Ashleigh Kelley Wins Medalist Honors to Lead Pride Cross Country
CHICOPEE, Mass. – Ashleigh Kelley (Stoneham, Mass.) crossed the finish line first and Erin Kelley (Stoneham, Mass.) followed with a third place finish in the women's six-kilometer race, while Benjamin Happenny (Woonsocket, R.I.) led the Regis men with a fourth-place finish in the eight-kilometer event as both Pride cross country teams finished second at the Elms College Blazer Classic Saturday at Chicopee Memorial State Park.
Ashleigh Kelley finished 29 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor with a final time of 23:45, over a minute faster than her previous six-kilometer collegiate best time and one of the top six-kilometer times in program history. Erin Kelley cut almost two full minutes off her previous best six-kilometer effort as she finished in 24:35, one-and-a-half minutes quicker than the fourth place finisher.
Lizzy Melvin (Southington, Conn.) also posted a top-10 performance with a time of 28:17, followed by Libby Parker (Bow, N.H.) in 15th place in 29:33. Annabelle Jean-Philippe (Randolph, Mass.) posted a time of 31:53, and Katie Kelley (Stoneham, Mass.) completed her first competition of the season in 32:38. The women finished second as a team with 43 points, behind Simmons but ahead of Lasell, Elms, and University of Saint Joseph.
Competing in his first eight-kilometer collegiate race, Happenny averaged just over six minutes per mile as he finished in fourth with a time of 29:50. Two other Regis runners finished in the top 10, as Zach Sigman (Buffalo, N.Y.) crossed the finish line in seventh place in 32:00, followed by Michael Carroll (Lynn, Mass.) in eighth place in 32:13.
Gustavo Novelle-Ruddy (Boston, Mass.) posted an 11th-place finish with a time of 32:43, and Brett Kiesel (Rocky Hill, Conn.) ended up in 17th place with a mark of 34:26. As a team, the Pride finished with 47 points for second place behind Western New England, but Regis did finish ahead of GNAC rivals University of Saint Joseph and Dean College.
Regis College will join several other GNAC schools at the Bruce Kirsh Cross Country Cup, hosted by Franklin Pierce University next Saturday, Oct. 2, at the Hopkinton State Fairgrounds in Hopkinton, N.H. The men's eight-kilometer race is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m., followed by the women's five-kilometer event at 11:30 a.m.