As promised, the Rensselaer indoor track and field team experienced a very exciting and successful NYSCTC meet performance on Friday and Saturday at St. Lawrence University. Once again the team improved upon their strong individual performances while setting several new records and earning new NCAA qualifying marks.
The men’s team, scoring 119 points, finished second to St. Lawrence out of 14 competing teams, with many athletes scoring within their events. Junior Dwaine Alleyne earned the title of Field Event Performer of the Meet by winning the men’s triple jump with the mark of 14.61 m (47’11.25”). Alleyne also won the 55 m hurdles with a time of 7.74. Both Ryan Quiller, who placed second in the pole vault with 4.60 m (15’1”), and Nate Doyle, who placed second in the shot put with 15.52 m (50’11”), qualified for the NCAA Championships during the course of the meet. Other individual track event scorers included Derek McGough, placing second in the 55 m dash with a time of 6.56, Pat McDonald, placing fifth in the 400 m with 53.18, Mike Winnick placing second in the 1000 m with 2:33.35, and both Joe Otto placing second, and Adam Day placing fifth, in the 800 m with times of 1:56.44 and 1:57.82 respectively. In the field events, the scoring athletes were McGough winning the long jump with 6.83 m (22’5”), Trevor Tersmette placing second in the high jump with 1.95 m (6’4.75”), Jeff Banks winning the pole vault with 4.70 m (15’5”), Sharath Alampur placing third in the triple jump with 13.80 m (45’3”), Mike Johnson placing fourth in shot put with 14.63 m (48’), and Jack Miller placing sixth in weight throw with 14.86 m (48’9”). In addition, the men’s 3200 m relay consisting of Adam Day, Winnick, Keith Weiss, and Otto, scored second place in the time of 7:59.70.
The women’s team, earning a total of 30 points, placed seventh among 13 teams with many individual successes. The team achieved four new school records and one meet record, which were all accompanied by personal bests. Alysia Evanitsky earned the school record in the 500 m scoring third place with the time of 79.70. Alyssa Coffey also broke a school record in the 800 m, running a time of 2:19.52. Both Evanitsky and Coffey later returned to achieve a second school record with teammates Becky Lock and Lauren Cephas in the 1600 m relay with a time of 4:06.51. In addition, Lock scored again for the women in the 400 m with the time of 61.47. The fourth school record was broken in the 1500 m by Rebecca Rosenberg-Beran who scored fifth place in the time 4:47.65. The single new NYSCTC meet record was set by Allison Benson who won the pole vault with 3.41 m (11’2.25”). Teammate Jess Pearson also scored in the pole vault with 3.19 m (10’5.5”), earning second place overall.
The State Meet was truly a success for the entire indoor track and field team as well as an exciting day for many of the competing individuals. Both the men’s and the women’s teams now have multiple accomplishments to be proud of as they reach the end of the indoor track season.
