MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – Keene State College junior
Tyler Bolaske set a new personal record – by nearly one full minute – as the Owls competed at the Cardinal Invitational hosted by Wesleyan University at the Wes Fuhrman Trails Cross Country Course on Saturday.
The Palmer, Mass. Native covered the 8K course in 24:55.3, good for a ninth-place finish in a 155-runner field that included participants from three nationally-ranked teams. The time was also a whopping 59-second PR in his first race of the season, surpassing the previous best of 25:54.2 at the NCAA regional championship last season, where he finished 33rd. His time today, which included an average mile of just barely over five minutes, would have been good for a seventh-place finish at that race. In this one, he was seventh among non-seniors.
Keene State also got top-third performances from
Griffin Urnezis in his season debut and Nicholas Terranova, who has authored an impressive start to his sophomore season. Urnezis finished the race in 25:37.7, good for 25th, and Terranova 50th in 26:33.0 – both good for personal records. Urnezis' time broke his previous 8K best of 25:58.9 at last year's Little East championship, where he finished fifth.
The men's KSC contingent also consisted of sophomore Ben Tetu (111th, 28:03.1), freshman
Andrew Klinedinst (112th, 28:06.7), freshman
Jacob Plante (136th, 28:55.8), senior
Tyler Robinson (146th, 29:58.3), and freshman
Ben Calderwood (154th, 32:56.3).
The Owls finished seventh of 11 in the team scoring with 236 points, 46 ahead of eighth-place Eastern Connecticut State University, the only other fellow Little East Conference team at the meet. Host and national No. 20-ranked Wesleyan had the individual winner (sophomore Dylan Cote in 24:37.8) and three of the top four to edge No. 16 Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the team scoring, both finishing with 44 points. No. 23 Amherst College was in third (66 points), ahead of Worcester Polytechnic Institute (4th, 103 points, the United States Coast Guard Academy (5th, 192 points), and Union College (6th, 226 points).
On the women's side,
Maggie St. John ran a strong race, placing 24th of 135 runners in 22:42.0, bettering her time from last year's regional by 11 seconds and just 11 seconds away from a top 20 finish. Sophomore
Ava Fortin completed the course in 24:30.0 (70th), and right behind her was freshman
Ellie Tighe (24:35.0).
Alyssa Edgren (91st, 25:25.5), Helena Papadopoulos (94th, 25:35.9),
Alana Perry (102nd, 26:15.5),
Samantha Taylor (119th, 27:14.3),
Noelle Hisgen (126th, 28:06.4), and
Sarah O'Connell (129th, 28:53.8) rounded out KSC's contingent. The Owl women placed eighth of 13 teams with 296 points. The ECSU entry was 11th with 341 points. Nationally top-ranked MIT won the meet, with all seven of their runners placing in the top 11 to accumulate only 22 points. Hannah Stephenson of Amherst College (fourth as a team) won it individually in 20:45.0, nearly five seconds faster than Kate Sanderson of MIT.
"We had a solid day today," said Keene State head coach
Dan Roark. "It was the first time we were at the distances we will be racing the rest of the season. This sets us up well for the rest of the season. We saw some quality teams with a handful of teams in the top ten in the country. I am happy with the progress we are making, and we had some good individual showings."
The Owls will be back at it in two weeks when they host their own invitational at the Owl Athletic Complex. The men's race is at 11:00 a.m. and the women's race will begin at noon.
