SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Aidan Law, Sean Von Ranson, Jonathan DeAguiar, and Kyle Thomas teamed up to break a 50-year-old school record in the 4 x 100 meter relay while two other Owls each won events as the Keene State College outdoor track and field teams competed at the Springfield College Classic on Sunday.

KSC, who saw the meet pushed back a day after inclement weather yesterday, has already broken three school records in the opening two weeks of the outdoor slate – two that had not been set since the 1970s.  Last week, Thomas set a school-best mark in the 100 meter dash, finishing in 10.77 to break Tom Neary's 1977 record of 10.94.  This time around, the Owls broke an even older record, with the 4x100 relay foursome finishing second of seven in 42.37 to eclipse the 43.3 run by Bob Meehan, Bob Moul, Neary, and Stan Brittingham in 1975.  The record-breaking time was less than a second away from winning the event (41.46) and becoming a top 20 mark nationally in the event (it is just outside of the top 50 currently).

Two other event wins and runner up finishes helped the Owls finish third of nine teams on both sides, with the women compiling 86 points (behind Springfield College's 251 and Worcester Polytechnic Institute's 174) and the men totaling up 80 (WPI had 279.5 and Springfield 199).  Tyler Bolaske recorded an impressive KSC PR time of 15:26.14 in the 5,000 meters, with the Owls having four of the top seven in that event (Nicholas Terranova 3rd in 16:01.42) and Jonathan MacQuarrie (4th in 16:44.74).  Caden Latulippe qualified for the New England Division III championships with a second place mark in the pole vault (4.25 meters), while Keith O'Donnell was the runner-up in the 800 meters (2:02.28).  Jayden Baker, who had already qualified for New Englands in the shot put, again posted a qualifying mark of 13.73 meters to place third of 21 throwers.  He was also in the top half of the discus (12th of 25) by posting a 32.76 meter mark.  Jake Velazquez was fourth of 30 in the 1,500 meters (4:04.29) while DeAguiar finished 13th in a 34-runner field in the 200 meters (23.31).

On the women's side, Sara Christian and Drea Defreitas led the Owls' charge, with Christian winning the 5,000 meters (of 11 competitors) in 19:18.58.  Defreitas posted two scoring efforts, placing second in the long jump (4.88 meters) and fourth in the triple jump (10.25 meters).  Caroline Cooper (200 meters; 27.57) and Sarah Ames (1,500 meters; 4:55.00) each added third-place scoring finishes while Anna O'Reilly was fourth in the 800 meters in 2:31.48, Allyse Brien fourth in the high jump in 1.46 meters, and Molly Lu McKellar fourth in the long jump in 4.85 meters.  Maggie St. John (5:00.05) and Autumn Boisvert (5:07.15) were fourth and fifth of 21 in the 1,500 meters, respectively, as KSC went 3-4-5 in that event.

"I feel like we are breaking a school record every week, which is a good place to be," said Keene State head coach Dan Roark.  "We are getting some kinks out of the way and ready to turn the corner into mid-season form.  We have a big week coming up and I think we are ready to turn up the focus and energy.  Some event groups had some eye-opening moments today, but in the next two weeks we are ready to turn it on in all aspects."

KSC will travel to three meets this week, starting with the UMass Multis on Wednesday and Thursday (April 9-10) before venturing to the Silfen Invitational hosted by Connecticut College on Friday (April 11) and the Ed Daniels Invitational hosted by Southern New Hampshire University on Saturday (April 12).