NORTH DARTMOUTH, Mass. –
Jake Velazquez is making the most of his return home. The Keene State College fifth year runner (first with KSC) won his third consecutive race to start the season, edging two runners from Division I Boston University in the process, as the Owl men's cross country team finished 11th in a 44-team field on Saturday at the Robert Dowd Cross Country Course in an invitational hosted by the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Not outdone, the KSC women had four finish in the top 100 of a 345-runner field and placed 10th of 45 teams.
Velazquez won the Keene State College Alumni Meet on August 31 to kick off his season, then won the Ron Stonitsch Invitational hosted by Vassar College two weeks later, and today was the best of 344 runners on the men's side, finishing in 24:41.7 on the 8K course, about three seconds better than Alex Brown (24:44.4) and Tucker Bowerfind (24:48.7) of BU. The Owls also had three other runners in the top 100, with sophomores
Tyler Bolaske finishing in 26:18.6 (71st) and
Griffin Urnezis in 26:20.5 (74th). Freshman Ben Tetu was 93rd in 26:38.1.
Rounding out the Owl men in the field were
Marty Nelligan (153rd; 27:28.7), Nicholas Terranova (236th; 28:56.9), and
Jonathan MacQuarrie (247th; 29:14.4).
As a team, KSC finished with 348 points and in 11th, just three behind tenth place Merrimack College (D-I). Worcester Polytechnic Institute (225 points; 8th) and Babson College (311 points; 9th) were the lone Division III schools at the meet that finished ahead of the Owls, who outpaced host UMass-Dartmouth (14th, 426 points) and dusted other fellow Little East Conference schools Plymouth State University (20th, 568), University of Southern Maine (27th, 791), Eastern Connecticut State University (28th, 798), Rhode Island College (34th, 997), and the University of Massachusetts-Boston (42nd, 1321).
It was the KSC's best finish on the men's side at this meet in eight years, when they were 10th of 33 (304 points) in 2016 and led by Philip Parent's 26:06.6 (30th).
The Owl women had an equally solid day on the 5K course, finishing 10th in the overall team scores (second among Division III competitors) and placing four in the top 100 and three in the top 62 of a 345-runner field. Fifth year
Maggie St. John and junior
Anna O'Reilly paced the Owls on the day, with St. John finishing in 19:10.2 (49th) and O'Reilly right behind in 19:11.2 (51st). Senior
Sarah Ames clocked in at 19:24.7 (64th) and first year
Kallie Warner in 19:38.9 (86th) to round out the top four finishers. KSC's contingent also included
Aurora Couto (129th, 20:12.3),
Rita Cummings (143rd, 20:20.7),
Sara Christian (187th, 21:00.2), and
Jaden Johnson (198th, 21:14.2).
Connecticut College was the lone Division III team to score better than the Owls on the women's side, placing fourth with an impressive 159 points and all seven runners in the top 45. KSC finished well ahead of six other LEC teams, which included UMD (21st, 594 points) and ECSU (26th, 744).
Tessa McClain of Northeastern University (D-I) won the individual women's race in 17:32.0 while Brown University took the team title with 39 points.
Boston University had 22 points and five in the top eight to win the team title on the men's side.
"Today was a great checkpoint for us," said KSC head coach
Dan Roark. "With 50-plus teams, there was competition from all three divisions and we held our own. Being top three in Division III finishers on both sides and having the overall winner on the men's side made it a fun day. We have a long way to go until championship races, but days like today open a window to see what is possible in the future."
"I still think we have our best days ahead of us, but always fun when you can mix in with programs from the Division I and Division II levels and compete."
The Owls are back at it in two weeks when they host the Keene State Invitational on Saturday, October 5.
