Senior Jeff Mullen placed third in the triple jump with a performance good enough to qualify him for the New Englands, the All-New Englands and the ECAC meet. Junior Marc LeFebvre won the high jump event. Junior Rich Person ran a strong 800-meters. Junior Steve Labranche won the 800 and qualified for the All-New Englands and ECAC meets. Sophomore Tim Caldwell and freshman Rich Crispo finished 2nd and 3rd respectively in the 1000-meter run.
Last Saturday, February 11, was spirit day at WPI as the men played the second game of a double header against first place Babson. The Engineers were looking to avenge their only conference loss and move into a tie with the Beavers with one week remaining in the season.
WPI had early control of the game building a 16 point halftime lead. The second half had its excitement as the head coach of Babson was ejected which seemed to ignite his team. They made a run at WPI, but could never get any closer than six points. WPI won the game 96-89 behind 37 points from senior Chris Dunn. Four other players registered double figures in scoring as sophomore Jeff Cayer had 16, senior Scott Ennis had 15, sophomore Mike Shannon had 12 and junior Jim Naughton added 10 in the win.
Last Tuesday, February 14, WPI journeyed west to Springfield to play Western New England College. In a shocker, the Golden Bears upset WPI 90-81 despite having three players score over 20 points. Dunn led the Engineers with 29 points and Naughton and Cayer added 22 points a piece. Cayer also had 13 rebounds.
In the game versus MIT, WPI got contributions from everyone as they pulled away in the second half to win 73-54. Ennis led the Engineers with 21 points, while Dunn had 18, Cayer had 14 and Naughton added 10.
WPI hosts an opening round game in the CAC Conference tournament tonight, February 21, at Harrington Auditorium at 8 p.m.
In the first game on spirit day, the women were looking to knock off cross-city rival Clark in a rematch of the City Tipoff final from the beginning of the season. The game was close throughout until midway into the second half when Clark began to pull away. The Cougars ended up winning 78-58. Leading the Engineers was junior Jenn Lovin who had 13 points and 14 rebounds. Sophomores Kim Landry and Danielle Batey also scored in double figures with 12 and 11 points respectively.
Last Tuesday, February 14, WPI played Wheaton in a battle of conference unbeatens with the winner moving into first place. This time around Wheaton proved to be the better team as they won 74-55. Batey had a career high 18 points in leading WPI with Lovin adding 14 points in the defeat. WPI will now hope to meet Wheaton in the conference tournament which begins this week.
In the Nichols game, WPI was looking to get back on the winning track. The game was never close as the Engineers built a 23 point halftime lead to win going away 76-43. Landry led four players in double figures with 16, followed by Laura Bielitz with 12, Tricia Pignone and Lovin had 10 a piece. Landry and Lovin also registered their fifth double-double in the same game as they had 10 and 11 rebounds respectively.
The Engineers host an opening round NEW 8 Conference Tournament game this evening at Harrington Auditorium at 6 p.m.