Lehigh University Athletics
Lehigh completes the 2007 season
12/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country, Cross Country
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“We knew coming into the season this was going to be a rebuilding year for our men,” said head coach Debbie Utesch. “We only had two runners with top seven experience, so for the experience level we had, I thought we ran as well as we could have.
“On the women’s side, the season was kind of a disappointment. Coming in we thought we could be a top five team but injuries killed us all season. We just didn’t have the depth that we thought we were going to have at the beginning of the year.”
The Mountain Hawks kicked off the season at the Muhlenberg Short Course Meet, an unscored meet with DeSales and Muhlenberg. Lehigh placed seven runners in the top ten in both the men’s and women’s races. Sophomore Kaitlin Grimm paced the women’s race, and freshman Dan McClimon had the top time on the men’s side.
The Brown and White hosted its first meet of the year at the Lehigh Valley Championships. Lehigh cruised by the competition, with both the men’s and women’s team taking the top spot. Shannon Alejandro won her first individual title of the year, while McClimon was once again the top runner for Lehigh, finishing second overall.
Lehigh showed no signs of letting down at its next race, the Lehigh-Lafayette dual. Both the men and women came away with easy victories. The men won 16-47, with McClimon once again leading the pack with a time of 27:13. The Mountain Hawks had 11 of the top 12 finishers in the men’s race and ended just one point shy of achieving the lowest possible score. The women’s race was a little closer, but Lehigh still came away with an easy win, 22-35. The Brown and White had six runners in the top ten, led by Alejandro, winning her second race of the year.
Following the dual, Lehigh returned home to host the 34th Brooks Paul Short Run. While the teams did not finish as high as they would have liked, they still had a strong showing at one of the premiere races in the country. The men’s team placed 21st of 41 teams, and the women finished 32nd of 47 teams. Once again it was Alejandro and McClimon leading their respective squads. Alejandro placed 47th overall, the only Lehigh women’s runner in the top 100, with a time of 21:45. McClimon finished 69th overall, the second best time among Patriot League participants, with a time of 25:36.
The Mountain Hawks ran two more races before the Patriot League Championships, traveling to the Penn State National Invite and the Lafayette Invitational. At
The following day Lehigh headed to
At the Patriot League Championships, the men finished in fifth place and the women finished in sixth place. Wetzel continued his strong running on the men’s side, taking 20th place, with a time of 26:52. Alejandro had one of her best runs of the year, finishing third overall with a time of 21:16. After the race, Alejandro was named to the first team All-Patriot League, marking the eighth straight year that Lehigh has had a woman runner named the first team.
The Mountain Hawks ended the 2007 season hosting the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional. While this year’s teams did not qualify anyone for the NCAA Championship, both squads had put in a good performance. The men finished 12th of 28 teams, with Wetzel claiming the top Lehigh spot again, finishing the 10K race in 31:39. Freshman Alexis Weiner was the top runner on the women’s side for Lehigh, finishing the race in 22:08. The women placed 19th of 28 teams.
“I was disappointed with the result of our women at the regional race,” said Utesch. “Not having Shannon [Alejandro] finish really hurt us.”
Continued Utesch, “Individually we had some new kids have the best season of their careers; however, we just couldn’t get enough of them to the starting line. All season the goal of our men’s team was to beat Bucknell. We didn’t have a frontrunner like them, but we continued to close the gap all year and I’m really looking forward to our chances next season.”
