Women's Track and Field Enters Indoor Season with High Hopes

Friday, December 4

Rauch Fieldhouse

5PM | ALL DAY

Lehigh University

Fast Times Meet

Women's Track and Field Enters Indoor Season with High Hopes

12/3/2015 4:37:00 PM | Women's Track and Field

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - The Lehigh women's track and field team will begin its quest for a Patriot League championship when it begins the indoor portion of its 2015-16 schedule this weekend. The Mountain Hawks will host its annual Fast Times Before Finals meet on Friday and Saturday at Rauch Fieldhouse.

Last season, Lehigh finished third at the Patriot League Indoor Championships, capturing three individual titles. The Brown and White return one Patriot League indoor champion to this year's squad as well as a number of key contributors and high-profile freshman that 18th year head coach Matt Utesch has high hopes for.

"Great group of women we have this year," Utesch said. "Gabrielle Wardle was the Field Athlete of the Meet at the indoor championships, finished second in the pentathlon and scored in the long jump and high jump as well (last year). I think she's gonna play a big role in our team's success because she can score in so many events."

"We started out where volume was a little lower and intensity was high, and then we increased volume, so we built a lot of strength so I think we're really ready to do some big things to start the season this week," Wardle said.

Courtney Avery returns for her junior season after capturing the Patriot League Championship in the high jump in each of her first two indoor seasons, as well as at the outdoor championships last spring. She led the Mountain Hawks in a sweep of the high jump last year, as Wardle placed second and junior Brittany Le Jouan came in third.

"We'll hopefully get Elizabeth Weiler back who was an All-American from cross country last year and she'll be a big impact person," Utesch said. "We're super deep in a bunch of events so I'm very optimistic about our indoor season for the women."

Last season, Weiler set a pair of program records in the 3,000 meter (9:45.18) and 5,000 meter (16:55.56) runs.

Three Lehigh runners earned All-East honors at the ECAC Championships last season, including Avery in the high jump, along with Wardle and departed senior Natalie Bates in the pentathlon.

"We have a bunch of young women who are going to be really impactful," Utesh said. "Noreen Byrne is a 400 hurdler and triple jumper. Kaitlyn Toman was a Pennsylvania state champion in the vault and her personal best is higher than last year's Patriot League indoor champion so we're hoping for a huge impact right off the bat.

"We have a couple of distance girls that I hope will help us and a couple of sprinters who are coming out too. I'm excited we're very deep and our middle distances are strong, our multis are strong, our jumps are great so I'm excited," Utesh added.

Current junior Katie Hatler was last year's indoor runner-up in the 60 meter hurdles, which earned her second team All-League honors. Sophomore Rachel Okun placed sixth at last year's PLC in the 500 meter dash, and Tyler Scanlin placed third in the 800 meter run.

"I expect Tyler Bannister and Olivia Reinhold to do big things in the multi," Wardle said. "We have our first multi this week and that's our only one until Patriot League Championships, so it's a really big chance for them to prove themselves."

"We're very fortunate where we get to train almost the first semester and we get to have this one meet before we go into finals," Utesch concluded. "It's a good interruption in training and gives us a good barometer of where the team is going to be."

The Fast Times Meet gets underway at 5 p.m. on Friday afternoon and resumes on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. Field events are slated for a 10 a.m. start and track events will begin at noon. Complete meet information can be found here. Fans can also follow all the action with live results.