Keene, N.H. – John Allard (Smithfield, R.I.) kicked off his junior campaign in style, finishing 14th to lead a strong performance from Clark University at the annual Keene State Alumni Invitational on Saturday morning on the Keene State campus.

Allard wrapped up the 5K layout in 17:12 and was followed by Tim Conley (Walpole, Mass.), who trimmed 20 seconds off of his time from 2013, with a 17:54 performance.

Seamus O'Connor (Granby, Mass.) turned in a brilliant performance, slashing his time from last year's event by two minutes to finish and moved up 50 spots to 22nd.

Those three were followed by a duo of promising freshmen in Ryan Van Dine (Bolton, Conn.) and Alex Hull (Mount Laurel, N.J.). Van Dine crossed the finish line at 18:15 while Hull posted a time of 18:33 giving the Cougars five runners to finish in the top 30.

Clark will return to action on Saturday when they take part in the Smith College Invitational.