MEDFORD, Mass. – With two weeks until the Little East Conference championship, the Keene State College outdoor track and field teams both seem to be hitting their stride. Chalk up another successful weekend for the Owls on Friday and Saturday, as they again set two new school records and three top 40 NCAA Division III marks at the Tufts Spring Stampede, hosted by Tufts University at the Ellis Oval/Dussault Track & Field Complex.
Molly Lu McKellar broke a seven-year-old school mark in the heptathlon, compiling 4,553 points to place third and surpass Skyler Gauthier's score of 4,370 points set in 2019. It is also currently the 13th-best mark in the event in Division III for the senior, who came into the outdoor season after qualifying for the NCAA and becoming a Second Team All-American in the pentathlon indoors. Included in McKellar's overall performance was a blowout win in the shot put with a throw of 12.80 meters, currently good for the 40th-best in the country. She won that event by 1.09 meters over Celia Kulis of Division I College of the Holy Cross. McKellar was also fifth in the 200-meter dash (27.46), fifth in the 800 meters (2:35.12), fifth in the 100 hurdles (15.26), tied for fourth in the high jump (1.52 meters), fifth in the long jump (5.07 meters), and fifth in the javelin (31.48 meters) en route to her overall bronze. Kulis won the event with 5,024 points, followed by Emma Burr of Thomas College (4,842 points) and McKellar. McKellar set personal records in both the 200 and the shot put, in addition to the overall heptathlon score.
KSC was not done setting school records there, as first year
Elle MacDonald again broke her own mark with a 25.38 posted time in the 200 meters to surpass her previous best of 25.96 set on March 27 at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, which had broken the previous record by four hundredths of a second.
MacDonald and McKellar are currently a part of seven track and field records at Keene State, including McDonald in both the indoor and outdoor 200 meters, the indoor 4x200 relay, and the outdoor 4x100 relay. McKellar has school bests in the indoor 60 hurdles, indoor pentathlon, and now the outdoor heptathlon.
The Owls were not done there, as
Griffin Urnezis posted a time of 9:30.43 in the men's 3,000-meter steeplechase to finish with a silver medal among the field of 19 runners. He was four seconds ahead of third and just three seconds from first, and his time is currently 36th across Division III. Urnezis was also 18th among 45 finishers in the 800 meters (1:59.02).
Ben Tetu picked up a gold medal for the Owls in the 10,000 meters with his time of 32:01.03 to win by over a minute, beating Babson College's Jonathan Hanscom, while
Kyle Thomas picked up another runner-up finish for the Owls at the meet, placing second in the 200 meters with a time of 21.84. Nicholas Terranova was 11th in the steeplechase (10:06.40).
On the women's side, KSC added strong performances from
Keely Giordano (fifth, 100 meters, 12.58; eighth, 200 meters, 25.38) and
Maya Wedge (seventh, 10,000 meters, 40:01.91).
McKenna Castor was ninth in the 100 hurdles in 16.64 while
Drea Defreitas was tied for fifth with a 5.19 meter long jump. First year McKenna Knapp posted a strong mark in the javelin, finishing sixth with a throw of 36.25 meters, over four meters further than her previous mark (32.23) a week ago as she bettered all three of her events (discus, hammer, and javelin) from the Springfield College Classic.
"This weekend was a great meet from top to bottom," said KSC head coach
Dan Roark. "We had good performances from all event groups and we are in mid-season form. We have some injuries we need to come back from, but we are in a good spot. We had some school records and NCAA marks, so that is always fun when you can do that."
KSC visits UMass Lowell for the George Davis Invitational next Saturday (April 18) before the LEC championships at Eastern Connecticut State University the following weekend.
