HOPKINTON, N.H. – Keene State College junior Tyler Bolaske has been a standout on the course all season, and his campaign will have one more stop: the NCAA championship.  The third-year Owl, coming off winning the Little East Conference championship, raced to a third-place finish at the NCAA regional championship at the Hopkinton State Fairgrounds on Saturday to automatically qualify for the national race to be held next weekend.

The Palmer, Mass. native finished the 8K course in 24:35.6, missing out on making it a KSC repeat as an individual champion by just four seconds after Jake Velazquez's title (and eventual All-American finish at nationals).  Bolaske was just three seconds from Tufts University senior Amokrane Aouchiche, who finished second in 24:32.6.  Paulino Guevara Mateo of Fitchburg State University pulled off a stunning first-place finish, posting a time of 24:31.6 – 35 seconds better than his time at the MASCAC championship two weeks ago.

KSC also had other impressive individual performances on the day, as Maggie St. John placed 26th in 22:27.0 in a 214-runner field on the women's side, 26 seconds faster than her time at last year's regional.  Griffin Urnezis finished 35th of 216 runners in 25:46.2 on the men's side, while Ben Tetu was 67th in 26:34.7.  Nicholas Terranova (85th, 27:13.0) on the men's side and Maya Wedge (79th, 24:08.8), Ellie Tighe (80th, 24:09.8), and Kallie Warner (84th, 24:13.9) on the women's side all notched top-100 finishes.

As a team, the Owl men placed eighth with 294 points, moving up one spot from last year.  They might have jumped even further, but KSC's fifth-place finisher was 31 points lower than seventh-place Bowdoin College.  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the team title with 42 points, seven lower than second-place Tufts University.  The Owls battled all season on the women's side and placed 11th of 30 teams with 399 points, with LEC champion Plymouth State University just ahead of them in tenth (372).  PSU got 105 points from their fifth scorer and the Owls 140.

"Today was a good end cap for the season," said KSC head coach Dan Roark.  "It is hard to produce at a high level for two meets in a row after LECs.  We really had a strong showing then, a little bit difficult to come back at the same high level two weeks later but I still think we did a really good job and had some strong performances.  Everyone improved from last year's regional meet and we had some high expectations going in.  Being able to send one person to nationals and having a top ten men's team and just missing out on the top ten on the women's side was a strong showing.  I don't think we can be upset with our team performance today.  We had to go through a lot of adversity this year and I'm proud of everyone from top to bottom and to perform the way we did at the end of the season speaks a lot about the character of our athletes."

By 3:00 p.m. Sunday, Bolaske will be officially announced as an NCAA individual qualifier and will travel to Spartanburg, S.C. for the 2025 NCAA Division III national championships next Saturday, November 22.  He will become the ninth individual qualifier on the men's side in program history, joining Jake Velazquez (2024), Jake Pearl (2022), Hayden Patterson (2015), Ryan Widzgowski (2013), Kevin Hoyt (2011), Eric MacKnight (2010), Tim Pipp (2010), and Jared Samuel (2007).  KSC has had 24 male cross country All-Americans in program history, with Bolaske hoping to add his name to that list in advance of his senior season.

"I am excited to see what Tyler does next week and everyone else can carry a good season into track," added Roark.