Lehigh University Athletics
Setting the Bar High: An Inside Look at Lehigh’s High Jumpers
5/4/2016 2:06:00 PM | Men's Track and Field, Track and Field, Women's Track and Field, Student Athlete, Features
By: Tim Geer, Lehigh Sports Media Relations
While most teams have an athlete they can lean on in big moments to come through for the rest of the team, not many have an entire position or event group that is consistently solid top to bottom.
While Lehigh has enjoyed strong success across the board this season, it has been the group of high jumpers that has consistently been the rock and set the tone each weekend.
"That's particularly the case at the Lehigh-Lafayette dual meets," said assistant coach Brooke Astor. "It's always the women's high jump kicking things off and you get those points on the board. We can only score the top two places, but taking 1-2-3 on them is pretty cool and to have a third girl dominating is a good thing."
All it takes is one look at the Patriot League and NCAA East Region rankings to see that the impact goes far beyond one meet. In fact, Lehigh holds at least a share of the top three leaps in the league this season in the women's high jump, and is the only school with five different athletes ranked in the top nine of any event this season. The men have had similar success, being the only school with three in the league's top seven entering this weekend's Patriot League Championships.
"There's definitely a lot of support," said junior Brittany Le Jouan. "It seems especially this year people have gone out of their way to get to know events they don't do themselves."
At January's indoor dual against Lafayette, Le Jouan cleared the bar at 1.70 meters, leading to an eruption of cheers and applause from her teammates gathered around. Those in attendance who didn't immediately know what happened quickly realized that she had just set a new personal record.
"It makes you want to do better when other people know your marks," Le Jouan said. "When one of us PRs we're really happy, but we also want to be up there with that next person. So it's a good competition of support."
"It helps that we have such a good squad of girls," said senior Gabrielle Wardle. "We all make each other better. I don't think any of us would be as good as we are if we weren't as cohesive. Everybody is very competitive but we're also extremely happy when someone does something good."
That comradery has led to consistent and significant success on both the men's and women's sides this season. Junior Courtney Avery currently ranks atop the Patriot League (1.78m), followed by Wardle (1.73m) and Le Jouan (1.67m). Freshman Olivia Reinold ranks tied for sixth (1.60m) and junior Sarah Cassidy is tied for ninth (1.59m), making Lehigh the only school with five athletes ranked in the top nine of any event in the league.
At last weekend's Penn Relays, Avery became the first female in school history and the first athlete since the 1930's to win a Championship of America event at the Penn Relays, tying her season-best high jump of 1.78 meters.
The Mountain Hawks also feature three of the league's top seven men's high jumpers, with grad student Adeolu Adesida currently seeded fourth (2.08m), freshman Ryan Givens (1.99m) is tied for sixth and Daniel Boardman (1.95m) ranks tied for seventh.
"We have been so fortunate to have great kids come through the program who have worked really hard, understand the technique and ultimately just improved to become excellent high jumpers," said head coach Matt Utesch.
The team's close knit core has had an impact from the top all the way down to the bottom. Reinold and Givens have both transitioned well to the collegiate level thanks in part to their fellow high jumpers.
"Coming here, there's a bunch of really good jumpers and it's more of a competitive atmosphere," said Givens, who was one of the only jumpers on his high school team a season ago. "There's always people pushing you and working with Lou and Dan, it's cool coming onto a team where everyone is good and you have guys who are able to give you advice who have jumped at a high level. I've learned a lot more about myself jumping."
Reinold also credits her teammates for helping her make the transition this season.
"The fact that Ellie (Wardle), who is this huge role model and doing well in all her events, is also in my event group; she's a huge leader helping me adapt here," Reinold said. "If I ever have a problem with anything, I can talk to her or Sarah (Cassidy) or the others and they just help me with anything that I need. I'm really lucky to have come in as a multi with these girls."
The opportunity to compete as a multi and not solely in one event is one of the many factors that appealed to members of the team.
"I came in mainly as a high jumper, with the thought of doing multi events," Wardle explained. "Coach Matt mentioned I could test out the heptathlon and pentathlon and see what happens, and if I didn't like it, I would just be a high jumper. It ended up going pretty well, but I love high jump the most. It's my favorite event to PR in and I love studying it and getting better at it."
"I came into college doing a bunch of different events and it was hard to berecruited for just one event," Cassidy said. They wanted me to be a multi and I knew I wanted to be one coming into college. It's kind of rare to be recruited for, but they really value their multis here and Matt (Utesch) drew me in in that aspect."
