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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Following their month-long break, the Mountain Hawks returned to Rauch Fieldhouse with a winning mindset, as they defeated Sacred Heart 54-32 at the Angry Birds Invitational on Saturday afternoon. Lehigh dominated his first meet of the new year, earning 13 first-place finishes.
“I think it shows that the men were ready to compete,” said head coach Todd Etters. “I think sometimes you can be back physically but not ready mentally but it showed to me that they spent this week preparing mentally and they were geared up, ready to compete hard.
“In some cases, it was two teammates really pushing and challenging each other but that’s a good thing, that’s what we want to see and you can’t do better than winning so that’s what we’re excited about,” Etters continued.
The Mountain Hawks’ throwers showed no signs of rust, dominating the weight throw and shot put with seven throwers in the top ten in both events. Sophomore Liam Lovering took home first-place finishes in both events, earning personal bests in both the weight throw (16.31m) and shot put (15.62m).
“It’s so cool to see the throwers as a strength of our team,” Etters said. “They’re relatively young and Liam just looks like a beast right now. He’s performing really well and I don’t think that’s it. That group is going to keep rising and you can see it everyday with how they approach it.
“Coach Alison [Taub] just has them in the right place and she pulls all the right strings and pushes the right buttons,” Etters continued. “She’s been great and you can see that they’re a real strength for our program.”
Junior Achilles Mouzakis finished second overall in the weight throw with a mark of 16.09m while sophomore Alex Clevenger finished second in the shot put with a mark of 15.11m.
In the pole vault, junior Conor Reilly earned his second consecutive win of the season. Reilly finished first overall with a mark of 4.71m. First-year Carter Bartz followed close behind, finishing second with a mark of 4.56m.
Lehigh continued to dominate in the jumps, earning first-place finishes in both the long jump and triple jump. Sophomore Mulenga Malama won the triple jump with a mark of 6.53m with first-year Daniel Givens following close behind with a mark of 6.31m to secure his second-place finish. The Lehigh duo switched places in the triple jump with Givens (13.29m) finishing first overall and Malama (12.89m) finishing second.
While the Mountain Hawks dominated in the field events, they continued that energy in the track events, finishing first in every event except one.
“You need to have balance and you need to have balance not just with the points you’re scoring in different events but also in how old your team is,” said Etters. “We saw seniors step up and perform well but we saw the opposite of that and we saw first-years step up and really do well too.
“So to have that going and then across the board, be able to do well in every event, that’s a sign of a really strong, well balanced team and we’re excited about where we’re at but we know this is the beginning and we have a lot of work to do.”
In the first track event of the day, first-year Carter LoPresti made his 5000m debut. LoPresti, who finished third overall with a time of 16:06.45, earned the win for Lehigh as the top two finishers were unattached runners.
Following the 5000m, sophomore Aidan Lynch finished first in the mile with a time of 4:20.26. The Mountain Hawks claimed the next four spots, with first-years Daniel Malatesta (4:27.17) finishing second and Henry Burd (4:28.97) finishing third.
After Lynch’s first-place finish, Lehigh’s sprinters went to work, earning first-place finishes in the next three events. Junior Daniel Stipanov earned the first win of the day for the sprinters, winning the 60m hurdles with a time of 8.50. Senior Amondo Lemmon earned a first-place finish of his own in the 400m, finishing with a time of 52.03.
“I think Amondo came in with a little bit of pressure put on him and he stepped up and performed well,” Etters said. “It was nice to see him kind of get back to his winning ways.”
Following Lemmon’s win in the 400m, first-year Nikolas Cruz earned his first collegiate win in the 60m. Cruz won the race with a time of 7.12.
Lehigh’s middle-distance runners continued to dominate on the track, earning the top four finishes in the 800m. Senior Connor Melko claimed first place, finishing with a time of 1:56.81. Sophomore Ethan Hood finished second with a time of 1:59.20 while senior Thomas Leitner (2:01.59) and sophomore Ryan Wycherley (2:01.91) finished third and fourth, respectively.
In the second to last race of the day, the Mountain Hawks showed no signs of slowing down as they swept the 3000m. Sophomore Kevin Harvey earned the first-place finish with a time of 8:54.66 while senior Riley Williamson (9:09.55) and first-year Connor Malinger (9:26.86) finished second and third, respectively.
Lehigh finished the day with its final first-place finish in the 4×400 relay. Melko, Hood and Wycherley ran with first-year Noah Kim to win the race with a time of 3:24.99.
The Mountain Hawks will hit the road for the first time this season next weekend. While some members of the team will travel to Staten Island, NY for the Villanova Invitational, others will remain in Bethlehem for the Moravian Indoor Meet, which will be hosted by Moravian inside Rauch Fieldhouse.
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