Saturday February 28, the Rensselaer indoor track and field teams competed in the New York State Collegiate Track Conference Indoor Championship meet hosted by St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.
It was an exciting championship for both the men and women’s teams, whose athletes set several new school records and earned several titles throughout the course of the meet. Rensselaer Head Coach Colin Tory also had a great day as he was named the NYSCTC Men’s Coach of the Year thanks in large part to his teams’ outstanding showings.
The Rensselaer men’s team, with a combined score of 140 points, was the NYSCTC meet champion with senior athlete Dwaine Alleyne earning NYSCTC titles in both the 55m hurdles and the triple jump.
Alleyne earned his fourth NYSCTC title in the triple jump with a mark of 13.84m and fourth title in the 55m hurdles with 7.80, winning both of the events. Alleyne also placed third in the long jump with 6.62m, and third in the pentathlon with a total of 3325 points.
Another top-scoring athlete on the men’s team was Joe Otto, who won the 800m run in the time of 1:53.52 while at the same time setting a new school record in the event and provisionally qualifying for the NCAA meet.
Otto ran on the men’s 3200m relay team as well, earning fourth place with a combined time of 8:00.41 with teammates Brian Lewis, Greg Mariano, and Marty Blatz.
A few of the other top scoring athletes in track events were Derek McGough, placing third in the 55m dash with 6.65 and Blatz, placing second in the 1000m run in 2:33.18.
In field events, Trevor Tersmette scored in both the high jump, in which he placed third with 1.90m, and the long jump in which he took second place with a mark of 6.63m.
In addition, second and third place was captured in the pole vault by Jason Langley with a mark of 4.40m, and Jason Legault with 4.10m, respectively.
RPI’s success continued on the women’s team, which placed third in the championships with a team score of 100 points with several outstanding individual performances.
In the track events, two new school records were set by Alyssa Coffey who placed fourth in the 800m run with a time of 2:18.78 and won the 1600m relay in the combined time of 4:03.49 with teammates Alysia Evanitsky, Jen Dias, and Becky Lock. Lock, who also placed third in the 400m dash with 60.77 and seventh in the finals of the 55m hurdles in 9.05, also set a new school record when she ran a time of 8.99 in the 55m hurdle preliminary event.
In field events, senior Allison Benson set a new NYSCTC record and earned her fourth NYSCTC pole vault title by winning the event with 3.46m. Benson’s performance provisionally qualified her for the NCAA meet as well.
Teammate Felicia Tsai, who won the weight throw with a mark of 15.17m, and Sue Madden, who won the shot put with 13.30m also provisionally qualified for the NCAA meet. Additionally, Madden was named the NYSCTC Women’s Field Athlete of the Year for her strong performances in the shot put and weight throw throughout the indoor season. The UCAA also handed out an award, Field Performer of the Week, to Madden for the fourth time this season.
Four other athletes recieved awards from the UCAA for this weekend’s accomplishments. Lock was named Track Performer of the Week and Jen Dias was named Rookie of the Week on the women’s side.
Alleyne recieved Co-Track Performer of the Week and Otto was honored with the Co-Field Performer of the Week for the men.
There were many other athletes on the men’s and women’s teams who scored in their events and all helped contribute to the overall success of the team.
It was an thrilling meet for those athletes finishing their indoor season as well as those who will be competing in the ECAC Championships coming up next weekend, March 5 and 6.
