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Keene State races up New England cross country polls
KEENE, N.H. 9/22/09 - Keene State cross country teams are on the move. Strong performances in last Saturday's UMass-Dartmouth Invitational have resulted in the Owls moving up in the New England regional poll announced on Tuesday. By winning the championship, the KSC men catapulted six spots to third while the Owl women jumped from eighth to fifth.
Williams tops the men's poll while Middlebury is the front-runner in the women's rankings.
"The way we ran on Saturday, I expected us to move up in the rankings," said KSC Coach Peter Thomas. "The question is: can we repeat the performance."
The Owls hit the trails running on Saturday. The KSC men placed three runners in the top-10 to capture the UMD Invitational for the second year in a row. Senior Jared Samuel (Londonderry, N.H.) was the first Keene State runner to the finish line, placing fourth with a time of 24:53. Juniors Jeff Trethewey (Merrimack, N.H.) and Eric MacKnight (Newtown, Conn.) weren‘t too far behind, finishing fifth and eighth respectively.
The Keene State women, who placed a stong third at UMD,were led by the strong tandem of sophomore Paige Mills (Keene, N.H.) and junior Allison Chamberlain (Scarborough, Me.). Paige, who was named the Little East runner of the week, finished fourth (18:06) and Chamberlain, running her first cross country season for the Owls, placed seventh (18:15).
"Outside of MIT, they might be the top one-two punch in the region," said Thomas.
Thomas feels both KSC teams will be in the national Division III rankings that will be released on Wednesday.
Taking a week off, the Owls will host the 15th Annual KSC Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 3. Both Keene State teams have had tremendous success running on their home turf with the men winning the race 10 out of the last 11 years and the women claiming the title the past three years.
However, the Owls won't be a shoe-in for the championship this time around. Amherst College will be making its first appearance at the meet. The Lord Jeff will be formidable competition for the Owls. The Amherst men are ranked second and the women hold down the sixth spot in the regional rankings.
"Amherst is coming up to slug it out with us," said Thomas. "We're going to need another strong performance to hold them off."
