First year Isabelle Groper had two friends running the Boston Marathon course when two bombs exploded near the finish line yesterday afternoon on Boylston Street. One of her friends was two miles from the finish line. Groper was waiting for her other friend, Rayna, at the bottom of Heartbreak Hill, roughly six miles from where the bombs exploded.?My grandma texted me that bombs went off, but no one was panicking,? Groper said.?A few minutes later a lot of people around us started talking about what was going on at the finish line,? she said. ?Then all these cop cars and motorcycles came telling people to get off the course.??Eventually, the runners stopped coming.?Once officials canceled the race, people began to cry by the sidelines, Groper said.?After five minutes, all our phones stopped working and we couldn?t make phone calls,? she said.Rayna was picked up by her dad half a mile away from Groper and were able to meet them on Commonwealth Avenue. Even though Groper wasn?t able to make any phone calls for almost two hours, she received dozens of text messages from friends and family asking if they were ok.Groper said she heard from other witnesses that police had found a suspicious package on Commonwealth Ave that was thought to be another explosive device and the bomb squad was called.?The package was found on the part that is right in Newton Center which was probably a mile from where we were at the time. It never went off though.?According to Groper, since the incident, there are army soldiers all around the bus terminal at South Station, which is ?pretty out of the ordinary.?Sophomore Megan Howley?s brother left with his girlfriend about five minutes before the bombs went off.Howley said that if her brother?s girlfriend had not ran a personal record, he would have been at the scene when the explosions happened.?I am so thankful and relieved that he is fine,? Howley said. ?Still, my heart goes out to those who didn?t get the same sigh of relief I graciously received from my friends and family in Boston.??This tragedy hits so close to home for me,? Howley said. Annie Stevens, Associate Vice President for University Relations and Campus Life and Bill Ballard, Associate Vice President for Administrative and Facilities Services sent an e-mail to the UVM community yesterday evening regarding the Boston Marathon tragedy.?We have not heard about any member of our University community who may have sustained injuries,? the email stated.?We have heard from students and staff members who were at the marathon and have reported that they are ok. Our thoughts are with the runners, family, friends and spectators who experienced this traumatic event.?By Monday afternoon, UVM students? many of whom are either from or have ties to the Boston area? took to Facebook and Twitter accounts to express reactions of shock and sympathy. In Fall 2012, UVM’s Office of Institutional Research reported that 16 percent of total undergraduate students were from Massachusetts. SGA President Connor Daley said he thought the University had dealt with it as best as it could, but the event hit close to home to a large portion of the community.?So many students, actually most students, come from that area,? Daley said. ?It?s definitely on all our minds.?In a statement to the Burlington Free Press, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said, ?the Boston Marathon is one of the greatest sporting events in the United States.??What happened today is a tragedy beyond words. Our hearts and prayers go out to the victims, their families and friends,? Sanders said.The two bombs that exploded near the marathon finish line killed three people and wounded over a hundred, according to the New York Times.Heightened security was in full force this morning at South Station as baggage was put through an explosives-detecting scanner before passengers were allowed to board. National Guardsmen are stationed on the Red Line platform, the Boston Globe article stated.No arrests had been made by early Tuesday afternoon, the Globe reported.