Margaret LaRoche of Silver Lake, N.H., Earns Trip to NCAA Division III Indoor Track & Field Championships

2018 Mar 8

Seven members of the WPI track & field program, including Margaret LaRoche, will travel to Birmingham, Alabama for the 2018 NCAA Division III Indoor Championships. Birmingham-Southern serve as host at Birmingham CrossPlex on Friday and Saturday.

Sophomore Sydney Packard qualified in the 800-meter run and mile; however, the three-time NCAA invitee and 2017 outdoor All-American will focus on the shorter race. She will also take part in the distance medley relay along with seniors Emily Newman, Maggie LaRoche and Lea Strangio. Freshman Lauren Kaija will serve as the alternate. Strangio also has experience on the national stage as a 2017 outdoor participant in the 800m.

Packard turned in the third-ranked 800m at the BU Valentine Invitational and the seventh-ranked mile at the Division III New England Championship. The quartet heads to the national meet ranked 12th.

Junior Ryan Wittenberg, a 2017 outdoor participant as part of the 4x400-meter relay, jumped from 11th to fourth this past weekend in the 800m at the Tufts National Qualifier. He will be joined by graduate student Austin Scott, a 2015 NCAA cross country participant, who will take part in the mile. Scott handed in his 13th-ranked time when the team was at Tufts a month earlier.

About Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Founded in 1865 in Worcester, Mass., WPI is one of the nation's first engineering and technology universities. Its 14 academic departments offer more than 50 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in science, engineering, technology, business, the social sciences, and the humanities and arts, leading to bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees. WPI's talented faculty work with students on interdisciplinary research that seeks solutions to important and socially relevant problems in fields as diverse as the life sciences and bioengineering, energy, information security, materials processing, and robotics. Students also have the opportunity to make a difference to communities and organizations around the world through the university's innovative Global Projects Program. There are more than 40 WPI project centers throughout the Americas, Africa, Asia-Pacific, and Europe.