Benjamin Fazio of RPI Headed to NCAA Championship

2017 Mar 9

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) student-athlete Benjamin Fazio of East Greenwich 02818 has qualified for participation in this weekend's NCAA Division III Men's and Women's Indoor Track & Field Championships.

Senior Ben Fazio (East Greenwich HS), senior Colin Smith (Sidwell Friends), sophomore Jason Hall (Victor, NY / Victor) and freshman Noah Falasco (King of Prussia, PA / Upper Merion Area) will all compete in the distance medley relay for the Engineers. Fazio runs the anchor leg on a squad that qualified with a time of 9:57.73 at Saturday's Tufts Final Qualifying Meet. Smith leads things off, followed by Hall and then Falasco. The group set the school record by nearly 20 seconds and enters the championship ranked third behind Middlebury College (9:54.94) and SUNY Geneseo (9:56.21). This is the second straight year Fazio will compete at the NCAA Championship Meet after qualifying in the mile as a junior. He enters Saturday's 3000 meters ranked fifth in Division III with a time of 8:18.57. He set that standard in winning the event at Utica College on February 18. He also ran 3000 meters at Boston University in late January, crossing in 8:21.26. Peter Hale of Williams College has the top time heading into nationals at 8:15.19.

The men's 5000 meters is scheduled for Friday at 4:25pm (local) with the DMR at 5:30pm. The men's 3000 meters, which features 15 competitors, is Saturday at 4:15pm.

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.