Keene State College Men's Track And Field

Dan Roark was appointed head coach of the Keene State cross country and track and field programs in February of 2022.  Roark came to KSC from Wentworth Institute of Technology, an NCAA Division III school in Boston, where he served as head coach of the Leopards beginning in 2015.  He led Wentworth, a member of the Commonwealth Coast Conference, to league titles in cross country in 2015, 2016, and 2017, and mentored Dan McSolla (2016) and Alex Robbins (2017) to appearances in the NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships.   McSolla also qualified for the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and and Field Championships in the mile in 2017 and 2019, where he earned All-America honors in 2017 - just the fifth All-America honoree in school history. Roark has immediately helped move the Owls program forward and back into a regional contender, helping guide the women's cross country program to back-to-back Little East Conference championships in 2022 and 2023, with the 2022 season seeing a top 10 finish in the East region.  Jake Pearl (2022) and Maggie St. John (2023) have qualified for the NCAA cross country championships individually under his guidance. Multiple school records have been established in Roark's time at KSC, including Shannon Parks in the indoor track and field weight throw, indoor and outdoor shot put, and the hammer (outdoor).  Kyle Maruca set a new school mark in the discus (outdoor), Carlie Cronin in the pole vault (outdoor), and Tommy Ahlers in the 60 meter run (indoor).  He coached Little East Conference indoor track and field Rookie of the Year Griffin Urnezis (2024 indoor), and has coached Urnezis (3,000 meters; 2023-2024 indoor), Maruca (shot put; 2023-2024 indoor / discus; 2023 outdoor), Savannah Soleau (shot put; 2023-2024 indoor), Grace Furlong (10,000 meters; 2024 outdoor, 2023 outdoor), and Parks (shot put; 2023 indoor) to LEC individual titles. Roark was an NCAA Division I runner at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., before transferring to St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia to conclude his collegiate career.   He earned an undergraduate degree in economics and an MBA from St. Joseph's, where he was a three time qualifier for the IC4A in both indoor and outdoor track and field.

A two-time national champion and a four-time All-American in the high jump, Crystal Blamy returns for her third season as anassistant coach with the Keene State track team.  Blamy, a native of Walpole, will help develop the skills of Owl high jumpers.  Blamy capped off her Owl career by capturing the national Division III indoor and outdoor high jump championship as a senior,becoming the just the third athlete to win both indoor and outdoor honors in the same year since 1997.  In addition to her national championship, Blamy also New England Open, New England Division III, ECAC and Little East indoor champion and was named the Northeast region and LEC field athlete of the year.  Her outdoor accolade included New England Division III and LEC championship and conference field athlete of the year honors.  Blamy was named Keene State’s 2009 female athlete of the year.

Bill Edson joined the Keene State Track and Field programs as an assistant coach in November of 2022. Edson brings over 30 years of coaching both interscholastic and intercollegiate athletics.  Most recently, as Head Coach of Conant High School from 2018 to 2022 (Jaffrey, N.H.), he transformed both the boys and girls track and cross country teams to unprecedented levels of success which included 12 individual state champions, nine school records, one MOC champion, one decathlon state champion, and one team state championship. Edson was an assistant coach at Middlebury College from 2011 to 2014 (Middlebury, Vt.) and responsible for the horizontal jumps and multi-events in track and also served as cross country assistant coach.  Edson coached several school record holders, All-Conference (NESCAC), All-Region (New England / ECAC), and All-American athletes while at Middlebury. He was a member of the NESCAC Coaching staff of the year in 2014 for Men’s Track and Field, and helped lead the Cross Country team to a combined program best finish with the men in seventh place while the women’s team finished as runner-up in third at the NCAA Division III National Championships in 2013. Edson competed for NCAA Division III in Cross Country at Cortland State in 1982 before joining the United States Army, where he also competed in cross country and track & field.  He served in the Army for 23 years and retired as a highly decorated Combat Medic in 2007. Edson went on to earn a BA in Professional Studies in Leadership from Johnson State College in 2011 (Johnson, Vt.) and a MS in Organizational Leadership from Norwich University (Northfield, Vt.) in 2013. Edson is the Owls throws coach and will also help to develop the multi-event and horizontal jumps athletes.