Medford, MA --- WPI graduate student Austin Scott (Waddington, NY) and junior Ryan Wittenberg (Bedford, NH) each broke their own record as Men's Track & Field took part in the Tufts Cupid Challenge Saturday inside Gantcher Field House.
The Engineers, who are five spots out of the USTFCCCA NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Top 25, tested their mettle against No. 2 MIT, No. 15 Middlebury, No. 18 Haverford and No. 17 Williams. Also in attendance were Amherst, Brandeis, Conn College, Geneseo, Plymouth State, the host Jumbos and Widener.
Scott clocked a 4:13.05 mile to better his school record by .41 seconds and move from 20th to seventh on the NCAA Division III performance list. Wittenberg lowered his time by just over a second, and is up one spot to fifth on the national scroll, with a 1:53.94 in the 800-meter run. Senior Warren Staver (Centreville, MD) cracked the national top 50 and is currently 16th with his converted time of 49 seconds flat in the 400-meter dash.
In addition to Staver's winning-time, junior Antoine Harris (Southington, CT) posted a top time of 7.06 in the 60-meter dash final, and sophomore Nick Fleury (Hopkinton, NH) achieved a winning-distance of 21-8 in the long jump. The 4x400-meter relay configuration of sophomore Alex Rus (Newton, MA), senior Paul-Henry Schoenhagen (Cleveland Heights, OH), Wittenberg and Staver earned gold with a time of 3:22.38. Freshman Oliver Thomas (Goffstown, NH) was the favorite in the 60-meter hurdles with an 8.46 in the prelims; however, he ended up second with a time of 8.39.
Freshman Ben Steeves (Hollis, ME) was second with a PR of 1:23.29 and sophomore Kevin O'Driscoll (Norwell, MA) wasn't far behind with a third-place personal-best 1:23.31. Sophomore Tom Hanlon (Derry, NH) was third in the 1,000-meter run with his best time of 2:33.52. Senior Tristam Winship (Bedford, NH) handed in his best 3,000-meter run performance with an 8:50.15, as did sophomore Avery Ingegneri (Warwick, RI) with an 8:51.61. Senior Patrick Wang (Beijing, China) reset his top shot put distance with a heave of 41-2.75. The 5,000-meter run saw juniors Michael Brady (Medway, MA) and Matt Rabasco (Pittsfield, MA) posted their best 5K times of 15:24.80 and 16:06.90, respectively.
Senior Jack DeVine (Wilbraham, MA) leaped a personal-best 20-11.75 in the long jump and was also the runner up in the high jump. Freshman Matt Adiletta (Bolton, MA) posted a second-place 7.11 in the 60-meter dash while sophomore William Kopellas (Needham, MA) raced to a PR of 7.29 in the prelims.
The Engineers head to BU Saturday for the men's portion of the two-day Valentine Invitational.
Individual rankings as of Saturday 11:45pm