The Rensselaer track and field team came out strong in their first home meet of the outdoor season, held at the Harkness Track and Field on Saturday March 27. Both the men’s and the women’s teams witnessed several outstanding performances, as they won their meets against competitors from Springfield, Westfield, and Southern Vermont colleges.
The women’s team set three new school records in the process of scoring a combined total of 172.5 points. In the track events, the woman’s 400m relay team including Becky Lock, Carol Scalice, Jen Dias, and Cara Rosato won the event and tied their own school record in the time of 51.49. The woman’s 1600m relay team also won their event in the time of 4:17.08. In the individual events there were many first place finishers as well. Freshman Carol Scalice set a second school record by winning the long jump event with a mark of 5.21m, while also winning the 100m dash in the time of 12.80.
Classmates Dias competing in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:06.17, and Erin Coffey competing in the 800m with a time of 2:29.12, also won their respective events. Another top scoring athlete in the track events was Lock, who won the 100m hurdles with the time of 18.11, in addition to setting the school record as part of the 400m relay team.
In the field events, the top scorers were captain Allison Benson who won the pole vault in 3.5m, Felicia Tsai winning the hammer throw with 46.82m, Kate Worden winning the discus throw in 34.0m, and Sue Madden, who not only won the shot put in 12.41m, but also set a new school record with her mark.
The men’s team had many solid performances as well, helping to earn their total score of 192 points. In the sprint events, the leading athletes were Derek McGough who won the 100m dash in 11.65 and Trevor Tersmette winning the 110m high hurdles in 16.60.
In the mid-distance and distance category, Joe Otto won the 1500m run with the time of 4:14.89, Bob Baniak won the 5000m race in the time of 16:42.75, and teammate Josh Schuster won the 3000m Steeplechase with a solid time of 10:31.67.
In the field, the men’s team dominated by winning nearly all of the events. These first place athletes include: Jason Langley with 4.26m in the pole vault, Derek McGough with a mark of 6.79m in the long jump, Corey McCormack with 44.30m in discus throw, Lance Chase with 51.10m in the hammer throw, and Jimmy Motzkin with 56.88m for the javelin throw. In addition, both winning hammer throwers, Tsai and Chase, achieved NCAA provisional qualifying marks.
It was a successful meet for all of the athletes on the track team, as many more of the athletes on both the men and women’s team placed well in their events. The competition will continue next weekend as the season progresses with the teams hosting the Engineer’s Cup verses WPI and MIT. Men’s competition will begin at 11:30 with the women shortly following at 2 pm.
