Keene State’s Cross Country team hosted an invitational meet on Saturday, Oct. 5, at the Owl Athletic Complex.
The Owls displayed impressive times for the men’s and women’s teams alike. The women raced 5k (3.1 miles) first at 11 a.m., with the men following at 12 p.m. racing 8k (4.97 miles).
The women’s team finished strong and placed second as a team with 117 points, falling behind to the Williams College Cows who finished with 19 points.
Fifth-year Maggie St. John was the top runner for Keene, finishing 15th in a field of 240 runners with a time of 18:35.8. St. John was 13 seconds faster than her time from the previous season.
The Owls had three other top 30 finishers including junior Anna O’Reilly (26th,19:04.0), senior Sarah Ames (28th,19:08.1) and first-year Kallie Warner (29th,19:09.6). Warner said, “It was my ideal running weather; the course was flat and fast, and I ended with a PR so I was happy. That caffeine I drank before definitely helped too.”
Rounding out the top seven for the Owls included senior Aurora Couto (57th, 19:54.4), first-year Ava Fortin (66th, 20:03.7) and first-year Rita Cummings (67th, 20:08.9).
KSC’s women’s team has finished in the top 10 as a team in all four meets this season.
The Keene men’s team finished eighth of the 21 teams with a score of 214, even while their top runner, fifth-year and Equinox Staff Jake Velazquez watched from the sidelines as he catered to a knee injury. Velazquez has won the past 3 meets and was gearing towards his fourth individual win this season.
Finishing first for the Owls was sophomore Tyler Bolaske, who ran the 8k(4.97 miles) and came in 16th, finishing the course with a time of 29.59.5. Bolaske’s time was almost three minutes (2:41) faster than his Invitational time last year as a rookie first-year. First-year Ben Tetu came in 34th (26:51.4) and sophomore Griffin Urnezis in 49th (27:02.8)
Keene’s other scoring runners included Marty Nelligan (67th, 27:28.9), Nicholas Terranova (87th, 27:50.9), Ben Harley (97th, 28:12.0) and Equinox Staff Jonathan MacQuarrie (111th, 28:25.0).
The Owls will go on to travel to the Connecticut College Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 19, closely followed by the Little East championship two weeks after at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.
Olivia Casale can be contacted at
ocasale@kscequinox.com
