Keene State’s Women’s and Men’s Cross Country won two conference championships and set a new Little East Conference (LEC) record for titles.
The Keene State College Women’s Cross Country team won its third consecutive Little East Conference (LEC) championship and league-record 21st overall, and the men’s team won its first title in nine years and for the 16th time overall on Saturday, November 2 at the Robert Dowd Cross Country Course on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.
It was a day that marked the continued dominance of the KSC cross country programs, who have combined for 37 of the 50 LEC championships awarded since the Owls joined the league entering the 1997 season.
Graduate student Maggie St. John led a contingent of five Owl runners in the top 12 on the women’s side, placing second overall in 18:44.80. Senior Sarah Ames (18:49.9), first-year Kallie Warner (19:00.2), and junior Anna O’Reilly (19:11.6) also earned All-Conference honors, with Warner finishing fifth and being named the conference’s Rookie of the Year. Warner was 37 seconds faster than the next closest rookie, who was Isabel Clinton of Eastern Connecticut State University.
Keene State had seven of their runners place in the top 18 overall and ran away with the team title, finishing a whopping 43 points better than second place UMass-Dartmouth (71 points). Eastern Connecticut State came in third with 87 points, followed by Plymouth State University (105 points), the University of Southern Maine (134 points), Rhode Island College (168 points), the University of Massachusetts-Boston (184 points) and Vermont State University Castleton (204 points).
Meanwhile, on the men’s side, the Owls returned to conference prominence with fifth-year and Equinox Staff Jake Velazquez dominating the field, winning the 8K race by more than a full minute to become Keene State’s first Little East Conference individual medalist since Philip Parent in 2015. Velazquez covered the course in 24:25.77, the only runner to break 25 minutes in the field. Plymouth State’s Dylan Flewelling came in second in 25:31.3.
The Owls also got top 10 performances from sophomores Tyler Bolaske (25:55.2) and Griffin Urnezis (25:58.9), while first-years Ben Tetu (11th, 26:35.0) and Nick Terranova (30th, 27:12.5) completed the Owl scorers. The Owls totaled up 51 points, five ahead of Plymouth State, which was seeking its second consecutive conference championship. Eastern Connecticut State finished third with 68 points, edging out fourth-place UMass-Dartmouth (72 points). Southern Maine (107 points), Rhode Island College (169 points), UMass-Boston (214 points), and Castleton (248 points) rounded out the eight-team field.
Both Keene State teams are now getting prepared for the NCAA regional championship, held at Hopkinton State University on Saturday, November 16.
Teddy Steinberg can be contacted at
tsteinberg@kscequinox.com
