KEENE, N.H. 9/5/09 - Owl cross country teams got their seasons off
on the right foot by winning their alumni meet on Saturday.
The Keene State men's team place all five of their scorers in the
top-10 to run away from the field with 15 points on the 5K
course. UMass-Lowell finished with 56 points to take second.
Ruban Sanka, an alum from UMass-Lowell, won the race with a time of
15:35. KSC alum and former All-America Dave
Bridgewater finished second (16:08). Current Owls
took six of the next 10 spots. Junior Jeff
Trethewey (Merrimack, N.H.) was third (16:10), sophomore
Corey Loonan (Sandwich, Mass.) was fifth (16:15),
junior Eric MacKnight (Newtown, Conn.) placed
seventh (16:18), senior Jared Samuel (Londonderry,
N.H.) was eighth (16:44), junior Brandon
Schillemat (Nelson, N.H.) was ninth (16:47), and sophomore
Kevin Hoyt (Newtown, Conn.) was 10th (16:53).
"I tried to go out with the leaders and see how long I could hang
for and just finish hard," said Trethewey. "(Dave)
Bridgewater beat me at the end, but at the end of the season I'll
get those end of the race gears."
The Keene State women tallied 24 points to edge UMass-Lowell
(31).
Returning to the trails after an injury plagued freshman season,
sophomore Paige Mills (Keene, N.H.) past Lyra
Clark heading to the finish line to win the two-mile race with a
time of 12:09.
"It was the first race of the season, so I didn't know what to
expect," said Mills. "I noticed I was slowly gaining on the
UMass-Lowell runner, so I figured with all the support and cheering
I'd go for it."
Clark was a second behind at 12:10. KSC runners took the next
two spots with junior Allison Chamberlain
(Scarborough, Maine) and senior Rita Marcotte
(Heath, Mass.) placing third (12:24) and fourth (12:24)
respectively. Sophomore Andrea Walsh
(Bolton, Conn.) was sixth (12:40) and sophomore Haley
Lydstone (Bedford, N.H.) placed 10th.
Shannon O'Brien, the lone alum running in the
women's race placed 38th (14:13).
