Weekly sports update: Results from April 12th through 18th

by Geoff Hassard - Sports Information Director

Women's Track (6-3)

The women's track team competed in a dual meet against Trinity on the 13th. The weather conditions again were rather poor and the Engineers were beaten by a score of 96-60. Placewinners for WPI in the meet were Heather Cleary (Pembroke, MA) who won the high jump, triple jump and long jump while also finishing second in the pole vault and third in the 200-meter dash. Sunny Hwang (Manchester, CT) won the shot put, took second in the high hurdles and placed third in the 100-meter dash. Patty Panlilio (Holyoke, MA) won the hammer throw and finished third in the discus. Liz Kieronski (Concord, NH) won the pole vault. Heather Mazzaccaro (Bristol, CT) placed second in the javelin and 200. Ellen Roach (Plainville, MA) took second in the discus and third in the shot put. Sue MacPherson (Hudson, MA) placed third in both the hammer and javelin. Sue Shorrock (N. Smithfield, RI) was second in the high jump. Melanie Heck (W. Buxton, ME) finished third in the 400-meter run and Jody Terranova (Westerly, RI) placed third in the 400-meter hurdles.

Men's Track (6-3)

The men had a dual meet versus Trinity at the same time as the women on the 13th. The men got some outstanding individual performances as they beat the Bantams 98-65. Leading the way for the Engineers was senior tri-captain Steve LaBranche (Uncasville, CT) who won two events himself - 400-meter and 1,500-meter run - and then ran one of the legs of the mile relay team that came in first. Two other individuals who had strong performances were Stan Farrell (Augusta, ME) and Marc LeFebvre (Adams, MA). Farrell scored in six events as he prepares for the decathlon at the New England Championships in May. He won the 110-meter high hurdles, placed second in the pole vault, javelin, triple jump, long jump and high jump. LeFebvre set a new WPI outdoor record in the high jump when he cleared 6'-71/4". This jump also qualified him for the All-New Englands in May which includes Division I, II, and III athletes.

Other placewinners for WPI were Chris Neumaier (Vernon, CT) who won the javelin. Brian McKenna (Pawtucket, RI) won the hammer throw. Rich Person (Sutton, MA) won the 800-meter run. David Bowler (Cumberland, RI) won the pole vault. Bill Freed (Stockton, NJ) won the 400-meter hurdles and placed third in the 110 hurdles. Dan Sadowski (Ashfield, MA) took second in the shot put and third in the discus. Aaron Korthas (Gloucester, MA) placed second in the hammer. Bruce Meacham (Exeter, NH) finished second in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. Mike Pockoski (Dayville, CT) took second in the discus and third in the hammer. Keith Levesque (Nashua, NH) was second in the 400. Rick Crispo (Andover, MA) finished second in the 800. Tyler Lupien (Waldoboro, ME) placed second in the 400 hurdles and third in the 3,000 steeplechase. Frank Murphy (New Britain, CT) finished second in the 5,000-meter run. Mike Fry (Holden, MA) was third in the javelin. Dave LaFleur (Ghent, NY) took third in the shot put. Dave Hawes (Seal Harbor, ME) placed third in both the 100 and 200-meter dashes. Dan Atkinson (Dedham, MA) was third in the pole vault and rounding out the scoring was Mike Gagne (Colchester, VT) who placed third in the 5,000.

Softball (4-5)

The softball team finally got a chance to play last week and came through with two good outings as they beat both Babson and Anna Maria to run their current win streak to four games. The hitting and defense has come around and the pitching, which has been solid from the beginning, is getting stronger.

On Monday the 15th, WPI traveled to Babson to play a conference game with the Beavers. Pitching her first complete game shutout was freshman Carrie Seigars (Richmond, ME) as the Engineers won 4-0. Tracy Langis (Westport, MA) and Teresa Lintzenich (Swansea, IL) had strong days at the plate. Langis was 2-2 with a run scored and an RBI while Lintzenich was 2-3 with the game-winning RBI.

Two days later on the 17th the Engineers hosted a scheduled away game versus the Amcats of Anna Maria. WPI took advantage of the Amcat's wildness as they struck for 4 runs in the top of the fifth inning to take the lead 5-4. They went on to win the game 6-4 as Seigars picked up another win in relief of Lara Currie (Concord, NH) who started and pitched three innings. Jami Walsh (Bellingham, MA) who has been on a tear at the plate lately went 2-3 with a run scored.

Baseball (7-16)

The baseball team was busy last week with all of the postponements due to the weather. They did manage a 2-3 week as they are starting to build towards the Constitution Athletic Conference tournament at the end of this week. They split two doubleheaders against CAC opponents Springfield and MIT and then dropped a tough one to Salve Regina.

On the 13th, the Engineers traveled west to Springfield to take on the Pride in their first ever meeting as conference foes. Behind another strong pitching performance by Guy Miller (W. Barnstable, MA) WPI defeated the Pride 3-0. It was Miller's first win of the season as he lowered his team-leading ERA to 1.91. He also helped himself at the plate by driving in two runs including the game-winner in the third. In the second game WPI battled back after falling behind 5-2 after three innings to tie the game at 10-10 entering the seventh inning. A two-out single in the home half of the seventh won it for Springfield as they took the game 11-10. Alex Bartkin (N. Reading, MA) had a field day going 3-4 with four RBI's including the game-tying three-run home run in the top of the sixth.

It was now on to Cambridge to play a strong MIT squad on the 17th. WPI trailed 3-2 going into the fourth when the bats came alive. Senior captain Len Macrina (Winthrop, MA) led the attack with a two-run home run while Eric Dubois (Cumberland, RI) knocked in a pair of runs to cap a six-run inning. WPI would win the game 10-5 as Tim Tully (Greenville, RI) picked up the win after pitching six strong innings. Macrina had a career-best day going 4-4 with two home runs and three RBI's. In the second game, a pretty good pitchers dual took place as Matt Whitten (Gray, ME) went the distance. Unfortunately WPI was on the losing side of the 5-2 score. Tom Michalowski (Northampton, MA) had a couple of hits for WPI.

The next day the Engineers went down to play Salve Regina along the water. WPI made a comeback, but was cut down when the potential tying run was thrown out in the top of the ninth. Salve Regina won the game 4-3. Bartkin pitched six strong innings for WPI while freshman Justin Downing (Leominster, MA) pitched two scoreless innings of relief. Bartkin also drove in two runs with a one-out single in the bottom of the eighth.

Men's Tennis (0-5)

The tennis team was back in action on the 13th as they participated in the CAC Championships at Coast Guard. They ended up placing seventh in the tournament as they dropped matches to MIT, Norwich and Springfield. Nathan Hendrix (Imlay City, MI) and Mike Lamoureux (Assonet, MA) were the only WPI winners on the day.

Two days later the Engineers took on UMass-Lowell and were beaten 7-0. Last Thursday (18th) WPI dropped another to Holy Cross. Hendrix pulled out a tough three set win to win a point for the Engineers in the match that ended 6-1.