Benjamin Fazio Named Performer of the Week

2017 May 9

The Liberty League men's track & field awards have been announced and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) student-athlete Benjamin Fazio of East Greenwich 02818 been chosen as the Performer of the Week.

Fazio (East Greenwich) earned this week's award after winning two races to lead the Engineers to victory in the 13-school New York State Collegiate Track Conference Championship Meet, narrowly holding off Utica College, 163.5-158. He earned 20 team points by winning the 800 meters and 1500 meters.

He outran 22 others in the 800, finishing in a time of 1:56.56, and he captured the 1500 meters in 4:01.14, out-legging 24 others. The runner-up's time was nearly two seconds behind (4:03.35).

An All-America in cross country and indoor track, Fazio has run six events in outdoor in 2017, winning five of them. He was the 800 meter champion and 1500 meter champion at both the league and state championship meets. The Track Performer of the Meet at the conference event, which Rensselaer won for the ninth straight year, he also won the 1500 at the Upstate Classic and finished ninth of 88 runners in the 5000 meters at the multi-divisional Penn Relays.

In indoors, Fazio helped the distance medley relay team to a national championship and he finished fourth in the 3000 meters to earn All-America in both. Among his individual victories were wins in the mile and 1000 meters at the New York State Meet, wins in the 800 and mile at the Liberty League Championship Meet and a first place finish in the 3000 meters at Utica.

A materials engineering major, Fazio is scheduled to compete in the 1500 meters at Swarthmore College on May 15 as a final prep to the NCAA Championship Meet.

Founded in 1824, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is America's oldest technological research university. For nearly two centuries, the Institute has been a driving force behind breakthroughs in engineering and science in virtually every arena-from transportation and infrastructure to business, medicine, outer space, and cyberspace.

As it approaches its bicentennial anniversary, the Institute continues to define The New Polytechnic, a new paradigm for teaching, learning, and research that uses advanced technologies to enable fresh collaborations across disciplines, sectors, and regions, in order to answer the global challenges of our day.