story links
-
Patriot League Championship Schedule
-
LiveResults
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Seniors Kara Bonner, Julia Dorley, Jade Sessions and Hetty McMillan wanted their final seasons at Lehigh to be memorable and on Friday afternoon in a rainy Annapolis, Md., they made their final meet as Mountain Hawks count. The four seniors won the gold in the 4×800 relay at the Patriot League Championships, adding to their previous gold medal from the indoor championships.
“The 4×800 women were being delayed because of the open 800m issue and our women have their sweats on, they are calm, cool and collected and poised,” said head coach Matt Utesch. “Meanwhile other teams are standing there for 20 minutes with their sweats off and our girls are just like, ‘Can we just run this and win it?’ Which by the way, they annihilated the field. Julia Dorley opened up a gap that was just wide open from then on. We won by 40 meters. Total credit to coach Deb for getting it done and the girls were just amazing.”
The Lehigh women’s track and field team wrapped up the first day of competition at the Patriot League Championships, hosted by Navy, in sixth place. On top of the winning relay team, senior Veronica Meyer also scored points for Lehigh on Friday.
Meyer made her last Patriot League Championship as a Mountain Hawk count. She finished eighth in the javelin with a mark of 38.59m to earn team points for Lehigh.
“She’s really been the backbone of the throws program,” Utesch said. “She’s consistent and solid all the time.”
The middle distance and distance runners showed no signs of slowing down in the rainy conditions at Navy on Friday. In the 1500m, all four Mountain Hawks who competed qualified for the finals on Saturday at 2:05 pm Sophomore Christina Yakaboski was a top-finisher for Lehigh, finishing first with a personal record of 4:34.61. Juniors Elena Perez-Segnini and Annalize Davis as well as Bonner also qualified for finals. Perez-Seginini and Davis finished with respective PRs of 4:37.01 and 4:42.16 while Bonner finished with a time of 4:37.20.
In the 800m, sessions and McMillan put up solid times, finishing first and second in their heat. Sessions finished second overall with a time of 2:13.40 while McMillan finished third overall with a time of 2:13.41 to secure their spots in the finals tomorrow. Dorley also wants to join her fellow seniors in the 800m finals as an unprecedented, 13 student-athletes are set to compete in the race.
Lehigh’s sprinters had a solid day on the track despite the rain. First-year Melissa Cunningham won the 100m prelims with a time of 12.11 and finished third in the 200m with a time of 25.03 to secure her spots in both finals. Sophomore Jordyn Hock was another one of Lehigh’s sprinters to qualify for finals. Hock finished eighth in the 400m with a new personal record of 56.85.
“The thing that I’m the most impressed with in our team is their resilience” said Utesch.” It’s bad weather, we’re inside, we had delays and lightning and our kids come out and turn around and get it done. You ‘ve got Melissa Cunningham qualifying out of lane one in the 200 and she has fastest time in the field. Out of lane one, that’s unprecedented and she’s just done an amazing job. She got the number one seed time and she won’t’ be in lane one tomorrow. That speaks well of the resilience of the entire team.”
In the hurdles, junior Ashley Griesmeyer and graduate student Kaja Skerlj put up impressive times to extend their seasons into tomorrow. Griesmeyer finished eighth in the 100m hurdles with a new personal record of 14.79 while Skerlj finished eighth in the 400m hurdles with a time of 1:03.89.
Senior Carly Carpino and first-year Chelsi Chevannes are both competing in the heptathlon for Lehigh. Chevannes is currently in sixth place with 2694 points while Caprino is in ninth place with 2594. While Carpino finished Friday with a PR in the 100m hurdles (15.07), Chevannes finished with PRs in the 100m hurdles (15.67), high jump (1.61m ) and shot put (10.58m).
Day two of competition will begin at 8:45 am with the decathlon’s 110m hurdles. Women’s shot put will kick off the field events at 9 am while track events will begin at 1:10 pm with the women’s steeplechase.
Live results and the full schedule for the meet can be found at the top of the page. Updates, highlights and interviews with coaches and student-athletes will be available on @PatriotLeagueTV on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments are closed.