Indoor Track & Field

Two members of the RPI indoor track & field team came home with NCAA All-American status following top-eight placements at the NCAA Division-III Indoor Track & Field Championship, held at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology.

Sophomore Connor Ahlborn placed fifth in the women’s 20-pound weight-throw, with a toss of 16.44 meters (53 feet, 11.4 inches), which was just three centimeters short of breaking an RPI school record. On the 15-competitor field, Ahlborn led the group through the preliminary round before falling back to fifth place in the finals.

This was Ahlborn’s first appearance in the NCAA Championship after posting a then-season best throw of 16.31 meters at the ECAC Championship.

Junior Justin Metzger placed sixth in the men’s pole vault with a height of 4.92 meters in last Saturday’s competition. This was also Metzger’s first All-American status, and his performance broke an RPI record, which Metzger had previously set in the ECAC Championship. Of the 13-participant pool, Metzger was the only representative from the Liberty League.

Swimming & Diving

Senior diver Matthew Culen earned his fifth All-American Honorable Mention of his four-year diving career after placing 11th with a score of 427.10 points in the 3-meter diving event in the NCAA Divison-III Swimming & Diving Championship, held at the University of Minnesota Aquatics Center and hosted by Macalester College.

This was Culen’s third NCAA appearance, earning All-American Honorable Mentions in the 1-meter and 3-meter diving events in his freshman and sophomore seasons. Culen narrowly missed out on an Honorable Mention in the 1-meter event this season, placing 18th with a score of 378.45 points.

Earlier this season, Culen became the first RPI male diver to claim both the 1-meter and 3-meter diving titles at the New York State Championship after taking the Liberty League Diver of the Year award for the second consecutive season.

Women’s Lacrosse

The women’s lacrosse team fell 11-10 to the Nazareth College Golden Flyers this past Friday in non-conference action. Led by juniors Nora Davis and Jennifer Young—who tallied four and three goals, respectively—the Golden Flyers improved to 3-2 on the season, while the Red Hawks dropped their second consecutive game, falling to 3-2 on the year.

All of Young’s goals came within the opening 16 minutes of play to give the Golden Flyers the early 4-2 lead.

Just 2:25 into the game, Young notched her first of the night, just to have RPI respond with goals by sophomore Stephanie Caouette and senior Emily Donowick over a 34-second span to take the 2-1 lead. Davis tied the game at 23:04 of the first half, and Young added two more for the 4-2 lead.

Davis netted her second of the night with 12 minutes remaining in the first half to pull Nazareth ahead, 5-2. RPI senior Kerri Clark added one more to the scoreboard in the closing minutes of play, but was quickly countered by Nazareth sophomore Michelle Cook to maintain the three-goal deficit with 29 seconds remaining in the half.

Starting the second half as the first, Golden Flyer senior Shannon Lattimore and sophomore Alyssa Mulheron each scored in the opening five minutes of the half to take a five-goal lead.

Just over a minute after Mulheron’s mark, Rensselaer netted four consecutive goals spanning a 8:22 period to pull within one point. Junior Whitney Kukol and Caouette each had two goals, as well as Clark and Donowick. Freshman Emma Albert added a single goal for RPI.

Still trailing by a goal, 11-10, the Red Hawks placed strong pressure in the offensive zone in the final minutes of play, but could but could not solve Nazareth junior goaltender Ann Sessler, who made four saves in the final 21:27 of the match. Junior goalkeeper Ariana Hood stopped seven shots for RPI.

Both teams recorded 27 shots, though the Golden Flyers edged the Red Hawks in ground balls by 12-6.

RPI opens up Liberty League play on the road this weekend, with games against William Smith College this Friday at 4 pm and Hamilton College on Saturday at 2 pm.