Best of Friends, Three 2025 Graduates Prepare To Take The Marathon Plunge, Go The Distance
Bonds of friendship can take hold quickly.
Owl alumni Brandon Comire, Kate Burzlaff, and Scott Philibert, who graduated in 2025 with Exercise Science degrees, made an instant connection on their first day on campus as full-time students.
It was the start of something unforeseen, but special.
“Through the years, we’ve only grown closer,” Brandon says. “By senior year, we did almost everything together. We had a lot of the same classes, we worked out together, we had regular dinners, sometimes with a bunch of our other friends.
“We had a lot in common, and I would say today that our connection is beyond friendship. It’s more like family.”
Kate Burzlaff '25, Brandon Comire '25, and Scott Philibert '25 pose together following the running of the 47th Clarence DeMar Marathon.
On Sunday, Brandon, Kate, and Scott will toe the starting line area with hundreds of runners for the 47th Clarence DeMar Marathon, their latest exercise and training adventure together.
“You could say we’re all very energetic, active types who love to be pushed and challenged,” Brandon says. “Once we put our minds to something, we do it, no excuses. This is what we came up with next.”
Brandon and Kate played soccer at Keene State, and Scott was part of the college’s Soccer Club. Maintaining an active lifestyle is an unmistakable strand of their friendship.
The DeMar includes the full marathon, its sister half-marathon, and Super Seniors and Kids races. It features hundreds of competitors from 40 states, Canada, Mexico, and Vietnam.
The marathon is named for seven-time Boston Marathon winner Clarence DeMar, who taught industrial education and coached the track team at Keene Normal School – now Keene State – in the 1930s.
The race finishes with crowds cheering and music blaring on Appian Way, near DeMar’s original family home. There could not be a more appropriate end-of-race backdrop for three friends who push and inspire each other.
Kate, Scott, and Brandon are glad to honor a tradition like DeMar, steeped in Keene State connections. The idea to run began as idle talk and became “a craving to try something different,” Brandon says.
Today, Brandon is a performance specialist at Redline Athletics, a youth strength and conditioning gym in Bedford, NH, and offers private personal-training services; Kate is pursuing a doctorate in physical therapy at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, NH; and Scott, whose two older sisters attended Keene State, is taking a gap year ahead of graduate school and working full-time.
All three tout their Keene State education as indispensable.
Says Scott, “At Keene State, I was able to be myself, turn into the adult that I wanted, and learn and grow in a field that most interested me.”
Says Kate, “Our close friendship is part of the amazing times and memories I had at Keene State. It’s a place I will always hold close to my heart.”
Says Brandon, “Keene State showed me so many other avenues I could explore in my field. I hosted my own indoor sprint triathlon, interned at Dartmouth College for strength and conditioning, was the lead strength coach for many of Keene State’s varsity teams, personally trained clients, became a student Bodyworks manager at the campus gym, and more.”
Kate wants to become a physical therapist and have her own practice; Scott wants to be an athletic trainer working with collegiate and professional athletes; and Brandon aspires to own a performance-training gym.
Their next group endeavor? With a marathon under their belt – at least that’s the plan – everything’s on the table.
Dr. Wanda Swiger, Professor, Human Performance & Movement Sciences, had Scott, Kate, and Brandon in class, calling them the epitome of lifelong learners. “Each truly embodies the idea of the American College of Sports Medicine, that exercise is medicine, and always pursuing new information about how best to train the body for optimal performance.
“I have many fond memories of talking with them in the hallway of Spaulding Gym … organic conversations about something they were learning in class, current research they found about exercise training, or mentoring them about career goals.”
Dr. Swiger, a longtime board-certified athletic trainer, served on the Boston Marathon Medical Team from 2007 to 2019. She plans to run the DeMar Half Marathon on Sunday, as does another Owl Exercise Science major, Marty Nelligan, a member of the college’s men’s cross country team.
A final connection for this year’s races: Some four dozen Keene State student-athletes will serve as course marshals along the race routes, a gesture of community service that helps to make this spectacle on the final Sunday of September each fall, a destination event on so many calendars.