MIDDLEBURY, Vt. –
Jake Velazquez,
Eden Damis, and
Maya Wedge each ran to event wins as the Keene State College indoor track and field teams competed at the non-scoring Middlebury College Track and Field Meet on Saturday at the Virtue Field House.
A number of Owls continued to impress with the conference championship now just two weeks away (on February 22), including reigning Little East Conference Rookie of the Week
Keely Giordano on the women's side, who finished second in the finals of the 60 meters in 8.06 after a third-place mark in 8.02 in the preliminary race. She also was third in a 23-runner field in the 200 meters in 27.04.
Sarah Ames added a runner-up finish in the 800 meters, finishing in 2:27.65, just .21 seconds from the winner Adrienne Christy from Middlebury.
Anna O'Reilly was right behind Ames in 2:28.27, with
Ava Fortin finishing fifth (2:38.43) and
Autumn Boisvert sixth (2:38.53) as KSC had four of the top six finishers.
Maya Wedge was the lone competitor and completed the 5,000 meters in 21:35.43, while
Maggie St. John was fourth of 15 in the 3,000 meters (10:55.38) and
Sara Christian sixth of 18 in the mile (5:35.02). Allyse Brien recorded a mark of 1.45 meters for a fourth place finish of ten in the high jump, and
Lamari Davis was fifth of 23 in the weight throw, tossing 12.33 meters. The 4 x 400 meter relay team of O'Reilly, Ames, St. John, and
Bryn Dickinson was third of six in 4:35.64.
On the men's side, Velazquez's victory in the 3,000 meters came with a time of 8:47.80, outdistancing McGill University's (Canada) Noah Elrimaway-Fine by nearly eight seconds. Damis took the triple jump with a mark of 13.39 meters, .05 further than Middlebury's Samuel Opawuyi. KSC got runner up event finishes from
Kyle Thomas (60 meters, 7.01) and their 4 x 400 relay team of
Sean Von Ranson,
Tyler Bolaske, Nicholas Terranova, and
Aidan Law (3:38.88). Von Ranson, a freshman, added third place runs in the 200 meters in 23.56 and the 400 meters in 52.48. Terranova was fourth in the 12-runner 800 meter field in 2:00.50, with fellow rookie Ben Tetu behind him in fifth (2:09.20).
Griffin Urnezis improved upon his last time in the mile (which was outdoors) by over 10 seconds, finishing in 4:26.67. His previous best indoor mark in the event was at the University of Southern Maine Open in 2024 (4:42.00).
Dawson Hamele was in a tie for third in the high jump, posting a mark of 1.80 meters, adding to his school record performance in the 60 meter hurdles in which he finished in 8.95, a .10 second improvement from the time in the preliminaries of the event. His mark surpassed Michael Pianka's finish in 9.31 at the Smith College Invitational in 2011.
The Owls have one more meet before the conference championship as they travel to Boston University's David Hemery Valentine Invitational next weekend, with the men's events on Friday (February 14) and the women's events on Saturday (February 15).
