KEENE, N.H. 10/5/13 – Senior Ryan Widzgowski (Camden, Maine) raced to a first place finish and the Owls placed five runners in the top-10 to win the men's team championship at the Keene State Cross Country Invitational on Saturday.
Ranked ninth in the region, the Owls, who have won 13 of the last 15 KSC Invitational titles, tallied 24 point to claim the crown. Brandeis University was second with 58 points.
The Keene State women had an equally good day, finishing second ahead of regionally Wellesley College with 59 points. Brandeis, ranked ninth in New England, won the women's team championship with 52 points. Tenth ranked Wellesley was third with 68 points.
Widzgowski paced the men's field, covering the five mile course in a time of 26:36. "We came out and executed our plan," he said. We ran smooth the first half with a good pace and tried to bring it home. "It was a tough couple of weeks of workouts, but it paid off in the race."
A sea of KSC runners in red uniforms followed Widzgowski to the finish line. Seniors Chris Plankey (Bristol, N.H.) and Brett Mastrangleo (Millis, Mass.) placed third and fourth respectively in the same of 27:00. Sophomore Ryan Brady (Durham, N.H.), who was seventh (27:14) and freshman Patrick Chabot (Derry, N.H.) was ninth (27:23) round out the top finishers for the Owls.
Sophomore Samantha Goldsmith (Derry, N.H.) was the top finisher for the KSC women. She placed sixth overall, posting a time of 19:30 on the women's 5K course. "We had a really good pack for the first two miles and that's extremely helpful. I definitely work much better with my teammates than by myself," said Goldsmith. "It was a really fun race with good competition."
Freshman Carli Davis (Chester, N.H.) was the second Owls to cross the finish line, placing 10th in a time of 19:37. Junior Kaley Mientkiewicz (Hanson, Mass.) was right behind her in 11th place (19: 42). Freshman Elizabeth McGurk (New Ipswich, N.H.) who was 14th (19:45) and junior Kait Wheeler (Exeter, N.H.), who gave the team a big lift running her first race of the season, placed 18th (19:50) to complete the list of top scorers for the Owls.
"I was quite pleased with both teams. It was the first time that we had seven women under 20 minutes," said KSC Coach Peter Thomas. "The guys ran as expected. They ran as a pack for the first three miles and tried to race the last two."
The Owls will compete next Saturday at the New England Championships that take place at Boston's Franklin Park.
