Women’s Track and Field Excited to kick off 2017-18 Season

Friday, December 1

Bethlehem, Pa.

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Lehigh University

Lehigh Season Opener

Photo by: Don Paul

Women’s Track and Field Excited to kick off 2017-18 Season

11/30/2017 7:03:00 PM | Women's Track and Field

Lehigh Season Opener: Meet Information | Live Results

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – After a summer and fall of offseason training, the Lehigh women's track and field program will kick off the indoor portion of its 2017-18 schedule this Friday afternoon at Rauch Fieldhouse. A lot has happened within the program since the end of last indoor season, including two All-Americans (one male, one female) during the outdoor season and a major facelift and new building at the outdoor track on the Goodman Campus.

"Practice is going extremely well," head coach Matt Utesch said. "Most of the time, I have an attitude about the freshman that is 'wait and see,' and I still have that attitude except they are better than I thought they were. We've always had a good culture in our program, but they're stepping it up a notch. I think the freshman have a view of what the team should be like, and it's really exciting to see them coming in and making an impact on our culture immediately.

"The women's team overall is very exciting," Utesch said. "They're young and returning. It's a strange combination to have some really great talent and leadership, and have a freshman group that's coming in and pushing paces and work ethics. We have some really good culture, and personnel and I'm excited to see where that takes us."

One area where Lehigh looks to be strong once again is in the jumps. Last year, the Mountain Hawks placed four high jumpers in the top five of the indoor league championships, and six of the top eight spots during outdoors, including juniors Tyler Bannister and Olivia Reinold, and sophomores Jordan Otto and Alexis Wintle. Despite losing graduated seniors like Brittany le Jouan and All-American Courtney Avery, Lehigh is deep in the jumps and will also add several newcomers to this year's group.

"A lot of those high jump girls are back, so they're excited about possibly running the table once again in that event," Utesch said.

Over in the throws, seniors Amanda Youngblood and Paige Grossman return a great deal of experience. Youngblood took third both the indoor and outdoor shot put at Patriots last year, placed fourth in the indoor weight throw and runner-up in the discus outdoors at the PL Championships. Freshman Brittany Curtin will be among the newcomers expected to also be a factor in the throws.

"Amanda Youngblood is going to be a force to be reckoned with," Utesch said. "She's been a great performer for us and has been on the podium many times, but not at the top spot. She's angry and ready to come back and take out her frustrations for not being on the top spot on the rest of the league. She's backed up by Paige Grossman who you can expect to see on the podium this year as well."

Junior Kaitlyn Toman returns as the school record holder in the pole vault, where she will join forces with incoming freshman Madisyn Hawkins.

On the track, junior Maura Henderson is the team's lone returning Patriot League champion from last season, when she captured the indoor and outdoor 5K crowns, and set a school and PL record in the steeplechase (outdoor). Senior Laura Barnes finished third in the 1500m run at May's outdoor PL Championships and sophomore Ashleigh Crawford also finished in third in the steeplechase. Barnes is also one of the returners from last year's DMR team that finished third, along with Rachel Okun and Clare Severe.

In the sprints, a large contingent of returners will have a major impact including Bannister, (Djenne) Liyala Dickens, junior Noreen Byrne and seniors Amanda Fischer and Hanna Brosky.

"I hope we put it all together on the right day," Utesch said. "Like you saw this year in cross county, we've had excellent performances, we just have to put everyone's excellent performance together on the same day. We need to put those performances together so we show up as a complete team and score everywhere we can, and I think we'll have great results if that happens."

The Lehigh Season Opener is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. with the field events, followed by the track events at 6:30, beginning with the men's 60m hurdles. Complete results will be posted on Lehighsports.com following the meet and live results will be available at mitchelltiming.com.

Competing Teams:
Alvernia, Cheyney, Delaware Valley, Gwynedd Mercy, Lehigh, Moravian, Muhlenberg, Penn, Rider, Rowan and West Chester

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