Entering the league championships, Wardle (4,920 points) ranks tops in the league in the heptathlon, with Cassidy (4,386) placed in the No. 2 spot.
Competing as a multi, some of them feel that it helps them connect with and give them an appreciation for what their teammates who specialize in other events go through on a daily basis.
"I can't imagine just doing one event," Cassidy said. "It's nice to break it up every day because each day we do at least one different event. It means that we get to interact with all the groups on the team and you get a taste of everyone's workouts and get a real appreciation for what they go through."
"There's also a responsibility for us to do work outside of practice because our events are so technical and there's so many of them," Wardle added. "While the coaching happens here, we still have to go back and watch videos and study on our own to really learn every event fully and make sure that we're getting the most out of it."
For Le Jouan, the fact that Lehigh offered a different dynamic is what drew her to Lehigh over other schools.
"Coach Matt being a jumps coach and a head coach really appealed to me because all other programs were usually run by long distance coaches and I thought I would get a lot more attention and really thrive here," Le Jouan said.
Lehigh's outstanding academic reputation certainly doesn't hurt either.Being from the Philadelphia area, Adesida knew about Lehigh's strong academic and athletic standing and knew he'd be happy even if he wasn't competing. After deciding between different schools for basketball and track, he knew Lehigh was the right choice.
"It basically just came down to a school where I could go to and not compete, and still know that I'm going to achieve what I wanted to achieve academically," Adesida said."I had to look past the sports because every program pretty much offered just about the same thing (athletically), but not everyone offered the same thing academically."
So far, he has achieved both on and off the field. A three-time indoor and 2014 outdoor champion in the high jump, Adesida is the program's indoor (2.18m) and outdoor (2.14m) record holder and has competed on a national level, most recently as one of 11 competitors in the High Jump Championship of America at last weekend's Penn Relays, where he finished tied for fifth. He was also one of 18 qualifiers in March at the USATF Indoor Championships. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in accounting from Lehigh.
"There's room for everyone to contribute on this team," Adesida said. "I had the outdoor (school) record and had been to nationals as a sophomore. I showed that you can be a freshman and still do big things. It obviously takes hard work, but it's not the most unattainable goal. It's reachable."
That belief has even translated into a saying the team has had in recent years.
"The point of the saying was, 'I'm me, and he's him…what makes me that much better than him? If he can do it, I can as well,'" Adesida said.
Leadership by example and knowing what buttons to push, along with a little friendly competition certainly plays a part in the atmosphere of practices.
"I definitely try and lead by example," Avery said. "I'm always trying to do the right thing and hope others will follow."
"I think we all push each other," Adesida said. "You can see with the girls, they're one-two-three, they're always pushing each other and that's what gets us going on the men's side. I see their success and how they're pushing each other and I know that I have to compete and keep that level of intensity up that they have on their side."
"I think the high jump group as a whole has definitely been progressing and making necessary changes," Avery said on how the program has evolved since her freshman year. "We all work really well together. We know what we can say to one another to help them figure things out."
Their coaches agree.
"The group we have right now is enjoying excellent success because they work super hard and coach each other," Utesch said. "It's a clear example of iron sharpening iron."
Even former teammates still have an impact on the current squad's daily approach. This includes 2015 All-American Ryan Mahalsky and current assistant, Astor.
"Even just seeing guys like Mahalsky and seeing him compete at a national level," Adesida said. "I see the success that people like him have had and I want to be that guy at that level."
"While she was here, she was always the benchmark for me to reach up to," Wardle said of Astor, her former teammate and current coach, who owns the school's heptathlon record. "It was always, 'I'll do as best I can to come second to Brooke.' I'm always thinking of new ways to get to that score (5,324), but I think I can do it."
Moving forward, Lehigh hopes to send as many athletes as possible to the first round of NCAAs. Avery currently ranks 14th in the region and Wardle sits in a tie for 49th, with the top 48 in the region qualifying for the First Round. Both teams are also focused on bringing home the first Patriot League track title in school history, with the high jumpers and multis playing a large role in that effort.
Utesch is hopeful that the group can help lead the team and duplicate the same kind of performances they have seen in the past.
"For many, the PLC is the culmination of their season, but for some of our high jumpers it will be the next step," Utesch said. "We get to move on to the first round of national championships and hopefully send a couple of kids to the final round and have a great shot to be All-Americans, which is something that our program has rarely seen."
