RPI men’s track edged out for Liberty League title
CANTON, N.Y. » The Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ( RPI) men’s track & field team had finishers 1, 2 and 4 in the final event of the Liberty League Championship at St. Lawrence University, but Ithaca College took places 3, 5 and 6 and the Bombers edged the Engineers 187.33 to 183.33 to capture the conference title. RIT was third with 132.33 points, followed by the host Saints (84), the University of Rochester (47) and Union College (20).
Senior Terrence Lawrence won the high jump with a height of 1.98 meters and teammate Max Maritato was second at 1.93 meters. Ithaca’s Rob Greenwald slipped into third (1.88) with Eddie Maxwell of RPI in fourth (1.88). Two of Greenwald’s teammates filled in the next two places to give Ithaca a total of 13 points in the event, successfully holding off Rensselaer, which had 23 points.
Lawrence was one of four Engineers to win events on the second day of the twoday championship. Sophomore Alex Jonson won the 60-meter hurdles in a time of 8.42, junior Sean O’Connor won the 3000 meters in 8:28.50 and senior Matt Vitagliano captured the triple jump with a distance of 14.24 meters. Also like Lawrence, they were each joined by teammates on the podium. Lawrence was third (8.59) and Leighton James was sixth (8.93) in the 60 hurdles; Grant O’Connor was third (8:39.29) and Danny Napora was fifth (8:40.28) in the 3000 meters; and Joseph Osaheni was fifth in the triple jump (13.06).
Sophomore Dale Kelly had a pair of runner-up finishes as he came in second in the 60-meter dash (7.05) as well as the 200-meter dash (22.54) with teammate Jan Bartos coming in seventh (7.25) and eighth (23.33) in those events, respectively.
Senior Cameron Czerpak had a third place finish on the track, racing the 800 meters in 1:58.36, which was five places in front of teammate Frank Sinapi, who crossed in 2:00.57.
Sophomore Mark Shapiro, one day removed from winning the shot put, finished second in the weight throw (15.31) with Malcolm Porterfield also scoring in that event with an eighth place finish (13.75).
And in the heptathlon, Harry Niles was fourth with 3971 points and Tim Wise was seventh with 3733 points. the 200-meter dash (26.54) and Jaime Lord in the 3000-meter run (10:11.23). Titze was just off the pace of Rochester’s Michaela Burrell’s time of 26.07, while Lord trailed Ithaca’s Taryn Cordani, who finished in 9:58.24. Maggie Bond, a sophomore, also scored for Rensselaer in the 3000, finishing eighth with a time of 10:29.64.
Titze, who won the 400-meter dash on Friday, helped the 4x400 team to a third place finish, running the anchor leg for the squad that crossed in 4:07.19. Katie Clark, Caroline Howes and Alyssa Richtarek were the other runners for RPI.
Howes had an personal third place finish when she ran a 2:18.45 in the 800 meters earlier on Saturday. Also posting a third for the Engineers was Dainara Veeder in the 60-meter hurdles, which she ran in 9.57. on the other end was the first of three straight markers for Keene, who led 8- 6, before Lucas Bastarache scored with 29 second left to pull RPI to within a goal at halftime.
The Owls struck for the first three goals of the second half, including two early in the third quarter, but Rensselaer made it an 11- 9 deficit when Lukas and Feenstra scored backto-back goals. Keene countered with five straight goals in the fourth quarter to take a 16-9 lead before Kigar’s second of the contest off a feed from Tyler Hancock made it 16-10. RPI’s Matthew Gilman’s scored with under a minute left for the game’s final tally.
Five players had multiple goals for Keene State, led by Connor Nolan and Paul Beling, both of whomhad four. They both also had one assist. Mathew Howe made 17 saves for the victory.
Lukas finished with five goals and an assist, while Kigar scored twice. Gilman had a goal and an assist and JT Kelly had two helpers. Parker Smith started in goal and took the loss for the Engineers, who were 1 for 10 on the man-up.
RPI makes its home debut next Saturday at 1 p.m. when it welcomes Montclair State for a non-league contest. the 4- 0 UAlbany lead 3:12 in.
UAlbany tacked on two more goals, including a nifty behind the back shot by Fields with two defenders next to him, then another catch and shoot from him to Reh. The Great Danes led 6- 0 before Drexel scored its first goal with six minutes left in the 1st.
UAlbany responded quickly as Kyle McClancy netted his first goal with a shot on the doorstep manup. Reh added another goal with 3:15 left in the quarter, then in the final minute of the 1st, Nanticoke found Egan for a close range shot and score, putting UAlbany up 9-1 after one.
The Purple & Gold kept the charge going with a McClancy laser shot to the cage 78 seconds in, then 13 seconds later, a Jack Burgmaster downward shot found its mark. Nantcioke added his second goal next to the goal circle. UAlbany continued to dominate faceoffs, as Sean Eccles scored on a hard shot, McClancy adding another, Nanticoke scoring from Fields, then with 57 seconds left in the 2nd, Eccles scored his second on a ground ball throw past the keeper’s feet, completing the 10- 0 run. Drexel’s Will Manganiello scored before the half’s end to make it 16-2 at the break.
UAlbany primarily went to its reserves in the second half, shutting out Drexel in the third quarter of play. Mitch Laffin scored on a 10-meter heave from Nanticoke, then Steve Ramirez scored his first collegiate goal off a dodge. UAlbany led 18-2 after three.
Drexel scored the game’s three final goals, the last two by Chris McLallen. UAlbany’s lead proved sufficient as the Great Danes won 18-5.
“We talked all week about moving on from [last] Saturday’s game and being prepared for our opponent, and I thought we did that in the first half,” UAlbany head coach Scott Marr said. “We came out and executed, and we did not have many mistakes in that first half.”
UAlbany stays at home for its next game, hosting Cornell on Saturday, March 3rd at 1 p.m. For ticket information for UAlbany men’s lacrosse games, fans may contact the UAlbany ticket office at 518442-DANE or ualbanysports.com/tickets.