ROXBURY, Mass.--The Keene State College women's cross country team had four of the top 10 runners en route to claiming their 19th Little East Conference Championship and first since 2018 at Franklin Park on Saturday morning.
Maggie St. John paced the Owls with a second place finish in 19:48.7, just ahead of teammate
Grace Furlong, who was third in 19:51.8. Aurora Couto was seventh in 20:33.1, and Anna O'Reilly was ninth in 20:44.8.
Hannah Jones completed the KSC scorers with a 12th place finish in 21:01.3.
Other KSC runners included Alana Perry (25th, 21:59.5),
Sara Christian (22:15.8), Sarah O'Connell (36th, 22:33.0),
Juliana Yialiades (37th, 22:33.7), Kailyn Fleury (48th, 23:54.0), Sarah Ames (52nd, 24:29.9), Autumn Boisvert (59th, 26:13.9), and
Melanie French (66th, 27:26.3).
The win puts the Owls in a familiar place - at the top of the LEC. Keene State won LEC championships from 2000-2016, and again in 2018 prior to today's title. UMass Dartmouth's Alexa Van Voorhis was the individual winner. It's also the first title for KSC head coach Dan Roark, who joined the Owls in February 2022.
On the men's side, senior
Jacob Pearl led Keene State to a seven place finish by placing second overall in 26:14.8. Ben Harley (41st, 29:18.8), Tyler Robinson (57th, 30:41.2), Ethan Holcomb (63rd, 31:44.1), Marty Nelligan (64th, 31:45.8), and Michael Gigliotti (75th, 35:24.9) rounded out the Owl runners.
Plymouth State claimed their first ever LEC title, as well as the individual winner in Michael Olson.
St. John, Furlong, Couto, O'Reilly, and Pearl were all First Team All-LEC, while Jones was Second Team All-LEC.
Keene State is off until November 12, when the Owls will race at the NCAA Regional Championships, hosted by Bowdoin College at Pickard Field in Brunswick, Maine.
