TERRE HAUTE, Ind. -- Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology relied on 13 event wins and 15 runner-up finishes to record a strong team performance in the opener of the 2017 outdoor track and field season, at the Fightin' Engineer Early Bird Invitational on Saturday.
The men's squad easily outdistanced a field of eight teams with 272 points, followed by DePauw at 111 and Baldwin Wallace at 102. On the women's side, Baldwin Wallace topped the seven-team field with 186.5 points, followed by Rose-Hulman at 138.5 and DePauw at 111.
Rose-Hulman captured 13 first-place finishes on the afternoon, with 11 individual titles and a sweep of the two men's relay events. Sophomore Trey Sykes led the individual performances by sweeping the long jump (21' 6 3/4") and triple jump (44' 11 1/2").
Other men's field event winners for Rose-Hulman included Eric Fiacable in the hammer (156' 5); Josh Himes in the discus (155' 10"); Nick Palmer in the pole vault (14' 6"); and Ben Wewe in the javelin (164' 4").
The men's running event winners were highlighted by a sweep of the 4-x-100 and 4-x-400 meter relays. Adam Wilson, David Borden, Isaiah Smith and Josh Hennig won the 4-x-100 in 42.75 seconds, while Brendan Smyth, Smith, Borden and Hennig combined in a victorious 4-x-400 time of 3:26.86. Individually, Hennig won the 400 (50.26), Smith won the 400-hurdles (56.37) and Wilson captured the 100 (10.97).
The women's squad combined for two field event wins on the day. Gabi Razma won the triple jump with a leap of 36' 2", while Jaclyn Setina claimed the high jump with a makr of 5' 4 1/4".
The men's team earned eight second-place finishes, while the women claimed seven. Smith led the way with runner-up finishes in the 100 (11.12) and long jump (20' 8"), while Smyth came home second in the 400-hurdles (57.33) and triple jump (41' 5 3/4").
Other men's runner-up finishers included Matt Hill in the 5,000 (15:19.82), Himes in the shot put (47' 3"); Cameron Prisby in the pole vault (12' 4 1/2"); and Sykes in the 200 (23.01).
On the women's side, six individuals recorded runner-up finishes. Second-place finishers included Lucinda Combs in the javelin (100' 7"); Lindsey Fagerberg in the triple jump (32' 11"); Debie Gedeon in the 100-hurdles (15.64); Victoria Heckenlively in the 400 (1:03.52); Kally Morozin in the 1,500 (5:11.82); and Razma in the long jump (15' 9 1/2"). The 4-x-400 meter team of Razma, Heckenlively, Kristin East and Christine Harper were also second in 4:18.54.
The top individual performance of the day historically was recorded by Camille Blaisdell in the 5,000-meter run with a mark of 18:35.07 that ranks No. 2 in Rose-Hulman history.
Rose-Hulman will travel to the Washington University Invitational on Friday in its second competition of the spring season.
