Three Owl tracksters stepped out to win themselves – and KSC – some serious bragging rights. Allison Chamberlain, a sophomore from Scarborough, Maine, was named the Little East Conference Women’s Outdoor Track Runner of the Year. Senior Peter Najem, from Derry, N.H., was named the LEC Track Athlete of the Year, and sophomore Bryan Kolacz (Brentwood, N.H.) was selected as the LEC Field Athlete of the Year. Brian was also the 10th Keene State College student-athlete in men’s track and field to capture a national championship with his 61.48-meter hammer throw at the 2009 NCAA Division III Championships hosted by Marietta College (Ohio).

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Keene State College athletics set a record that will be tough to beat when it won its ninth-straight Little East Commissioner’s Cup. The Owls averaged 6.552 points to win the trophy in each of the nine years it has been awarded. The Commissioner’s Cup measures an institution’s overall performance in the 19 sports that the Conference sponsors. They don’t call us the top NCAA DIII public intercollegiate institution for nothin’.

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Sophomore Bryan Kolacz hurled his hammer 201’8″ at the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships at Marietta, Ohio, on Thursday afternoon (May 21, 2009). The throw broke the record at the Don Drumm Stadium, where the event was held, and was the best of the season, winning Kolacz the NCAA DIII national title.

Kolacz joins a select group of 10 national champions from Keene State. He is the first KSC men’s athlete to earn the honor in a field event since Paul Trocki won the decathlon in 1979. And his best may be yet to come: Darcy Wilson, the Owls’ throwing coach, thinks Kolacz has just scratched the surface of his potential in the sport. “Bryan knows what he needs to do to become a better thrower,” she said.

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Head field hockey coach Amy Watson has been promoted to full-time status. She’s just starting her 20th season at Keene State and has had a very impressive record coaching the Owls. She’s seen the field hockey team capture seven Little East Conference championships (1998, 1999, 2004–08), earn six NCAA berths (1998, 2004–08), and claim the 2003 ECAC New England title. She has also produced 12 All-Americans.

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The Owl softball team headed to Brandeis Univ. on Sunday, May 10, ready to settle the score with the team that unseated them in last year’s championship. And settle the score they did, with a decisive 11-1 win over Brandeis. It was a glorious day for this Owl team.

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Kristine Trutor’s swimming prowess has earned her a berth in the NCAA Division III Swimming and Diving Championships. She’ll be heading to the University of Minnesota’s University Aquatic Center for the weekend of March 18-21 to compete. She qualified in the 100-yard backstroke and will also have the opportunity to compete in the 100 butterfly and 200 back events.

A shoulder injury held Trutor back during her freshman and sophomore seasons, but now she’s ready to go. In early December, she set three individual backstroke records to lead Keene State to its third-straight Little East Conference Championship. And in February, she won three individual backstroke races, swam on four winning relays, and earned Swimmer of the Meet honors, leading the Owls to their second-straight NEISDA crown.

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The 13-member Owl women’s swim team captured its second consecutive New England Intercollegiate Swimming and Diving Association (NEISDA) Championship at the Tripp Athletic Center Pool on the campus of UMass-Dartmouth on Sunday, Feb. 22. Keene State also won the NEISDA title in 2001.

An exhausted Owl squad mustered enough energy and determination during the demanding weekend competition to pull off the championship.

The Owls set four school records and established one meet and pool mark on Sunday. They won three races, including the 400 freestyle relay, the final race of the meet, to claim the crown.

Several Owl swimmers will know in two weeks if their provisional qualifying times will be good enough to get them a spot in the NCAA Division III championships that take place in Minneapolis March 18–21.

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For the second year in a row Keene State’s Erin Dallas and Alyssa Rowell have been named All-American by the National Field Hockey Coaches Association (NFHCA).

Dallas, a junior midfielder from Marlow, N.H., becomes the first Owl player to earn first-team All-American twice, while Rowell, a senior back from Queensbury, N.Y., moves up from third-team last year to second-team honors this season.

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