NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - Six student-athletes earned victories, including two from sophomore Ileana Sirois, and five more were runner-ups for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's track & field team, which began its season at the Smith College Winter Classic on Saturday. Three more from the Engineers had third place finishes in the eight-school, non-team scoring meet.

Rensselaer had each of the top three finishers in the 800 meters with sophomore Madison Perez winning in a time of 2:25.13. Senior Maddie Fabry was second in 2:27.82 and junior Alyssa Richtarek placed third in 2:28.89. There were 12 competitors in the 800.

Perez and Richtarek later ran on the second place 4x400 relay team, which registered a 4:17.37, trailing only a squad from Trinity (4:17.08). Rensselaer's foursome included Jordan Porter as the leadoff, then Richtarek, Kelly Moran and Perez as the final competitor.

Sirois captured the 60 Hurdles with a time of 10.16, while teammate and classmate Willa Spaar was third in 10.22.

Sirois went on to win the long jump with a mark of 5.13 meters, which outdistanced the second place finisher by almost .20 meters. Charleen Theroux of Mount Holyoke was second (4.94) with a pair from Rensselaer in third and fourth in the 14-person field. Sirois also competed in the triple jump, earning runner-up in the 18-person field with a distance of 10.78 meters.

Another pair of sophomores, Jacy Scharlow and Maya Verma, went 1-2 in the high jump with heights of 1.68 meters and 1.58 meters, respectively.

Rensselaer also boasted the winner in the pole vault as Maurin O'Connor reached 3.20 meters, which was 0.15 more than the runner-up.

In the throwing events, RPI had a winner, a runner-up and two third place finishers. Morgan Daley captured the weight throw with a distance of 13.86 meters and she was followed by teammates in the next two spots. In fact, the Engineers had five of the top eight finishers in the event, which had 23 competitors.

In the shot put, Katie Zurek was third out of 22.

Rensselaer returns to action next Saturday at Utica College.