Keene State’s Outdoor Track teams participated in its second invitational of the season on Saturday, April 4, down in Springfield, Mass. The previous invitational was hosted at UMass Lowell.
The standout for the Owls was senior Kyle Thomas, who broke his own outdoor record in the 100-meter race. Thomas finished in third place with a time of 10.52, breaking the record he set nearly a year ago. The top four finishers in this race were in the Top 21 nationally within DIII.
The Owls also had strong performances from their other men’s runners as four of them finished in the top six during the 5000-meter race. Junior Tyler Bolaske placed first (15:06.08), junior Griffin Urnezis finished third (15:19.62), followed by sophomore Ben Tetu in fifth (15:34.60) and sophomore Nick Terranova in sixth (15:53.20). During the 1500 meters, first-year Andrew Klinedinst finished fifth place (4:10.56) in his first collegiate run.
On the women’s team, first-year Mia Cruz posted a New England Division III championship-qualifying time at 12.58 in the 100-meter race, placing fifth. First-year Elle MacDonald and sophomore Caroline Cooper also posted a qualifying time during the 400 race, both finishing in 59.52 and 59.56, respectively.
Senior Molly Lu McKellar and Sophomore McKenna Castor also put up their own respective qualifying performance in the 100 hurdles. McKellar finished third (15.70) and Castor finished fourth (15.75). Graduate student Maggie St. John won the steeplechase (11:55.88) by almost two minutes. It was her first time running in that event.
Cruz finished fourth (1.58 meters) in the high jump, with McKellar qualifying right behind her (1.53 meters) and sophomore Drea Defreitas followed in fourth (5.17 meters). Cooper placed fourth in the triple jump event at 10.50 meters. Sophomore Lamari Davis placed fifth in the hammer, throwing for 40.36 on the third attempt.
Keene State currently has two top 50 national marks in outdoor track, including Thomas’s run and the women’s relay set during last weekend’s meet. Between the outdoor and indoor seasons, the Owls have set 12 new school records, three of them during the two opening weekends of the outdoor season. Next week, the Owls will travel to Tufts University for their next invitational on Friday and Saturday, April 10-11, starting at 10 a.m.
Nathan Eliopoulos can be contacted at
