HANOVER, NH - The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's track & field team produced a standout performance at the Dartmouth December Invite on Saturday, registering numerous top-five finishes across sprints, jumps, hurdles, and throws in an all-around strong showing in early-season competition.
RPI's jumpers once again led the charge, starting with sophomore
Oliver Herrick, who finished runner-up in both the high jump (1.80 meters) and triple jump (13.53 meters). In the high jump, Herrick was joined by senior
Calvin Chang in fourth place at 1.75 meters. The Engineers dominated the triple jump event, occupying four of the top five places. Senior
Evan Boyd landed in third at 12.74 meters, followed by
Jack Notaro in fourth (12.28m) and
Caius Leung in fifth (12.06m).
In the horizontal jumps,
Ervin Owusu claimed second in the long jump with a leap of 6.49 meters, while
Dillen Owusu and
Evan Boyd rounded out the scoring in fourth (6.12m) and fifth (5.98m), respectively. The pole vault squad also had a strong outing, as
Shawn Keenan cleared 4.55 meters to place fifth and
Moss Dengler added an eighth-place mark of 4.25 meters.
The Engineers' sprint and hurdle groups delivered several high finishes in the short-distance races. In the 60-meter dash, five RPI athletes placed in the top eight:
Alexander Flynn placed second in 7.19 seconds, just ahead of
Jack Catelotti (3rd, 7.22),
Francis Grasso (4th, 7.23), Gabe Sicurella (7th, 7.27), and
Rafael Steiner (8th, 7.38). Flynn added a third-place finish in the 300 meters with a time of 36.31 seconds. Steiner and Catelotti followed closely in fifth (36.46) and sixth (36.66), with Grasso finishing eighth (36.86).
In the hurdles,
Chris Kay ran 8.86 seconds to take third in the 60-meter hurdles, while
John Bellini (4th, 9.28),
Caius Leung (6th, 9.72), and Jack Currie (8th, 10.12) helped the Engineers control the finals heat. In the 500 meters, RPI had three athletes in the scoring group:
Richard Biase (6th, 1:11.68),
Jack Gips (7th, 1:11.96), and Samuel Aubut (8th, 1:11.97), all finishing within tenths of a second of one another.
RPI's throwers were equally dominant in both the shot put and weight throw. In the shot put,
Paul Sussman led the Engineers with a fourth-place throw of 13.42 meters. He was backed by
Tristan Mangin (5th, 13.12m),
Logan Gamlin (7th, 12.15m), and
Arthur Hrycak (8th, 11.96m), giving RPI four of the top eight marks.
In the weight throw,
Colby Grove recorded a third-place finish with a mark of 14.96 meters, with Sussman (4th, 14.66m),
Max Fetah (5th, 14.62m), and
Eric Mulqueen (6th, 14.58m) close behind in a tightly packed leaderboard.
