Owen Kiely ’06 is back.
A year after a debilitating stress fracture derailed his indoor season, Kiely returned last weekend to run 14:26 for the 5,000-meter event, shattering the school record of his good friend and former teammate Wes Fuhrman ’05 by 16 seconds.
In a race featuring top Division I competition at Boston University, Kiely placed a strong second, running an even pace the whole race. The time automatically qualifies Kiely for the NCAA Championships to be held in Indiana in March and is the fastest mark posted in the country this year for a Division III 5k runner.
“Being number one?” Kiely said, “Yeah, it’s crazy, but it’s what I came back to do, and I’m glad to have gotten qualifying out of the way early in the season.”
In January of 2006, Kiely recorded a 14:54 5k, a provisional qualifying mark for NCAAs, before noticing sharp pain in his right shin a few days later.
“It was pretty strange,” Kiely recalled. “I went for a bone scan and they said that I did have a stress fracture, but it wasn’t in the spot where I was feeling pain.”
After a few attempts at running, Kiely decided to scrap his indoor and outdoor track season and save his eligibility. Now as a neuroscience graduate student, Kiely is back for one more shot at an NCAA title. He has already recorded stellar times in the 3k and mile prior to his 5k in Boston. At the Yale Invitational on Jan. 13, Kiely ran away from the field in the mile to win in 4:23 and a week later at the Wesleyan Invitational, he again dominated the competition, running a 8:42 3k.
Standout senior Ellen Davis also traveled to Boston last weekend for the high-profile meet to run the mile. Davis finished twelfth in 5:04, yet she has yet to run her best event, the 5k, this season. Last year, Davis held the best time in the country with a 16:46, going into the NCAA Championships. She will certainly be in the hunt once again this season.
While Kiely and Davis were in Boston, the rest of the team was racing at home last weekend with strong competition from the twenty-seven schools in attendance. Chris Foster ’09 and Matt Shea ’08 placed second and third in the 3k, running times of 9:11 and 9:13 respectively. Brad Litchfield ’09 placed sixth in the 500 (1:09), and Mike Brady ’07 finished second in the 5k (15:52).
On the women’s side, standout sprinter Steph O’Brien won the 500 in 1:18, just a second off the school record set twenty years ago. Lisa Sussman ’09, who finished second in 1:21, followed O’Brien closely.
After having her cross-country season shortened by a stress fracture in her foot, Anna Schindler ’09 returned to form, running a 5:26 mile, good for third.
“It’s great to be back,” said Schindler. “I sure do love indoor track.”
The women’s field event crew also performed well, with freshman Lindsay Wright placing fourth in the high jump and Amy Lum ’10 and Abby Austin ’07 placing sixth and seventh in the long jump respectively.
On Saturday, the teams will travel to Smith College for the Tartan Invitational.
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