Lehigh Ties Two School Records in Busy Saturday on the Track

Thursday, April 13

Kutztown, Pa.

All Day

Lehigh University

Mondschein Multi

Photo by: Don Paul

Lehigh Ties Two School Records in Busy Saturday on the Track

4/15/2017 9:58:00 PM | Women's Track and Field

Bison Outdoor Classic: TFRRS
Greyhound Invitational: HTML
Mondschein Multi: HTML

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Senior Courtney Avery and sophomore Kaitlyn Toman both tied school records on Saturday at the Greyhound Invitational at Moravian College. Avery matched her own school benchmark by winning the high jump, setting a season-high at 1.80 meters. Toman placed runner-up in the pole vault, tying the school's outdoor record of 3.65 meters. The mark ties her personal-best, which she set earlier this season when she broke the school's indoor record. Avery's high jump is the highest leap in the Patriot League this season and Toman's vault currently ranks second in the league. Lehigh also had athletes competing at the Mondschein Multi, and the Bison Outdoor Classic where the team finished eighth overall among Division I schools, and sophomore Maura Henderson came within one second of the school's 1500m record.

"I am very impressed with our team this weekend," said head coach Matt Utesch. "It's very difficult to split the team up over three meets and expect the kind of results we achieved, especially coming off last weekend's dual meet. Both the men and women's teams had success on the track and in the field."

Greyhound Invitational
At Moravian, Avery led a field filled with Lehigh high jumpers, with senior Brittany Le Jouan (1.60m) finishing third overall. Senior Sarah Cassidy placed sixth, also clearing the bar at 1.60m, and freshman Jordan Otto placed ninth overall at 1.55m.

Senior Kiana Wright captured a runner-up finish in the long jump by flying 5.36m. Cassidy placed 10th and freshman Jordan Otto (4.77m) finished 15th to set a new PR by one centimeter. Over in the triple jump, Courtney Wu took a fifth place finish at 10.82m, placing three spots ahead of Wright who leapt 10.68m.

Elsewhere in the field events, Sarah Cassidy (11.80m) took eighth place in the shot put. In the javelin, Melody Walthers (39.25m) led the team in fifth place, with Meghan Reilly (38.30m) not far behind in seventh.

Kristen Lavallee (1:00.58) rounded out the top-10 in the 400m dash. In the 800m run, freshman Sophie Antonioli took runner-up out of 31 finishers, finishing just over a half-second out of first place in 2:19.68. Tyler Scanlin also raced in the event and finished sixth overall in 2:21.52. Freshman Sydney Brannon (4:57.03) PR-ed in seventh place of the 1500m run, and Jennifer Burke (19:15.11) led the way in sixth place of the 5K.

Bison Outdoor Classic
At Bucknell, senior Kaitlyn Ruffing led the Mountain Hawks in both the 200m (26.69m) and 400m (58.68m) dashes. In the 800m run, senior Marissa Karl (2:13.48) came three hundredths away from her PR with her 16th place finish in the 800m run, while freshman Brooke Schaeffer (2:14.38) set a new PR with her 20th place finish in the event which had 109 finishers.

Henderson came within 0.7 seconds of the school benchmark in the Invite 1500m run, where she crossed the line in 4:29.32, setting a new personal-best and finishing 14th out of 62 runners. Senior Brenna Clark (4:32.62) set a PR in 21st place, followed by Karl (4:34.89) in 31st and freshman Hannah Bonaguidi (PR-4:35.75) in 34th.

Freshman Jenn Mickens PR-ed in the unseeded 1500m, finishing 8th out of 80 overall and was the highest-placing freshman in 4:44.88. Senior Amanda Ruschel (18:15.63) bested her PR by over 25 seconds in the 5K. Katie Hatler (14.49) led the way for Lehigh in the 100m hurdles, rounding out the top five. Lehigh earned another fifth place tally from sophomore Noreen Byrne (1:03.11) in the 400m hurdles.

All three Lehigh runners in the 3,000m steeplechase PR-ed in strong showings, with freshman Ashleigh Crawford (10:50.22) leading the way in ninth, followed by Stacie Nadel (14th/10:54.97) and Stephanie Hayes (22nd/11:18.03).

In the throws, freshman Hannah Patrick topped her PR by nearly five meters to land on the podium in third place overall with a throw of 44.44 meters, a mark that pushes her into the top three this season in the Patriot League. Senior Melody Walthers also placed eighth in the event, placing high in the field that had 31 competitors.

Senior Amanda Youngblood placed fifth out of 36 in the shot put, at 13.45m, and also took home sixth place in the discus (44.38), falling just short of a new PR. In the hammer, Youngblood did mange to set a new PR with her heave of 46.81m.

Mondschein Multi
On Thursday and Friday, Lehigh was represented by three competitors in the heptathlon at the Mondschein Multi at Kutztown University. Sophomore Tyler Bannister placed seventh overall with a final score of 3,958 points. Freshman Cate Shippee placed 19th overall (3,071 points) and classmate Monica McGavin took 21st (2,844 points). Bannister highlighted the event by winning the high jump and setting a new meet record at 1.66 meters. She also set a new PR of 16.03 in the 100m hurdles and the javelin at 28.67m.

Next up, Lehigh will take part in two meets next weekend, including the Virginia Challenge and the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton.

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