PLYMOUTH, N.H. – Senior
Aidan Law and sophomore
Keely Giordano each notched two event wins individually, contributing to the Keene State College indoor track and field teams' ten overall as the Owls competed at the Panther Invitational hosted by Plymouth State University on Saturday at the Bank of New Hampshire Fieldhouse at ALLWell North.
Giordano's first place finishes came in the 60-meter dash when she recorded a time of 7.88, the current 42nd-best time in Division III, and a 26.60 mark in the 200 meters. Her 60 time was just two hundredths of a second from matching her indoor school record time of 7.86 set last February 22 and her 200 time was just .24 seconds away from tying
Caroline Cooper's record set in this season's opening meet on December 6. KSC also got wins on the women's side from
Mia Cruz, who won the high jump with a mark of 1.55 meters (52nd in Division III) and
Ballay Conteh, who took the long jump with a mark of 5.27 meters.
Maggie St. John added a runner-up finish in the 5,000 meters in 18:38.78 while
Elle MacDonald (200 meters, 26.79),
Bryn Dickinson (800 meters, 2:32.58), and
Ava Fortin (mile, 5:46.31) all added to KSC's team point total with third-place finishes. Both of the Owls' 4x400 and 4x800 meter relays placed second, with St. John, Helena Papadopolous,
Ellie Tighe, and Fortin finishing in 10:45.10 in the 4x800 and
Erin Cole,
Natalie Wilde, Dickinson, and MacDonald in 4:23.49 in the 4x400.
It was a strong day on the men's side also, paced by two wins for Law – an NCAA individual qualifier last season – and a personal record and top 25 Division III mark in the triple jump for
Eden Damis, who won the event with a mark of 14.12 meters, .12 further than in his previous meet. The KSC school record in that event is currently held by Ben Musese, who posted a jump of 14.57 meters in 2020. Law, meanwhile, easily took the long jump with a mark of 7.06 meters on his fourth attempt, over half a meter better than the second-place finisher (Joshua Dabanka from Rhode Island College). He is the current school record-holder in the event after a 7.26-meter mark March 8 of last season. Law also won the 200 meters in 22.57. Three others added first place points for the Owls, as
Kyle Thomas was victorious in the finals of the 60 meters in 7.01,
Griffin Urnezis took the mile in 4:30.91, and
Caden Latulippe the pole vault with a mark of 4.15 meters.
The Owls ensured a second-place team finish by adding points from several others, including having four of the top five in the 200 meters where Thomas placed second with a time of 22.96, Sean von Ranson fourth in 23.39 and
Jonathan DeAguiar fifth in 23.54.
Tyler Bolaske (2:02.32) and
Keith O'Donnell (2:03.93) finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 800 meters, while KSC also gathered points in the longer distance events as
Jonathan MacQuarrie was second in the 3,000 meters in 9:38.52 and
Andrew Klinedinst the runner up in the 5,000 in 15:43.48.
Alex Vaccaro placed fifth in the 3,000 with a time of 10:12.05. KSC's 4x400 relay team of von Ranson,
Eric Carlo,
Zack Smith, and
Max Smith finished in 3:41.46 to finish runner-up to a foursome from RIC while the Owl 4x800 team of Bolaske, Nicholas Terranova, MacQuarrie, and
Jozuwe Tunguru was third in 8:36.65.
Teamwise, the Owls scored well on both sides on the afternoon, with the men placing second of 10 entrants with 138 points – behind only Division II St. Anselm College (183 points). Fellow LEC schools RIC (99) and host Plymouth State (73) were in third and fourth. On the women's side, KSC accumulated 111 points to finish second, also ahead of RIC in third (78) and Plymouth in fourth (77). St. Anselm had 214 points on the women's side.
"We took some great steps from last week," said Owls head coach
Dan Roark. "Great team performances as we were the best-finishing Division III school on both sides. It was overall a true team meet – we are on the right path and competed all around today. We got some big events from Aidan and Keely."
KSC is off until January 30 and 31 when they travel to the two-day John Thomas Terrier Classic hosted by Boston University and the Husky Invitational at the University of Southern Maine.
