Lehigh University Athletics
Mountain Hawks ready to open things up outdoors
3/24/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field, Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
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BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The weather is getting warmer and the Lehigh track and field teams are ready to head outside and open up their 2010 outdoor season. Several members of the teams will open up the season Thursday in Rock Hill, S.C. at the ASICS Winthrop Invite, while the rest of the student-athletes will stay at home to compete in the Lafayette Invitational on Saturday.
The Mountain Hawks are coming off a successful indoor season that concluded with 10 student-athletes earning All-Patriot League status. The Brown and White had three Patriot League Champions and they were senior Khalil Uqdah (pole vault), senior Nick Ray (shot put) and junior Charrell Mack (long jump).
Head track and field coach Matt Utesch gave his thoughts on where the teams stand heading into the outdoor season. “I’m a little disappointed with our preseason ranking for both teams," he commented. "The men’s team underperformed a little at the Patriot League Championship and they're excited to get back out there and show what they can do.”
Utesch continued talking about the women’s team, “The women’s preseason ranking (fourth) shows that after their strong showing at the Patriot League Championship they still have to earn some respect. It’s early in the outdoor season and both teams are going through heavy training, but we expect some good marks this weekend.”
After training and competing indoors for the past few months the move outside has both positives and negatives.
“Weather conditions become a big factor with the move outdoors,” Utesch said. “A positive is that everyone will run on a 400 meter track, which will allow us to get a better idea of what everyone’s capable of. We do have the indoor season under our belts and I expect our younger athletes to be able to step up. On the women’s side we had some freshmen earn All-League honors and I expect them to be even more improved after getting an idea of what it takes to compete at this level.”
The Winthrop Invite will begin at 2:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon with the heptathlon and will go until Saturday. Saturday’s action at the Lafayette Invitational will get underway at 11:00 a.m. Check back to Lehighsports.com for full results and recaps of this weekend’s action.
