The men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to the Hopkinton State Fairgrounds on Saturday, Nov. 15, to run in the NCAA Regional Championship. This meet follows the Little East Conference (LEC) championship, and serves as a qualifier for the NCAA championship.
Both teams brought along seven runners to take part in the meet, all having the opportunity to clinch their spot to the national championship.
The women’s team was coming into the event after nearly winning the LEC two weeks prior. The first Owl to cross the finish line for the women’s team in 26th place was graduate student Maggie St. John at 22:27, just seconds below the qualifying time.
“Individually I fell four seconds short of qualifying for nationals and that will haunt me forever,” St. John said, “That is not how I wanted to end my cross country career. But that’s what cross country is, ups and downs but doing it together.”
Following St. John was junior Maya Wedge in 79th at 24:09, and right behind in 80th was first-year Ellie Tighe at 24:10. A few seconds after Tighe crossed came sophomore Kallie Warner, who had a time of 24:14.
About two minutes passed before another Owl, junior Alyssa Edgren, finished in 151st, and less than a minute later senior Alana Perry came in at 169th. Senior Samantha Taylor rounded out the Owls’ effort in 180th, and KSC’s women’s cross country placed 11th out of 30 teams.
“We might not have had the perfect season running-wise but we had each other. And that made this season the best team I have been a part of. I’m honored to have run cross country for Keene State,” said St. John.
The men’s cross country team entered the Regional Championship fresh off its second LEC title in a row. Senior Tyler Bolaske came in first at the conference meet and has been a dependable runner for the team.
“We accomplished our goal in defending our LEC title and had a lot of guys drastically improve throughout the year,” Bolaske said.
The senior finished in 3rd place out of a pool of more than 200, which solidified a spot for Bolaske to compete in the Division III National Championship.
“I felt really good going into the race as well as in the race itself. I stayed relaxed up the hills which helped a lot,” Bolaske said, “I’m incredibly excited to represent Keene State at the National meet. My end goal all year was to punch my ticket to Nationals and I’m very happy I was able to succeed at that goal.”
The next Owl to finish was junior Griffin Urnezis in 35th with a time of 25:47, and just under a second later came sophomore Ben Tetu in 67th.
Another sophomore, Nicholas Terranova, came in 85th, just 20 seconds before first-year Andrew Klinedinst at 27:34. The last two runners to finish for Keene State were junior Jonathan MacQuarrie in 121st and first-year Jacob Plante in 149th.
The men’s team finished in 8th out of 32 teams, and Bolaske moved on to the big stage.
The National championship will take place on Saturday, Nov. 22, in Spartanburg, S.C. at the Roger Milliken Center.
Jacob Enscoe can be reached at
jenscoe@kscequinox.com
