Lehigh University Athletics
Lehigh set to take on Lafayette in dual meet Saturday
4/6/2012 4:41:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh men's and women's track and field teams are set to visit Lafayette this Saturday to faceoff in a dual meet with action getting underway at 12:00 p.m. Lehigh swept the indoor dual meet with Lafayette in January as the Mountain Hawks haven't lost to the Leopards in outdoor or indoor competition since April 2010.
“We are hoping for more success this weekend,” said head coach Matt Utesch. “We not only want to step up and do something historic, but we just want to beat our rival.”
On the women's side, Lehigh is coming off a first place finish at the Lafayette 7 Way last Saturday as the Mountain Hawks edged the Leopards by just two points. Lehigh was led by sophomore Rebecca Duhamel, who took first place in both the shot put and discus throw. Her 13.07 shot put throw was just outside the ECAC qualifying mark, while her discus throw missed qualification standards by just .03m.
Senior Alexandra Doersam and junior Julia Perry also captured first-place finishes for Lehigh, as Doersam took first in the long jump and Perry finished first in the 800m run, an event that saw Mountain Hawk runners take four of the top five spots. As a team, the Mountain Hawks had a strong showing on the day, capturing many second and third places finishes as well.
“During the indoor meet, we won every event on the track so it would be nice to do that again,” Utesch said. “We have a few places where we can go 1-2. When I look down our entries, I think we have a very good shot at winning every event so that's what we want to try to do.”
On the men's side, junior Christopher Buck and senior Alexander Mauer led the Mountain Hawks to a fourth place finish at the Lafayette 7 Way as they each snagged a first and second place finish. Buck won the hammer throw with a distance of 47.75m, and also placed second in the shot put. Mauer took first place in the long jump with a distance of 6.66m, and finished second overall in the high jump as well.
Sophomore Martin Otieno won his section of the 100m dash, while Robert Hugin also captured his section of the 400m hurdles. The men also captured several second place finishes, and added more top-five finishes on the day. “Our throws are going to be huge,” Utesch said. “We are looking to get a quarter of our total points from our throwers. The hammer, shot put and discus are all super important so our hope is to go 1-2 and complete an 8-3 sweep on points and that's a big gap to overcome. Those throws are going to be really important for us.”
During the indoor meet, the women's team won 109.6-71.5 as the Mountain Hawks took first in all 10 track events as well as three field events.
The men's team won 97-84 despite finishing first in just seven of 16 total events as the Mountain Hawks used their depth in the track and field events to rack up many second and third place finishes.
“The momentum that we generated indoor, we will start to see that momentum during this meet and into the weekends to follow,” Utesch said. “We have had some good performances outdoor and I think we hit our stride this weekend and everything starts to get faster and better. From this weekend on is where we will really start to see things happen. It's time now to ratchet it up and our training will follow that.”
While Lehigh battles Lafayette in Easton, the Mountain Hawks will send a pair of runners west as seniors Katherine Pierce and Evans Kosgei will compete in the Stanford Invite.
Pierce will compete in the 10,000-meter race Saturday at 1:06 a.m. eastern time.
“There are only a few meets in the country where 10,000-meter runs are going to run fast times,” Utesch said. “At the Patriot League Championships, we can't run fast times because we need her to come back and run other races. In this race, she can concentrate on just this and run her best and give it everything. About 40 percent of all National Qualifiers came out of this meet so we are hoping she will get pulled into a fast time and qualify for Nationals.”
Kosgei will be running the 5,000-meter race Friday at 2:10 p.m. eastern time.
“It's hard to find talent as good as Evans so we want to take him somewhere he can excel,” Utesch said. “So we are hoping he will go out there and put up a fast time and qualify for Nationals as well.”
Live vide of the the races from Stanford are available: www.flotrack.com.
Live vide of the the races from Stanford are available: www.flotrack.com.
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