Medaling has never been a problem for the Rensselaer women’s track & field squad. Out of the 121.5 points the Engineers compiled in their second place finish at the Liberty League Championships on Saturday, April 16, 116 came from medalists. RPI took first place in five different events and had 13 top three finishes in 11 events in the competition. St. Lawrence walked away with the conference championship after racking up an impressive 310.5 points over the course of the day.
Rensselaer again got top performances from its two relay teams as the Engineers won both the 4x100-meter and 4x400-meter relays. In the 4x100 relay, Jennifer Dias, Carol Scalice, Marion Albert, and Alysia Evanitsky smoked the competition, destroying the second place St. Lawrence squad by over a second. The 4x400 team was equally impressive, as they creamed the Liberty League Championship Meet record with a time of 4:02.57 and won the race by over a second and a half.
Scalice and Dias would not be limited to wins in the relays throughout the day. Scalice took the top spot in the long jump and also was the runner-up in both the 100-meter and 200-meter dashes. Dias cruised to a first place in her top event, the 400-meter hurdles. The sophomore ran a beautiful race, clearing all obstacles in a time of 1:05.45.
Sue Madden was RPI’s other top finisher, as she took the top spot in the shot put, while teammate Marissa Hecker took second. In other throwing events, Heather Maffei took second and third in the discus and javelin throws, respectively.
Evanitsky, a senior, and Albert, a freshman, combined to finish second and third in the 400-meter to round out a solid day for the two runners. Evanitsky came in second by the slimmest of margins, only missing first by four-tenths of a second. The final medalist for RPI was Julia Moore, who took second in the always-intriguing 3,000-meter steeplechase. The sophomore comfortably took second, but finished well out of first place in a time of 12:27.65.
The Engineers will be back in action this Saturday, April 23 when they travel to Worcester, Mass., to take on Division I Holy Cross. This will only be the second year RPI will attend this meet, but the Engineers were quite successful at the 2004 gathering; the women took fourth place in the six team event.
