On Saturday the 23rd WPI was at Trinity for a quad meet with Williams, MIT and the hosts. The Engineers ended the day winning two and tying one. They defeated Trinity 26-10 and MIT 41-6 while tying Williams 20-20.
Winners of three matches on the day were Lance Baden (Framingham, Mass.), Aaron Becker (Coventry, R.I.) and Joe Tucker (Barre, Vt.). Matt McCarthy (Malden, Mass.), Willie Welsh (Jamesport, N.Y.), Nick Macsata (Enfield, Conn.) and DC Lashmit (Marlboro, Mass.) each won two matches. Single winners were Daryl Retzke (Wheaton, Il.), Mike Duff (Cantebury, Conn.), Justin Lutz (Walpole, Mass.) and Chris Newton (Wayland, Mass.).
Last Wednesday the Engineers had a rare doubleheader against Johnson & Wales and Plymouth State. The first match against Johnson & Wales was a rescheduled meet from December while the Plymouth meet was regularly scheduled for Jan. 27.
Against Johnson & Wales, the Engineers overpowered the younger, inexperienced squad to win 36-16. The win for WPI was coach Phil Grebinar's 350th career victory. Winners for WPI in the meet were Macsata, Becker, Tucker, Newton, Matt Lucas (Haverhill, Mass.), Retzke and Welsh.
WPI followed up their win over Johnson & Wales with a 25-12 victory against Plymouth State. Plymouth came in as the #4 ranked team in New England. Lashmit got WPI started at 174 lbs. with a win over the #2 ranked individual in his weight class. Baden followed that up with a win over the #2 guy in his weight class who was looking to knock him out of the #1 spot. Macsata put the meet out of reach with a win at 125 lbs. to make the score 16-3. Becker, Tucker and McCarthy all had wins for WPI as well.
Freshman Jody Kenniston (Old Town, Maine) scored a career high 25 points to lead the way for WPI in their win over Coast Guard. WPI scored the first 13 points of the game and never trailed as they evened their NEWMAC record to 1-1.
Last Tuesday WPI hosted Springfield for their first ever meeting. Springfield used a strong inside game to take a 41-20 lead into halftime. WPI wouldn't go away though. Trailing by 20 points with 5:26 left, the Engineers went on a 14-4 run to cut the lead in half with 2:56 remaining before the Pride hit 9 of 12 free throws down the stretch to preserve the win. Lynn Michalenka (Lincoln, R.I.) led five players in double figures with 16 points. Beth Gilbert (Killingly, Conn.) was next with 13 points followed by Rachel Zimet (Trumansburg, N.Y.) and Jen Lavin (Salem, N.H.) with 12 points each. Kenniston rounded out this group with 11 points to go with 8 steals. Zimet led all players with 10 rebounds.
Kenniston was rewarded for her outstanding play during the previous week when she was selected as rookie of the week by the NEWMAC, ECAC, the Worcester Area College Basketball Association and the New England Women's Basketball Association.
In their 90-58 loss to Babson, WPI actually had an 11 point lead with 9 minutes remaining in the half. The visitors closed the half with a 28-8 run to take a 42-35 lead at halftime. In the second half the Beavers continued their hot shooting and outscored the Engineers 48-23 to win going away. Ryan Fournier (Charlton City, Mass.) was high scorer for WPI with 11 points.
Last Tuesday WPI loaded up the wagons and traveled across the city to play long time rival Clark in a conference tilt. The Cougars forced the Engineers into a season high 25 turnovers enroute to the 87-61 win. John Lehane (Marlboro,Mass.) came off the bench to score 13 points while Tim Briggs (Rutland, Mass.) scored 12 points.
Two nights later WPI was on the road again for another NEWMAC game against Coast Guard. The hosts broke open a 23-23 tie in the first half and won the game 85-58. Gregg Burnett (Phillipston, Mass.) led WPI with 14 points while Matt Bielik (Webster, Mass.) added 12 points.
Against Westfield last Tuesday freshmen Kate Johnson (Hamden, Conn.) and Lynn Hull (Greenbelt, Md. were double winners. Hull won both the 50 and 100-yard butterfly while Johnson won both the 50-yard freestyle and the 200-yard backstroke. In winning the 200 backstroke Johnson qualified for the New England Championships in her second event. She previously qualified in the 100-yard backstroke.