On Saturday, Nov. 16, members from the KSC Men’s and Women’s Cross Country teams competed in the NCAA Regional Championship held in Hopkinton, N.H.
Both teams previously won the Little East Conference championship and headed to postseason opportunities.
After a successful season at Keene State, fifth-year Jake Velazquez finished first place for the Men’s Regional Championship. There were a total of 228 runners in the field and Velazquez finished atop with a time of 24:35.22, six seconds ahead of second place. Sophomore Tyler Bolaske finished 33rd with a time of 25:54.12, achieving All-Region Honors alongside Velazquez.
Soon after Bolaske, sophomore Griffin Urnezis clocked in at 26:11.61, earning a 44th place finish. About a minute later first-year Ben Tetu placed 77th, just before senior Martin Nelligan who placed 101st in 28 minutes. Sophomore Jonathan MacQuarrie was the next Owl to cross the line for 128th place. The final runner for the Owls was first-year Nicholas Terranova who placed 146th.
The men’s cross country team finished ninth out of 33 teams, and earned 253 cumulative points.
The women’s team was represented well with seven of their athletes attending regionals. As a whole, the team finished in seventh place out of a 30 team pool, and amounted 207 total points.
Individually, graduate-student Margaret St. John placed the highest for the Owls at 24th with an overall time of 22:52.92. Not far behind was junior Anna O’Reilly who placed 30th with a 23:01.98 time; both runners received All-Region Honors.
Continuing with the top women’s finishes, senior Sarah Ames was clocked at 23:19.71, placing 37th. First-year Kallie Warner was the next Owl to finish at 58th place (23:52.40). Fifth-year Sarah Christian finished about 30 seconds later to place 67th, and first-year Ava Fortin followed up 15 seconds later for a 77th place finish. Another first-year, Rita Cummings, completed the day for the women’s cross country, finishing at 129th out of 224 runners.
The women’s team did not bring any runners further into the NCAA championship, but competed well and placed throughout the Regional section. Individually, Velazquez will continue onto the next stage of the NCAA cross country championship held on Saturday, Nov. 23.
Jake Velazquez and Jonathan MacQuarrie are members of The Equinox’s staff.
Jacob Enscoe can be contacted at
jenscoe@kscequinox.com
