Lehigh University
Princeton Invite
Men finish sixth, women fifth at Princeton Invite
10/18/2008 4:00:00 PM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country, Cross Country
 |
The top finisher on the women’s side for Lehigh was Alexis Weiner, who crossed the line with a time of 22:45.40. Weiner finished the race in 15th place and was a key reason for the Mountain Hawks’ success in Alejandro’s absence.
“Ultimately, as much as we wanted (Alejandro) to see the course and race against these girls, we decided to keep her out,” women’s cross country head coach Debbie Utesch said. “If it was Patriot League Championships she would have raced.”
Erin Matyus, of
Despite finishing behind Bucknell, Utesch said her team’s performance without its top runner shows the gap is tightening between the Bison and the Mountain Hawks.
“When I looked at the results I noticed that we actually made some progress,’ Utesch said. “Even though that score shows (Bucknell) really clocking us, I think our team is actually moving up on them.”
While Wetzel and Dan McClimon (12th place) finished in the top 15, and Ben Lampi (27th) and Dan DeWitt (33rd) added strong finishes to the men’s team, head coach Todd Etters said he would like to see more of his runners close the gap to the top packs.
“I would have liked to see our 6-12 guys be a little bit more aggressive,” Etters said. “We just have to get a couple of those guys to take some chances and step up and have a great race.”
Lehigh takes two weeks off before returning to action at Goodman Campus for the Patriot League Championship on November 1.
