Lehigh University Athletics
Lehigh University
Lehigh Valley Invite
Lehigh starts outdoor season on right note
3/26/2004 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
Bethlehem, PA – Lehigh hosted the Lehigh Valley Championships on Friday afternoon and for the second consecutive season, the Mountain Hawk men took home the title, while the women came in third place out of the six local schools that were in attendance. The Lehigh men racked up194.75 points for the title and they followed by East Stroudsburg (123.33), Kutztown (122.91), DeSales (85), Muhlenberg (73) and Moravian (58). On the women’s side, Kutztown won the overall championship with 194 points, while East Stroudsburg came in second with 164 points. Lehigh was next with 155 points and the Mountain Hawks were followed by Moravian (71), Muhlenberg (62) and DeSales (37).
Individual winners on the women’s side for Lehigh were Andrea Luebbe in the 1500-meter run as she crossed the finish line in a time of 4:50.66 and she was followed by Tracie Fails, who finished in a time of 4:54.06, to put her in second place. Lindsay Hinsch won both the long jump and the triple jump. Hinsch cleared 5.35 meters in the long jump and posted a leap of 11.01 meters in the triple jump. Lauren Barret looked as though she did not lose a beat, coming off of her NCAA qualifying season of a year ago, as she threw the javelin 43.98 meters to take home first place.
On the men’s side speedster George Evans dashed to a time of 10.81 to win the 100-meter dash. Junior Mark Swanson and senior Todd Scurci came in one-two in the 1500-meter run, as Swanson crossed the finish line in a time of 4:04.12, while Scurci registered a time of 4:04.45. Freshman Victor Vientos had a solid collegiate outdoor debut, as he won the 3,000-meter steeple chase with a time of 9:31.34, nearly 20 seconds more than the next closest competitor.
In the 4x100-meter relay, the team of Evans, Francis Vincent, Aaron Lynn and Lavar Pope won the title with a time of 41.68. Vincent then went to his specialty, the triple jump, and he did not disappoint, winning with a leap of 13.51 meters. Nicholas Maiorino, with a throw of 47.56, won the men’s hammer throw, ousting his next closest competitor by almost 20 feet.
The men's discuss throw and the women's high jump were not completed on Friday due to darkness.
Head Coach Matt Utesch was proud of his team and excited about the event. “This is a great event for the Lehigh Valley to have all of the area schools competing. We love having it here and would like to keep it on our campus for a long time.” Utesch continues, “This was a good first meet for us, the men were able to win the whole thing, while the women did some good things out there today. Now we have to re-group and get ready to compete right away.”
Utesch was not joking around, as Lehigh will now hop on the bus and drive to Happy Valley to compete in the Penn State Invitational on Saturday. That meet is scheduled to begin at 10:00am.
