WATERFORD, Conn. –
Jake Velazquez ran to a 39th place finish in a 269-runner field in his return to the lineup for the Keene State College men's cross country team and
Maggie St. John finished 70th out of 277 runners on the women's side as both Owl squads competed at a Connecticut College Invitational that featured eight nationally-ranked men's teams and 12 nationally-ranked women's teams on Saturday at Harkness Memorial State Park.
Velazquez, who missed the Owls' previous two races after winning his first three of the season, finished the 8K course in 24:57.3, just 10 seconds from a top 25 finish individually at the event.
Tyler Bolaske finished 109th in 26:07.0, followed by
Griffin Urnezis (154th, 26:43.8) and Ben Tetu (172nd, 27:02.1). Rounding out the KSC men's field was
Marty Nelligan (196th, 27:22.9), Nicholas Terranova (223rd, 27:53.5), and
Ben Harley (232nd, 28:14.8). Bolaske's time represented a new personal best 8K time, 11 seconds faster than his race at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth on September 21.
The KSC men finished 20th of 35 in the team scoring, finishing with 629 points. Fellow LEC members University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (27th; 753 points) and Eastern Connecticut State University (29th; 795 points) also were part of the field.
On the women's side, which featured top-ranked Massachusetts Institute of Technology (who won the race with 83 points as a team),
Maggie St. John finished the 6K course in 22:36.8.
Anna O'Reilly was 130th in 23:18.2 and
Sarah Ames 150th in 23:38.5. Rounding out KSC's field was
Sara Christian (178th; 24:13.9),
Aurora Couto (182nd; 24:19.5),
Ava Fortin (232nd; 25:16.0),
Rita Cummings (248th; 25:37.3), and
Jaden Johnson (249th; 25:38.1).
Keene State finished 21st of 37 teams with 672 points, edging out Union College by seven. UMass-Dartmouth was 33rd (871 points) and Eastern Connecticut 35th (958). Nationally ranked teams occupied each of the top 11 spots in the team standings.
"We had some sickness and bumps in the road this week but had people step up and fill some holes. This meet was a full team effort. We saw a lot of great teams today. This type of meet with multiple national level teams gives us a good idea where we are at and how to attack the upcoming meets," said Owls head coach
Dan Roark. "Our athletes learned a lot about ourselves today both good and bad, and are ready to take that into championship season. With the LEC championship next up, we are a team ready to compete at a high level."
KSC is off for two weeks until the conference championship meet on Saturday, November 2 at UMass-Dartmouth's Robert Dowd Cross Country Course.
