BOSTON, Mass. – Three Owls broke their own school records while a relay team broke a nine-year old mark as the Keene State College indoor track and field teams competed at the New England Division III championships this weekend, which wrapped up with Sunday's action at theTRACK at new balance after Friday and Saturday heptathlon and pentathlons took place at Tufts University's Gantcher Center.

Already with Molly Lu McKellar's silver medal in the women's pentathlon under their belt, currently the 16th-best mark in the event in Division III, the Owls got back at it on Sunday looking to make noise on the regional landscape on both sides.  The KSC men notched five top-half finishes in their events, with Aidan Law placing third of 24 in the long jump (6.94 meters) and sixth of 23 competitors in the 200 meters while resetting his previous school record to 21.80 after it had been 21.91 since December 8, 2024.  Tyler Bolaske placed fifth of 24 in the 3,000 meters in 8:26.25, while Kyle Thomas was 11th of 24 in the 60 meters in 6.98.  Thomas and Ethan Vitello each qualified for the 200 meters also, finishing in 22.13 and 22.19, respectively.  Caden Latulippe set a new school record in the pole vault, 4.45 meters to surpass his previous mark of 4.30 set February 1 of last year.  The KSC distance medley relay group of Nick Terranova, Vitello, Keith O'Donnell, and Griffin Urnezis finished in the top third of the event with a time of 10:23.86, 11 seconds from a top three finish.

On the women's side, the school-record setting 4x200 meter relay team of Caroline Cooper, Mia Cruz, Keely Giordano, and Elle MacDonald missed out on a gold medal in the event by just four seconds, finishing in 1:43.29 – tied with Middlebury College's fourth-place mark in a tiebreaker that was separated by just two hundredths of a second.  Colby's A group took the gold in 1:39.16.  KSC's foursome easily outdistanced the old record of 1:48.44 in 2017, set by Katelyn Terry, Nicole De Almeida, Brittany Gravallese, and Lindsey Terry.  MacDonald also improved on her previous school record time of 26.29 in the 200 meters set on February 6, this time finishing in 25.92 in the always-close event, which saw first (University of Massachusetts-Boston's Aryianna Garceau) and 21st-place finisher Emma Mills of Middlebury separated by just 2.3 seconds.

Elsewhere, the Owls also had two entrants into the 60 meters, with Giordano finishing in 7.92 and Cruz in 7.96.  Caroline Cooper was 12th among 24 competitors in the triple jump with a mark of 10.76 meters.

As a team, the KSC men finished in a 16th-place tie among the 30 total teams with 14 points.  The women tied for 21st of 34 with 12 points.  Tufts' women won the event with 112 points, edging Williams College by four.  Amherst College collected 103 points to edge Tufts by a point and a half on the men's side.

"Coming off a high-intensity LEC championship, the next meet can be hard," said Keene State head coach Dan Roark.  "Our team showed up today and battled with four school records and had a good showing at a championship event."

The Owls will head right back to the Gantcher Center next Saturday (March 8) for the Tufts National Qualifying Meet, with NCAA selections to be released on Sunday, March 9.  KSC has four current marks within the top 26 (McKellar 16th in pentathlon, Law 19th in the long jump, Ballay Conteh 23rd in the long jump, and Tyler Bolaske 26th in the mile), all with very realistic NCAA chances in the season's final week.