Engineers Run Away With Track & Field Invitational
By: Jason Pensky
Updated: January 28, 2012
The men's squad captured first place honors in a meet that featured two of the nation's top 20 NCAA Division III squads and 12 institutions from seven states. The day's competition also included 10 meet records.
The No. 20 ranked Rose-Hulman men's squad scored 152.33 points. Defending meet champion Monmouth College was runner-up with 113.33 points, followed by No. 9 ranked Wabash College with 103.83.
The men's victory was Rose-Hulman's first team win in the nine years of the Engineer Invitational. The women's team placed seventh overall.
Senior Sutton Coleman (Lebanon, Va.) led the Engineers with two individual first place efforts. Coleman ran the fastest NCAA Division III time in the nation this year with a mark of 8.12 seconds to win the 60-meter hurdles. He also earned a 200-meter dash victory with a mark of 22.58 seconds that ranks second in school history.
Junior Liz Evans (Bicknell/North Knox) added the second best mark in NCAA Division III this season in the women's high jump. Evans cleared 5' 10" for the second time this season for the No. 2 mark in NCAA Division III so far in 2012. The mark ranks in the top five in NCAA Division III history.
Junior Collin Crowson (Dublin, Ohio/Jerome) provided another national top 10 mark this season with a winning pole vault leap of 15' 7". The career best mark also ranks No. 5 in Rose-Hulman history.
The third school record on the day belonged to junior Creasy Clauser (Crawfordsville/Southmont) who earned runner-up honors in the women's 400-meter dash with a time of 1:00.22.
Junior Greg Larmore (Deerfield, Ill.) won the men's weight throw with a strong performance. Larmore earned the third-best mark in Fightin' Engineer history with a toss of 50' 11 1/2".
Other individual event winners for Rose-Hulman included junior Tyler Hannan (Winchester, Ky./George Rogers Clark) with a time of 50.71 seconds in the 400-meters; freshman Josh Hojnacki (La Porte) with an 800-meter time of 1:59.61; and freshman Stuart West (La Porte) with a mile run time of 4:24.26.
The men's 4-x-200 meter relay team of Hannan, junior Travis Stallings (Cincinnati, Ohio/Colerain), sophomore Clay Becker (Gaylord, Mich./St. Mary's Cathedral) and freshman Jake Kelley (Tecumseh, Mich.) added the day's final victory with a time of 1:31.97.
Runner-up finishers for Rose-Hulman included sophomore Charles Phillips (Batavia, Ill.) with an 800-meter time of 2:00.52; senior P.J. Schulthies (Dubois/Northeast Dubois) in the shot put (46' 9 1/2"); and Stallings in the long jump (21' 1 1/4").
Rose-Hulman returns to action at the DePauw University Invitational on Friday night in Greencastle.
