Knowles and Warning Win Titles as Lehigh Finishes Fifth at Patriot League Championships

Friday, May 6

Lewisburg, Pa.

ALL DAY

Lehigh University

Patriot League Championships

Photo by: Don Paul

Knowles and Warning Win Titles as Lehigh Finishes Fifth at Patriot League Championships

5/7/2016 9:58:00 PM | Men's Track and Field

Complete Results (TFRRS) | Men (HTML)

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Lehigh men's track and field team finished fifth on Saturday as the team wrapped up competition at the Patriot League Championships. Sophomore Trevor Knowles successfully defended his decathlon championship to win the fourth league championship of his career. Knowles set a league championship meet record with his decathlon score of 7,001 points, which is the highest score in the league this season by nearly 1,000 points and currently ranks 13th in the NCAA East Region. The mark also set a new Lehigh school record under the new tables system (since 1984). Junior Lucas Warning took first place in the shot put to claim his first-career Patriot League Championship with a winning heave of 17.37 meters. Warning and Knowles both earned spots on the Patriot League's First Team for capturing their championships, while freshman Ryan Givens earned Second Team honors after his runner-up finish in the long jump on Friday.

"I'm super proud of men's team," said head coach Matt Utesch. "There was a huge gap between 4th and 5th and another one between 6th and 7th. Our guys laid a foundation for next year. They know how we do things and step up to get things done. We scored great points in long jump and triple jump. I was very happy with how our guys did even though they didn't finish as high as we would have wanted them to."

Knowles finished 913 ahead of his next closest competitor in the decathlon, dominating the competition by winning eight of the 10 events, including Saturday's pole vault (4.70m), 1,500 meter run (PR-4:28.49), discus (36.44m) and the 110m hurdles (PR-15.45). 15380

"It's a major accomplishment for Trevor," Utesch said. "It's a huge milestone to go over 7,000 points and he has a lot more in him. Winning by nearly 1,000 points means he could've left an event on the table and still have won."

Warning turned in a winning throw of 17.37m to win his first career league championship and now holds the top three shot puts in the league this outdoor season.

"Warning has his sights set on the second round of the national championships and he is just about crazy enough to do it," Utesch said. "He threw great and still won despite coming back from an injury."

Adeolu Adesida and Givens each scored team points with IC4A qualifying marks in the high jump. Adesida leapt his way onto the podium in third place with a height of 2.05m. Givens finished in fifth place after clearing the two-meter mark for the first time this season (2.02m). Daniel Boardman set a season-high (1.97m) in the event to finish in seventh place.

Daniel Reichenbach earned a podium finish in the triple jump for the second consecutive year with a jump of 14.68 meters. Boardman finished close behind in fifth place after setting a new PR of 14.20m.

Over on the track, Patrick Reilly picked up a team point in the 5K by crossing the line in eighth place overall (14:45.25) out of 27 finishers. Teammate Alexander Fitzgerald finished right behind him in ninth place (PR-14:49.03), followed by Ryan Cooney, Sean Burke and Evan Hardy in spots 11-13.

John Tolbert also grabbed a team point for his eighth place (9:29.75) finish in the 3,000m steeplechase.

Andrew Culkin led the way for Lehigh in eight place of the 400m hurdles, setting a new PR of 55.53 seconds. Tom Troxell finished right on his heels in ninth place with a PR of his own (55.70). Christopher Del Rossi (49.22) and Emre Soybas (PR-49.49) led the team in 11th and 12th places respectively, in the 400 meter dash, while Clay Stabolepszy led the way in 16th place of the 800 meter run (PR-1:55.96).

Kyle Berman cracked the top 10 of the 1,500 meter run to lead Lehigh with his new personal-high mark of 3:59.55.

In the 4x100, Michael Camera, Jake Sabatini, Soybas and Del Rossi met an IC4A qualifying time of 42.15 to finish in fifth place. Lehigh concluded the meet in the 4x400 with a fourth place IC4A finish of 3:16.88 from Soybas, Del Rossi, Clements and Stabolepszy.

Several members of the Mountain Hawks will now compete at next weekend's ECAC/IC4A Championships. The meet will be held at Princeton University from May 13-15. Check back to Lehighsports.com throughout the week for previews leading up to the meet.

2016 Men's Track and Field Final Standings
Team                                     Points
1. Navy                                 263
2. Army West Point         160
3. Boston University       143
4. Bucknell                          125.5
5. Lehigh                              78
6. Lafayette                        28
7. American                        21
8. Holy Cross                      18.5
9. Colgate                            16