KEENE, N.H.9/29/12 – It might have been a cool and damp day, but the Owls sizzled on the trails around Owl Athletic Complex, coasting to easy wins in both men's and women's races at the 17th Annual Keene State College Invitational on Saturday.

The Keene State men swept the top eight spots, taking home the team title in the four-team field with 15 points.  Fitchburg State was a distant second with 58 points.

The Owls placed six runners in the top-10 in the six-team women's field to handily capture the team crown with 24 points. Mount Holyoke took the runner-up spot with 67 points.

Senior Thomas Paquette (Bolton, Conn.) was the Owls' front-runnier, racing to the individual championship with a time of 26:42 on the damp five mile course.  "We ran as a pack the first two miles and everyone just felt good," said Paquette.  "Coach (Pete) Thomas told us to relax and we all looked good."

A large flock of Owls followed Paquette to the finish line.  Juniors Ryan Widzgowski (Camden, Me.) and Chris Plankey (Bristol, N.H.) finished second (26:51) and third  (27:03) respectively while senior Andrew Sears (Derry, N.H.) was Keene State's fourth man with a time of 27:15.  Freshman Hayden Patterson (Dover, N.H.) rounded out the scorers for the Owls.  He finished fifth with a time of 27:21.

Senior Maggie Fitter (Branford, Conn.) was one again the leader of the pack for the Keene State women.  She posted a time of 19:01 on the 5K course to win her first college race.  "It was much- anticipated, but it's nice to get my first win in my last home race," said Fitter.  "The girls ran really well.  Our top-seven were awesome."

Freshman Samantha Goldsmith (Derry, N.H.) was the Owls' second finisher, placing third in a time of 19:27.  Junior Erin Crawford (Townsend, Mass.) placed fifth in a time of 19:44.  Sophomore Kaitlin Wheeler (Exeter, N.H.) was 8th (20:03) while junior Marie Whitney (Jaffrey, N.H.) was right behind in ninth place (20:10).

Now in the coaching ranks, several KSC alums and All-Americas brought their teams back to Keene for the Invitational.  Wilson Perez is the coach at New England College and Jennifer Adams coaches the women's team at Mount Holyoke College.  Gary Gardner has a few of his UMass-Lowell runners in both races.  Not to be overlooked,  Tom Anderson, a former All-American and KSC Hall of Fame member, along with Chris Gueli, a 1987 KSC alum, now living in Jaffrey, were on hand to time the race for Tri-State racing.

Keene State will now gear up for the New England Championships that will be held at Westfield State on Sunday, Oct. 7.