The RPI Invitational is unique because Rensselaer alumni are allowed and encouraged to compete. Numbers, however, were lower than previous years because of the weather. This did not stop Allison Benson, one of the female Engineers’ main athletes only a year ago, from winning the pole vault. Robert Baniak also showed that RPI graduates continue to stay in shape with his third place finish in the 5K.
