CASTLETON, Vt. – Junior
Kallie Warner posted a convincing win by nearly 40 seconds and set a course record as plenty of Owls were near the top of the leaderboards on both sides as the Keene State College cross country teams opened their 2026 season at the Vermont State University Castleton Invitational on Sunday.
It was a (very) early preview of the course the Owls will run at the end of October at the Little East Championships, where the men will look to again defend their crown and the women will aim to move up one spot after their runner-up finish a year ago.
As far as starts to a season, it was a strong one for KSC, as Warner finished in 20:28.3 to easily take the women's 5K individual crown, beating UMass-Boston's Jayden LaPlant by 38 seconds. First year
Hannah Duva took seventh individually in 21:34.9 and sophomore
Ellie Tighe eighth in 21:35.1. Rookie
Summer Bentley round out the top 10 in tenth with a time of 22:02.3 as the Owls had five top 10 scorers. KSC compiled 33 points to take the women's team title, well ahead of second-place Eastern Connecticut State University (51 points).
On the men's side, the Owls had six of the top 11 finishers, with senior
Griffin Urnezis finishing second in 16:44.7, edged by three seconds by UMB junior Albert Ferreras (16:41.7). Nicholas Terranova came in third right behind Urnezis in 16:46.7 in the 5K race, while
Andrew Klinedinst was sixth (17:04.4) and
Tyler Bolaske – conserving energy for a hopeful repeat conference championship – seventh (17:05.7). Junior Ben Tetu finished in 17:27.0, good for 10th, and freshman
Harper Borden posted a time of 17:32.4 to come in right behind Tetu in 11th in his first collegiate race.
"We had a strong showing today to start off the season, definitely something I am happy with but we have got a long way to go in the season…but right now, it really shows the strong summer that we had and the work that our athletes put in leading up to this," said Owls head coach
Dan Roark. "We have a lot more to go, but right now we have a really strong freshmen class that showed up today and really excited to see how they develop and really excited to see how some of the returners improved. We had more of a workout within the race structure…the fact that we were able to pull out wins on both sides makes me happy. Looking forward to our next one at Wesleyan with 8K and 6K and going to the true distance, but today was a good look that sets us up for that one."
KSC finished with 28 points as a team on the men's side to take the title, outdistancing ECSU by 14 points. Third-place Western Connecticut State University finished with an 81.
