Henderson Sets School Record as Lehigh Competes in Trio of Meets

Friday, April 21

Princeton, N.J.

ALL DAY

Lehigh University

Larry Ellis Invitational

Photo by: Don Paul

Henderson Sets School Record as Lehigh Competes in Trio of Meets

4/22/2017 8:45:00 PM | Women's Track and Field

Complete Results

PRINCETON, N.J. – Sophomore Maura Henderson broke the Lehigh program record in the 3,000 meter steeplechase on Friday night, highlighting a three-meet weekend for the Lehigh women's track and field team. Henderson finished sixth overall in the steeplechase at the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton, with her time of 10:18.68 shattering the previous benchmark of 10:38.29, set by Lucinda Hull in 2002. The time currently ranks atop the Patriot League by over 21 seconds, the 14th fastest time among NCAA East Region qualifiers and 32nd overall nationally. She now has six school records to her credit on the indoor and outdoor tracks.

"She did that in her first steeple of the year," said head coach Matt Utesch. "She PR-ed by over 40 seconds. It was just a remarkable performance there."

At the Virginia Challenge at UVA, senior Courtney Avery tied her own school high jump record for the second straight weekend, finishing third overall in the meet's high jump invite with a 1.80-meter leap, matching the highest mark in the Patriot League this season.

Fellow senior Sarah Cassidy competed in the heptathlon, finishing in eighth place with 4,864 points, marking the only heptathlon score over 4,000 points in the Patriot League this season. Cassidy highlighted the multi by winning the javelin (38.83m), taking third place (11.85m) in the shot put, and setting PRs in the 100m hurdles (15.40), 200m dash (26.91) and the long jump (5.37m).

"She just had a really great multi and put it together," Utesch said. "It puts her at the top of the Patriot League. She finished eighth in a star-studded field, one of whom has the potential to be a national champion."

Lehigh also sent senior Natalie Jacobs and freshman Jenn Mickens to the All-American Meet at East Stroudsburg University, where Mickens raced her way to a first place performance in the 800m run, besting the large field of 58 competitors in 2:18.20. Jacobs landed on the podium twice with a runner-up showing in the 100m hurdles (14.66) and a third place performance in the 400m hurdles (1:06.34).

Elsewhere at Princeton, freshman Brooke Schaeffer placed 19th in the 400m dash (58.28), sophomore Clare Severe set a new personal record with her 800m Elite time of 2:13.74 and senior Hanna Brosky placed 11th (2:15.01) in the 800m Division 2 race. Senior Brenna Clark also set a PR and hit an ECAC qualifying mark of 4:32.00 to take 21st overall in the 1500m.

Freshman Ashleigh Crawford notched a third place finish of 10:05.40 to land on the podium in the 3K, Stephanie Hayes also landed in the top 10 in seventh place (10:13.97) and Stacie Nadel set a new PR with her ninth place time (10:14.90). On Friday night in the 5K, freshman Hannah Bonaguidi represented Lehigh in 26th place (17:26.09) of the 5K. In the hurdles, senior Katie Hatler placed third with her fastest time of the outdoor season (14.07).

In the field events, senior Melody Walthers cracked the top 10 with a ninth place (39.94m) finish in the javelin, with Hannah Patrick (11th/39.12m) and Meghan Reilly (13th/37.84m) also competing. Senior Courtney Wu led the team with a season-best 11.23m leap in the triple jump.

The Mountain Hawks will have select athletes competing this coming week at the Penn Relays, before hosting the Lehigh Games next Saturday at the Goodman Campus.

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