CINCINNATI, Ohio -- The Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology men's track and field team won its 21st consecutive Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship, while the women's team finished second in the HCAC Outdoor Track and Field Championships on Friday and Saturday at Mount St. Joseph University.
The men's program won its 12th consecutive HCAC outdoor team championship and has won nine straight indoor championship since the inaugural event held in 2011. The combination leads to the Fightin' Engineers winning the last 21 contested HCAC men's track and field championships. Rose-Hulman has won every men's HCAC track and field championship contested since 2008.
On the women's side, Rose-Hulman placed second behind Hanover College in the team scoring. The Fightin' Engineers had won three straight HCAC championships in contested league title meets since 2017 entering this weekend's action.
The men's squad scored an impressive 240 points to outdistance Hanover College (152) and Manchester University (63) in the top three spots. Hanover tallied 179 points to capture the women's championship, followed by Rose-Hulman (122) and Manchester (96).
Rose-Hulman won a total of nine events over the two-day meet. Eric Fiacable and Noah Thomas led the individual efforts with two wins each. Fiacable won both the shot put (50' 0") and the hammer throw (186' 8'"). Thomas brought home first-place honors in the 100-meter (11.18) and 200-meter (22.37) dash events.
Other men's winners included Nick Palmer in the pole vault (14' 9"); Trey Sykes in the triple jump (46' 0 3/4"); and Will Thesken in the 800-meter run (1:58.60).
The women's team brought home two individual titles. Mary-Helen Shomba tied her career-best time of 15.00 seconds to win the 100-meter hurdles. Lois Cheatham, Clare Bruns, Dara Smith and Tina Rogers combined to win the 4-x-400 meter relay in 4:08.14.
The strong performances also included eight men's runner-up finishes and four second-place efforts from the women's team. Running event men's runner-ups included Sykes in the 100 (11.33); Evan Ammidown in the 1500 (4:03.91) and Matthew Stevenot in the 5000 (15:17.88).
Nathan Schrader led the field event runner-up performances with second place efforts in the shot put (47' 11 1/4") and javelin (191' 2"). Fiacable added a second place in the discus (148' 4") and Cameron Prisby completed a 1-2 finish in the men's pole vault with a leap of 14' 3 1/4".
The 4-x-400 meter relay team of Stephen Payne, Jacob Back, Isaiah Lilje and Thomas also came home second in 3:25.56.
On the women's side, Cassie Utley led the Fightin' Engineers with two second-place finishes in throwing events. Utley came home second in both the discus (125' 0") and javelin (108' 8"). Bruns added a second in the 400 hurdles (1:07.50).
The men's squad added five third-place performances and the women's team had two thirds. Third-place men's finishes included Back in the 200 (22.85); Schrader in the discus (145' 3"); Thomas in the long jump (21' 8"); Nolan Gross in the 3,000-steeplechase (9:54.04); and Jacob Sparks in the shot put (46' 2").
Women's third-place finishers included Rogers in the 400 (1:00.62) and Smith in the high jump (4' 11").
Individuals from the Fightin' Engineer teams will return to action on Friday May 3 at the Indiana University Billy Hayes Invitational.
