WINTHROP, Mass. – After a busy week with two competitions in the span of six days, graduate student Erin Kelley (Stoneham, Mass.) has been selected Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Female Track Athlete of the Week, while first-year competitor Colleen Curran (Woburn, Mass.) has been named GNAC Female Track and Field Rookie of the Week, announced Monday, April 15, by the league office.
At the Silfen Invitational Elite Distance Event last Friday night at Connecticut College, Kelley broke her own school record in the 10,000 meter run by over three seconds, completing the race in 39:40.83 to finish 11th overall and qualify for the New England Division III Outdoor Track and Field Championships.
Saturday in the unseeded heat of the 5000 meter run at the Smith College Carla Coffey Invitational, Kelley finished sixth with a time of 19:11.74. Earlier in the week at the Regis Spring Classic, she finished first in the 5000 meter run with a time of 21:38.45 and fourth overall in the 1500 meter run in 5:14.56. In total, Kelley ran 13.36 miles in competition over the past week.
It was a busy week for Curran, starting last Monday at the Regis Spring Classic. She finished fourth in the long jump (4.96 meters) and sixth in the pole vault (2.28 meters) with personal collegiate-best marks, plus she helped the 4x100 meter relay finish second by 0.01 seconds with an overall time of 51.43 seconds, currently the best time on the GNAC performance list.
Curran then completed the heptathlon Friday and Saturday at the Carla Coffey Invitational at Smith College, setting the Regis outdoor school record and finishing 10th overall with 3,033 points. Her time of 17.30 seconds in the 100 meter hurdles is second on the GNAC performance list.
Kelley, a two-time individual GNAC champion, has been named GNAC Female Track Athlete of the Week for the fifth time in her collegiate career. This is Curran's second GNAC Rookie of the Week award, as she was previously selected on Feb. 5 after competing in the indoor pentathlon at the Tufts Cupid Challenge.
The Regis College track and field team heads to Cambridge, Mass., this upcoming weekend for the Sean Collier Invitational hosted by MIT Friday and Saturday, April 19-20.