NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) women's and men's track & field teams returned to indoor action for the first time since March 7, 2019, and seven Engineers and a relay team earned victories in the Smith Winter Classic, a non team-scoring meet at Smith College. Additionally, 10 from RPI had runner-up finishes and 11 others placed third.
Among those who were first place finishers for Rensselaer were four men, as well as a male relay team, and three women.
Eoin O'Gara won the men's pole vault with an effort of 3.65 meters, which he accomplished on his ninth attempt to defeat a field of six.
Robert Smith, a sophomore, won the men's long jump with a distance of 6.48 meters, while junior Jana Frattellone captured the women's with 4.80 meters. Her best came on her sixth try, while Smith reached his top distance in his first. Elizabeth Evans was third (4.76) and Ileana Sirois was fourth (4.69) in the women's event and
Desmond Lambe finished second (6.38) on the men's side.
Rensselaer also had the top two finishers in the high jump with seniors Jacy Scharlow and Maya Verma reaching 1.65 meters and 1.60 meters, respectively. Both previous All-Americans in the event, Scharlow used two attempts to get to 1.65, while Verma reached 1.60 meters on her third try. None of the other competitors reached 1.60.
Luke Kovalcin was the runner-up in the men's high jump at 1.78 meters.
Four earned top four finishers in the weight throw, including both seconds.
Justin Park reached 12.57 meters on his final throw and was trailed immediately by teammates
Max Toner (11.85) and
Raymond Santiago (11.16). The women had three of the top five with Morgan Daley in second (14.30), Laura Davis in fourth (12.44) and Jessey Bruening in fifth (12.42).
On the track, junior
Luke Lyons won the 400 meter dash with a time of 50.39, which was 1.70 seconds ahead of the runner-up. RPI had two runners-up in the 60 meters with
Bate Egbe coming .02 from first in the hurdles and Kat Morin finishing second in the 60 meter dash by .10. Morin, a senior, was followed by Frattellone (8.25) and Caitlin Smith (8.28), who were third and fourth, respectively.
Sean Shannon, a freshman, won the 800 meters in a time of 2:02.36 with teammates
Rahul Maharjan (2:04.65) and
Alex Ryan (2:05.71) placing in the top four, while Madison Perez won the women's 800 with a time of 2:28.32.
Though they did not have either winner, the Engineers stood out in the 200 dash with runner-ups in both: Bate (23.93) and Christine Mallette (27.88). Smtih was third (27.89) and Evans was fourth (28.31) in the women's event.
The men's 4x400 relay team closed out the day with a win, defeating nine other squads with a time of 3:32.88. The second place team, Trinity, was nearly two seconds behind (3:34.25).
RPI's teams return to competition next Saturday at the Utica College Holiday Classic.
