WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. – Senior Molly Lu McKellar continues to add to her stellar campaign while the women's 4x100 meter relay team broke their own record for a third time and set their fourth school record this season as the Keene State College outdoor track and field teams competed at the Williams College Farley Inter-Regional Extravaganza on Friday and Saturday at the Lee Track & Field Complex.

McKellar broke her own school record in the heptathlon, placing second in a strong field with 4,562 points, bettering her previous KSC-best total of 4,553 set on April 11 earlier this season.  Included within her performance over the two days, which she led after Friday, was a win in the shot put with a throw of 12.79 meters and a third-place mark in the 100 hurdles in 14.78, bettering her time in the same event at the LEC championships by 17 hundredths of a second.

For the Hebron, N.H. native, every second, every meter, and every point would matter as she entered the meet right near NCAA qualification in the event after making it in the pentathlon in the indoor season and becoming a second-team All-American.  Her finish in the 100 hurdles, while good for bronze, was just three hundredths of a second behind Lauren Zipoli of Tufts University, who finished in 14.75 and was ultimately the overall winner of the heptathlon with 4,755 points, taking gold in the 200 meters, long jump, and javelin while also finishing tied for second in the high jump, six in the 800 meters, and tenth in the shot put.

McKellar beat all three other seniors in the event (Samantha Luba of Nazareth College, Livi Mazerolle of Williams College, and Anastasia Ioppolo of Amherst College), adding finishes of fourth in the high jump (1.56 meters), ninth in the 200 meters (27.36), seventh in the long jump (4.95 meters), fourth in the javelin (27.66 meters), and seventh in the 800 meters (2:35.24).

As was expected, most events were closely contended in the strong field of 14 with national qualifications on the line, with McKellar six hundredths of a meter behind Mazerolle for first in the high jump, though the KSC senior's shot put mark easily won the event by over two meters ahead of Mazerolle.  McKellar was 297 points better than Zapoli in the shot put, easily the biggest gap between the two in any of the events, but the Jumbos' product made up for it by compiling 850 points in the 200 and 717 in the long jump.

McKellar, who set PRs in the 200 and the 100 hurdles, had posted a score of 4,553 in the heptathlon at the Tufts Spring Stampede on April 10-11, and has been hovering around the line of NCAA qualification ever since, currently sitting at 24th.  In a show of just how close the race can be, Zipoli currently sits at 16th and well above the expected cut line.

Elsewhere at the meet, KSC's 4x100 relay team of Mia Cruz, Keely Giordano, Caroline Cooper, and Elle MacDonald broke their own record for a third time after breaking a record from last year to start the season, finishing with a bronze in 47.96.  They continue to improve incrementally, moving from 48.47 on March 27 to 48.37 on April 17-18, to 48.14 at the LEC championship on April 25, and now to 47.96 at this meet.  They are about a half-second from a top 50 national mark.

Makenna Knapp added a top-half finish in 10th in the javelin, throwing 34.14 meters.  MacDonald placed 11th in the 400 meters (58.68).

On the men's side, Kyle Thomas ran the 100 meters in 10.79, just eight hundredths of a second behind the fastest time of the day (Alex Cole of Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 10.71).  His season-best time of 10.52 at Springfield College on April 4 remains a top 50 national Division III mark (T-43rd).  Sean Von Ranson finished the same event today in 11.09, while Troy Tenney posted a 1.86-meter high jump.

KSC, who currently still has three national top 50 marks, will have one final chance on Thursday (May 14) when they travel to Cambridge, Mass. for the MIT Final Qualifier.  McKellar and Tyler Bolaske both qualified for the NCAA indoor championships in March.