Lehigh University
ECAC/IC4A Championships
LU wraps up memorable weekend; 5 moving on
5/18/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
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“I really like the way we qualified for Regionals,” Lehigh head coach Matt Utesch said afterwards. “When you qualify as a conference qualifier, you put yourself in a position to qualify for Nationals and after the performances of Khalil (Uqdah) Scott and James we have three young men who are in very good shape to make a run at Nationals.”
On the men’s side, Pachucki threw the javelin 203’5” to finish third overall and qualify for the NCAA Regional. The throw was a personal best and defeated competitors from
Also in the men’s competition, sophomore Franklin Johnson competed in the triple jump and posted a leap of 46’6” to finish 19th, while classmate Nick Ray finished 21st in the shot put with a toss of 47’8”.
The women’s 4x800-meter relay team consisting of Kim Scotto, Shannon Alejandro, Jen Therkorn and Sarah Serwo, finished fourth in very difficult conditions in a time of 9:01.90. It was the best outdoor finish ever placing the Brown and White behind only
“That team has just been super all year long,” Utesch commented. “That is a high performance event they’re in and they did a great job against some very tough competition.”
In all, Lehigh set four school records throughout the course of the weekend as Alejandro established the best time in the 1500, Serwo broke her own mark in the 800, Robinson broke a 20-year old record in the 400-hurdles and sophomore Khalil Uqdah set the school record and became an IC4A Champion in the pole vault on Saturday.
“For Shannon and Sarah to shave one whole second off of each of their times at this stage of the season is a tremendous accomplishment and says so much about what they’re about,” Utesch explained. “When you start running the times they’re running, you’re doing something impressive.”
He added, “I knew Khalil could jump that high to win it, but knowing you can do it and actually going out and doing it are two different things,” Utesch said. “But that said, Khalil got the job done and it goes without saying that this is a milestone win for our program in an event that is 130 years old and a milestone for me as a coach.”
Utesch concluded with his comments on the fact that every Regional qualifier will be back in the Brown and White in 2009. “We left it all out there this weekend as a team. We left it on the track and every single one of these kids (NCAA Regional qualifiers) is coming back (next year).”
Lehigh’s five NCAA Regional qualifiers (Alejandro, Serwo, Pachucki, Robinson, Uqdah) will return to the track on May 30 when they head to