While most teams have an athlete they can lean on in big moments to come through for the rest of the team, not many have an entire position or event group that is consistently solid top to bottom.
While Lehigh has enjoyed strong success across the board this season, it has been the group of high jumpers that has consistently been the rock and set the tone each weekend.
"That's particularly the case at the Lehigh-Lafayette dual meets," said assistant coach Brooke Astor. "It's always the women's high jump kicking things off and you get those points on the board. We can only score the top two places, but taking 1-2-3 on them is pretty cool and to have a third girl dominating is a good thing."
All it takes is one look at the Patriot League and NCAA East Region rankings to see that the impact goes far beyond one meet. In fact, Lehigh holds at least a share of the top three leaps in the league this season in the women's high jump, and is the only school with five different athletes ranked in the top nine of any event this season. The men have had similar success, being the only school with three in the league's top seven entering this weekend's Patriot League Championships.
"There's definitely a lot of support," said junior Brittany Le Jouan. "It seems especially this year people have gone out of their way to get to know events they don't do themselves."
At January's indoor dual against Lafayette, Le Jouan cleared the bar at 1.70 meters, leading to an eruption of cheers and applause from her teammates gathered around. Those in attendance who didn't immediately know what happened quickly realized that she had just set a new personal record.
"It makes you want to do better when other people know your marks," Le Jouan said. "When one of us PRs we're really happy, but we also want to be up there with that next person. So it's a good competition of support."
"It helps that we have such a good squad of girls," said senior Gabrielle Wardle. "We all make each other better. I don't think any of us would be as good as we are if we weren't as cohesive. Everybody is very competitive but we're also extremely happy when someone does something good."
That comradery has led to consistent and significant success on both the men's and women's sides this season. Junior Courtney Avery currently ranks atop the Patriot League (1.78m), followed by Wardle (1.73m) and Le Jouan (1.67m). Freshman Olivia Reinold ranks tied for sixth (1.60m) and junior Sarah Cassidy is tied for ninth (1.59m), making Lehigh the only school with five athletes ranked in the top nine of any event in the league.
At last weekend's Penn Relays, Avery became the first female in school history and the first athlete since the 1930's to win a Championship of America event at the Penn Relays, tying her season-best high jump of 1.78 meters.
The Mountain Hawks also feature three of the league's top seven men's high jumpers, with grad student Adeolu Adesida currently seeded fourth (2.08m), freshman Ryan Givens (1.99m) is tied for sixth and Daniel Boardman (1.95m) ranks tied for seventh.
"We have been so fortunate to have great kids come through the program who have worked really hard, understand the technique and ultimately just improved to become excellent high jumpers," said head coach Matt Utesch.
The team's close knit core has had an impact from the top all the way down to the bottom. Reinold and Givens have both transitioned well to the collegiate level thanks in part to their fellow high jumpers.
"Coming here, there's a bunch of really good jumpers and it's more of a competitive atmosphere," said Givens, who was one of the only jumpers on his high school team a season ago. "There's always people pushing you and working with Lou and Dan, it's cool coming onto a team where everyone is good and you have guys who are able to give you advice who have jumped at a high level. I've learned a lot more about myself jumping."
Reinold also credits her teammates for helping her make the transition this season.
"The fact that Ellie (Wardle), who is this huge role model and doing well in all her events, is also in my event group; she's a huge leader helping me adapt here," Reinold said. "If I ever have a problem with anything, I can talk to her or Sarah (Cassidy) or the others and they just help me with anything that I need. I'm really lucky to have come in as a multi with these girls."
The opportunity to compete as a multi and not solely in one event is one of the many factors that appealed to members of the team.
"I came in mainly as a high jumper, with the thought of doing multi events," Wardle explained. "Coach Matt mentioned I could test out the heptathlon and pentathlon and see what happens, and if I didn't like it, I would just be a high jumper. It ended up going pretty well, but I love high jump the most. It's my favorite event to PR in and I love studying it and getting better at it."
"I came into college doing a bunch of different events and it was hard to berecruited for just one event," Cassidy said. They wanted me to be a multi and I knew I wanted to be one coming into college. It's kind of rare to be recruited for, but they really value their multis here and Matt (Utesch) drew me in in that aspect."
Entering the league championships, Wardle (4,920 points) ranks tops in the league in the heptathlon, with Cassidy (4,386) placed in the No. 2 spot.
Competing as a multi, some of them feel that it helps them connect with and give them an appreciation for what their teammates who specialize in other events go through on a daily basis.
