HANOVER, N.H. – The Keene State College track and field teams got strong performances from Aidan Law and Keith O'Donnell on the men's side and solid distance performances on the women's side as they returned to action for the first time in over a month at the Dartmouth Relays held inside Leverone Field House on Saturday afternoon.

Law, who currently has the 14th best mark in the 200 meters (21.91), added a No. 25 mark in the long jump by finishing second in 6.91 meters.  He was also second in the 200 meters, finishing second in 22.45.  Kyle Thomas clocked in at 22.70 in the same event, good for 47th nationally, and was fifth in the finals of the 60-meter dash in 7.00 even.
Also on the men's side, Keith O'Donnell improved by nearly four seconds on his previous personal best 500-meter time, finishing in 1:08.63.  Jayden Baker threw the shot put .06 meters further than his collegiate debut last month, with his best coming in at 14.11 meters, behind two competitors from host Dartmouth College and one from Brown University.  Troy Tenney added a second-place finish in the high jump, leaping 1.70 meters.

In distance events on the men's side, Jake Velazquez finished eighth of 21 runners in the 1,000 meters (2:36.03), seven seconds behind the winner.  Tyler Bolaske was 11th (2:39.97) and Griffin Urnezis 12th (2:40.48) in the same event, while Velazquez added a third place run out of 26 competitors in the 3,000-meter race, finishing in 8:51.20.
The women's distance runners also notched strong performances out of the break, as Maggie St. John was seventh in the 1,000 meters in 3:11.25 and followed closely behind by Anna O'Reilly (9th, 3:11.60) and Sarah Ames (11th, 3:15.39).  Ames was ninth in a field of 23 in the 3,000 meters, finishing in 11:01.20, while O'Reilly was .41 seconds behind in tenth in the same event.

Elsewhere, Molly Lu McKellar, who still holds the 13th-best pentathlon score in Division III, was ninth in the 200 meters (28.55) and 10th in the preliminaries of the 60-meter hurdles (9.47).  Ali Gravelle threw the shot put 9.72 meters, good for tenth, and Lamari Davis was 12th in the weight throw with a mark of 12.70 meters.

"Any competition after a long break can have some challenges and I think this meet had some," said Keene State head coach Dan Roark.  "It wasn't our best showing as a team but had some bright spots.  Overall, I think we took one step backwards…looking to take two steps forward from here.  We had a great meet before break and I am sure we will get back to business going forward.  We had some great performances from Aidan Law and Keith O'Donnell and strong day for women's distance events."

The non-scoring meet featured competitors from Brown (NCAA D-I), Colby-Sawyer College (D-III), Dartmouth (D-I), the New Hampshire Technical Institute men (USCAA), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (D-III), and the University of Vermont (D-I).

KSC visits Plymouth State University next Saturday (January 18) at 10:00 a.m., one of seven more meets in advance of the Little East Conference indoor championships on February 22 in Rhode Island.