Keene State Indoor Track & Field made the podium in both the men’s and women’s Little East Conference (LEC) Championship on Saturday, Feb. 21. The men’s team finished first in the conference and the women landed in second place as runner-ups in the LEC.
KSC’s Men’s team began the day with some preliminary races to set them up for the final races. Keene State showed up in the men’s 60 meter. Junior Kyle Thomas placed first with a time of 6.94. Sophomore Ethan Vitello followed in third place and senior Aidan Law came in at fifth with a time of 7.12.
Keene State capitalized on having runners make it to the finals as Thomas, Vitello and Law finished in first, second and third in the finals of the 60 meter event. These finishes alone gave the men’s team 24 points for the Championship Meet.
Longer distance events also favored Keene State’s Men’s team. Junior Griffin Urnezis finished in first for the 5,000 meter event at 15:14.59, with sophomore Ben Tetu placing fourth and first-year Andrew Klinedinst placing fifth. Tetu and Klinedinst gave KSC a total of nine points for its finishes and Urnezis racked up 10 by himself.
Junior Tyler Bolaske dominated the mile, finishing in first place and missing KSC Alum Ryan Gough’s record by .35 of a second. Sophomore Nicholas Terranova also performed well in the event coming in at third place.
Bolaske returned in the 800 meter to finish in second place, finishing nearly four seconds after the first place runner. Keith O’Donnell placed in fifth to give KSC an overall 12 points for the event.
Law, Vitello and Thomas made another impact as a trio for the 200 meter event. Law finished in first while Vitello and Thomas followed in second and third to give KSC another 24 points.
The Owls managed to grab points in the 3000 meter despite zero first place finishes. Urnezis placed in third while Tetu and Terranova came in fifth and sixth.
The relays did not seem to favor the Owls, as they placed fifth in the 4×800 and fourth in the 4×400 relay.
Law continued to help the Owls in the field events, jumping 7.19 meters to grant KSC another 10 points on the day.
Senior Eden Damis also gave the Owls 10 points in the field events after finishing first in the triple jump. Vitello returned to the score sheet in the triple jump, finishing in sixth.
The men’s team finished with 145 points and separated itself from second place UMass Dartmouth by 20 points.
The women’s team began its day with preliminary races to set the stage for the finals, one of them being the 60 meter hurdles. Senior Molly Lu McKellar finished in second and junior McKenna Castor followed in third.
McKellar was unable to follow up in the finals as she remained in second place for the 60 meter hurdles. Castor managed a fourth place finish and first-year Miranda Poirier landed in seventh to bring KSC’s total to 15 points.
There was also a preliminary race for the 60 meter dash, where sophomore Keely Giordano came in third place. Junior Mia Cruz also placed in the preliminary race at fifth. Giordano jumped up to second place in the final and Cruz remained in the fifth slot.
Graduate Student Maggie St. John and sophomore Kallie Warner finished in third and fourth in the 5000 meter race to combine for 11 points.
Sophomore Ava Fortin was able to get the Owls a third place finish in the mile and first-year Ellie Tighe came in sixth to combine for nine points. The 400 meter only saw a single Owl place, that runner was sophomore Caroline Cooper.
Giordano returned to give KSC a fifth place finish in the 200 meter, and first-year Elle Macdonald followed in sixth place. St. John also returned to place fourth in the 3000 meter.
The women’s 4×400 relay placed in third with the relay team consisting of Cruz, Poirier, MacDonald and Girodano.
Cooper was able to get KSC an extra eight points with a second place finish in the triple jump event. Sophomore Drea DeFreitas placed sixth in both the triple jump and the long jump for a total of six points.
Cruz and McKellar participated in the high jump event where McKellar would place fifth and Cruz would come in third.
The women finished 15 points behind the winning Southern Maine University and ended with a total of 113.
Both teams will have a chance to compete in the Tufts National Qualifying Meet on March 7, in Medford, Mass.
Jacob Enscoe can be contacted at