"I can't imagine just doing one event," Cassidy said. "It's nice to break it up every day because each day we do at least one different event. It means that we get to interact with all the groups on the team and you get a taste of everyone's workouts and get a real appreciation for what they go through."
"There's also a responsibility for us to do work outside of practice because our events are so technical and there's so many of them," Wardle added. "While the coaching happens here, we still have to go back and watch videos and study on our own to really learn every event fully and make sure that we're getting the most out of it."
For Le Jouan, the fact that Lehigh offered a different dynamic is what drew her to Lehigh over other schools.
"Coach Matt being a jumps coach and a head coach really appealed to me because all other programs were usually run by long distance coaches and I thought I would get a lot more attention and really thrive here," Le Jouan said.
Lehigh's outstanding academic reputation certainly doesn't hurt either.Being from the Philadelphia area, Adesida knew about Lehigh's strong academic and athletic standing and knew he'd be happy even if he wasn't competing. After deciding between different schools for basketball and track, he knew Lehigh was the right choice.
"It basically just came down to a school where I could go to and not compete, and still know that I'm going to achieve what I wanted to achieve academically," Adesida said."I had to look past the sports because every program pretty much offered just about the same thing (athletically), but not everyone offered the same thing academically."
So far, he has achieved both on and off the field. A three-time indoor and 2014 outdoor champion in the high jump, Adesida is the program's indoor (2.18m) and outdoor (2.14m) record holder and has competed on a national level, most recently as one of 11 competitors in the High Jump Championship of America at last weekend's Penn Relays, where he finished tied for fifth. He was also one of 18 qualifiers in March at the USATF Indoor Championships. He is currently pursuing a master's degree in accounting from Lehigh.
"There's room for everyone to contribute on this team," Adesida said. "I had the outdoor (school) record and had been to nationals as a sophomore. I showed that you can be a freshman and still do big things. It obviously takes hard work, but it's not the most unattainable goal. It's reachable."
That belief has even translated into a saying the team has had in recent years.
"The point of the saying was, 'I'm me, and he's him…what makes me that much better than him? If he can do it, I can as well,'" Adesida said.
Leadership by example and knowing what buttons to push, along with a little friendly competition certainly plays a part in the atmosphere of practices.
"I definitely try and lead by example," Avery said. "I'm always trying to do the right thing and hope others will follow."
"I think we all push each other," Adesida said. "You can see with the girls, they're one-two-three, they're always pushing each other and that's what gets us going on the men's side. I see their success and how they're pushing each other and I know that I have to compete and keep that level of intensity up that they have on their side."
"I think the high jump group as a whole has definitely been progressing and making necessary changes," Avery said on how the program has evolved since her freshman year. "We all work really well together. We know what we can say to one another to help them figure things out."
Their coaches agree.
"The group we have right now is enjoying excellent success because they work super hard and coach each other," Utesch said. "It's a clear example of iron sharpening iron."
Even former teammates still have an impact on the current squad's daily approach. This includes 2015 All-American Ryan Mahalsky and current assistant, Astor.
"Even just seeing guys like Mahalsky and seeing him compete at a national level," Adesida said. "I see the success that people like him have had and I want to be that guy at that level."
"While she was here, she was always the benchmark for me to reach up to," Wardle said of Astor, her former teammate and current coach, who owns the school's heptathlon record. "It was always, 'I'll do as best I can to come second to Brooke.' I'm always thinking of new ways to get to that score (5,324), but I think I can do it."
Moving forward, Lehigh hopes to send as many athletes as possible to the first round of NCAAs. Avery currently ranks 14th in the region and Wardle sits in a tie for 49th, with the top 48 in the region qualifying for the First Round. Both teams are also focused on bringing home the first Patriot League track title in school history, with the high jumpers and multis playing a large role in that effort.
Utesch is hopeful that the group can help lead the team and duplicate the same kind of performances they have seen in the past.
"For many, the PLC is the culmination of their season, but for some of our high jumpers it will be the next step," Utesch said. "We get to move on to the first round of national championships and hopefully send a couple of kids to the final round and have a great shot to be All-Americans, which is something that our program has rarely seen."
Players Mentioned
Jumps
/ Men's Track and Field
Jumps
/ Women's Track and Field
Jumps
/ Men's Track and Field
Multis
/ Women's Track and Field
Jumps/Hurdles
/ Men's Track and Field
Jumps
/ Women's Track and Field
Distance
/ Men's Track and Field
Multis/Jumps
/ Women's Track and Field
Multi/Jumps
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