'BRUNSWICK, MAINE 3/6/04  - Keene State College's Dave Bridgewater raced to a first place finish in the 1,500-meter event at the ECAC Division III Track and Field Championships held at Bowdoin College on Saturday.

Bridgewater (Unionville, Conn.,) who has already qualified for next weekend's NCAA Championships at Wisconsin-Whitewater in the event, posted a winning time of 3:58.86 to finish just ahead of Geneseo State's Matt Young (3:58.99). Ryan Gough (Billerica, Mass.) placed eighth (4:01.31).

Casey Cole (Southbury, Conn.), and Dave Raymond (Princeton, Mass.) later teamed with Gough and Bridgewater to finish fourth (10:13.09) in the distance medley relay.

Keene State finished 14th in team scoring with 16 points.  Cortland (N.Y.) State won the championship with 92 points.

The distance medley relay team of Shannon O'Brien (Tilton, N.H), Laurie Yorgensen (Wethersfield, Conn.), Stephanie Gibson (Sanbornton, N.H.), and Nicole Geyselaers (Cheshire, Conn.) placed sixth (12:13.69) to post the best performance of the day by the Owl women. 

O'Brien also took eighth in the 800-meters (2:20.81), and Geyselaers placed eighth in the long jump event (16-02.25).

Geneseo (65 points) edged Wheaton College (60 points) for the women's team title. KSC finished 31st with five points.