KEENE, N.H. 3/7/13 – Keene State College will be
represented by three athletes at the NCAA Division III Indoor track
and Field Championships this weekend at North Central College in
Naperville, Ill. It's the first time North Central has hosted
the Indoor Championships.
Seniors Maggie Fitter (Branford, Conn.) and
Janel Haggerty (Guilford, Conn.) will compete in
the 800-meter and pentathlon events respectively while junior
Ryan Widzgowski (Camden, Maine) will race in the
mile.
Haggerty, who earned All-America honors as a member of Keene
State's distance medley relay (DMR) team as a sophomore, will
get things started for the Owls when she competes in the pentathlon
Friday morning. “I get chills just thinking about
going,” said Haggerty, who is seeded second in the multiple
event that includes high and long jumps, 60-meter hurdles,
800-meter run, and shot put.
Haggerty is one of 15 athletes in the talented field. Just
three points separate the top three competitors in the pre-meet
rankings. Haggerty, who is breaking new ground as the first
KSC athlete to qualify for the nationals in the event, is seeded
second with 3,433 points. She is sandwiched between top seed Megan
Stringer, a senior from Illinois College (3,435 points) and
third-ranked Jaclyn Konopka, a junior from MIT (3,432 points).
“It's a very tough field. One bad event could
sabotage everything,” said KSC Coach Peter
Thomas.
“Friday is my day,” said Haggerty. “I have an
outcome in mind that I would like to happen, but I'm going to
take it one event at a time.”
Fitter and Widzgowski will compete in preliminaries in there
events later in the day. Fitter is making her fourth trip to
a national championship. She, along with Haggerty, earned
All-America honors on KSC's DMR team as a sophomore. Fitter
also qualified for the NCAA outdoor meet last spring in the 800 and
represented Keene State at the national cross country championships
this past fall. “I think those experiences are going to help
me a lot. I know what it's like to suddenly be thrown into a
good field of athletes,” said Fitter, who is seeded
10th in the 800 (2:13.94). “It's
so easy to talk yourself out of the race. Staying confident is
something that I learned the past two times I've gone.
I'm more confident. I know that I'm just as good
as anybody else”
Thomas also has a lot of confidence in Fitter.
“I'm pretty sure she'll make finals and be an
All-American,” he said. “She's
running well and I expect her to run two good races out
there.”
While Thomas feels the top two seeds (Tara Clemens from Illinois
Wesleyan and Carmen Graves from Roanoke) will be hard to catch, he
feels Fitter can compete with the rest of the field.
Widzgowski, who is making his first appearance at the nationals,
is seeded seventh out of 13 runners in the mile
(4:12.20).”He's a first time competitor, so he might be
a little nervous,” said Thomas. “But he has a
chance to surprise a lot of people and earn
All-America.”
“I'm just going to go out there and have a
blast,” said Widzgowski. “I know what I am
capable of doing. There's no difference in me and the
12 other guys on the line. I deserve to be there. I
don't need to be afraid.”
Both the finals of the women's 800 and men's mile
will take place on Saturday.
“All three of them seem to be hitting their best marks at
the end of the season, so they just have to stay healthy, get some
good rest and keep the nerves under control,” said
Thomas.
