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LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Lehigh women’s track and field team concluded the first day of the indoor Patriot League Championships at Bucknell on Saturday. The Mountain Hawks are currently in fifth place with 15 total points. Navy currently leads with 78 and Army is in second with 58.
The 4×800 relay team finished the day on a high note for the Mountain Hawks, coming in first place while setting a new meet record and facility record. Seniors Hetty McMillan, Jade Sessions, Julia Dorley and Kara Bonner made up the gold-medal relay team that finished with a time of 8:50.37. Sessions won her second title in the 4×800 relay on Saturday. Sessions was a member of the first-place 4×800 relay team from the 2019 Patriot League Championships.
“The group is four driven seniors that going into the meet, we had kind of compared them to the fab four,” said assistant coach Debbie Utesch. “They had the options to score in individual, DMR and 4×800 and they wanted to go in the 4×800. They did exactly what I see them being capable of doing in practice everyday and I’m so happy they were able to do what they did today.”
Three other Mountain Hawks contributed to the team’s 15 total points. Senior Teasha McKoy was the first on the board on Saturday. McKoy finished seventh in the weight throw with a mark of 17.65m. Fellow senior Veronica Meyer earned a new PR in the weight throw, finishing 11th with a mark of 15.86m.
Senior Carly Carpino earned points for Lehigh. Carpino finished the pentathlon with 3226 points, making her tenth all-time in Lehigh history. The senior earned PRs in two of the five events, finishing the 60m hurdles with a time of 9.18 and the long jump with a mark of 5.26m.
“She ended up 10th all-time on our star studded multi list,” said head coach Matt Utesch. “We’ve been successful in the multis and to make that list is pretty special and we’re really proud of her.”
Several first-years found success in their Patriot League Championship debuts. Keisha Modi finished seventh in the long jump with a mark of 5.58m, earning Lehigh two team points. In the pole vault, Randi Conroy finished 11th with a new PR of 3.55m and Casey Talamini-Kelemen finished 13th, tying her PR of 3.40m.
Sprinter Melissa Cunningham finished Saturday with two impressive races under her belt. In the first round of the 60m, Cunningham finished third with a time of 7.76. Later on in the day, she went on to break her own school record in the first round of the 200m, finishing sixth with a time of 25.31.
“Any first-year that comes in and scores is doing something special and I think Keisha and Melissa have so much more in the tank,” said Utesch. “It was great to see them perform on the league stage”
On the mid-distance and distance side, several Lehigh seniors found success on the track today. Dorley (2:12.63) and Sessions (2:12.93) finished second and third, respectively, in the 800m. Bonner finished seventh in the mile with a time of 4:59.21, allowing her to compete in the finals on Sunday at Bucknell.
Several Mountain Hawks finished their indoor season with new PRs on Saturday. In the mile, junior Elena Perez-Segnini, sophomore Christina Yakoboski and first-year Lauryn Heskin all finished with PRs. Perez-Segnini finished the ninth with a time of 5:00.20 while Yakoboski and Heskin finished with respective times of 5:02.71 and 5:10.37.
First-years Amanda Mircovich and Stephanie Webb also grabbed PRs of their own at Bucknell. Mircovich finished the 800m with a new PR of 2:15.39 and Webb finished the 60m with a time of 8.00.
Day two of the Patriot League Championship will resume on Sunday at 11 am The women’s shot put will kick things off on the field side while the men’s mile will begin track competition at 12:10 pm
Track events for the second day of competition will be streamed here and live results can be found here.
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