Friday, September 1
Bethlehem, Pa.
6:15 p.m.
Lehigh University
vs
Lehigh Invitational
Photo by: Don Paul
Season Preview: Women’s Cross Country Carries High Hopes into 2017
8/30/2017 6:13:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
View 2016 Results Packet
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – As the 2017 cross country season officially gets underway this week, the Lehigh women's cross country team plans to be a force to reckon with. The first piece of the 2017 season will fall into place this Friday as the Mountain Hawks host the Lehigh Invitational.
"It's been feeling a lot more like October than August weather, so that should be good getting us ready for the end of the season," said head coach Debbie Utesch. "It's been great trying to figure out the personality of the team, how this year's group is going to start coming together and where we may be able to go as a program."
The Mountain Hawks enter 2017 with high hopes and the potential for another strong campaign after placing second at last year's Patriot League Championships. Lehigh also finished last season at No. 11 in the USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic regional poll, but have risen to eighth in this year's preseason rankings. The No. 8 slot is the highest-ranking Patriot League team in the Mid-Atlantic region, one spot ahead of two-time defending league champion, Bucknell. The team has two returning seniors in Laura Barnes and Jennifer Burke, along with a strong crop of underclassmen who shined throughout last year in both cross country and track.
"We have a couple great leaders in Laura Barnes and Jen Burke as our two seniors, but they do have a big group of underclassmen to lead," Utesch said. "They're in different places in their training right now as we get ready for these first couple of meets. You're not going to see all of our faces early in the season, but they'll show up sometime later in September."
Lehigh returns six letterwinners from last season, including reigning first team all-league honoree Maura Henderson, who finished fifth overall at last fall's Patriot League Championships, before capturing three league titles between indoor and outdoor track, and an NCAA First Round appearance outdoors. Sophomore Hannah Bonaguidi returns after missing last year's PL Championships due to injury. She opened her collegiate career last year by winning both the Lehigh Invitational and the Lehigh-Lafayette dual meet and finishing second on the squad at the Paul Short Run.
Sophomore Ashleigh Crawford finished all her races in the team's top five last year, including placing in the top third overall at the league championships. She capped a solid outdoor track season by medaling (3rd place) in the steeplechase at the outdoor PLC. Sophomore Diana Hammerstone and junior Stephanie Hayes return after both being consistent members of the team's top seven last year, with each earning one team top-three finish apiece last year. Hayes, along with junior Stacie Nadel, both scored in the steeplechase at last year's outdoor championships and look to keep building on those performances heading into cross country.
"Maura is obviously coming off a tremendous sophomore campaign the whole way through from cross country to what she did in the steeplechase during the outdoor season at the PLC, and the NCAA First Round," Utesch said. "She's really looking to build on that since this is only going to be her second cross country season. She's really just like a sophomore this season, so she's pretty excited and has some lofty goals set for herself. She has a tremendous supporting cast in those steeplechasers who ran with her. We scored four girls with her at the Patriot League Championships last year, so they really made a tremendous jump in the spring and are ready to transfer that over to the cross country course.
"Laura Barnes is a middle distance specialist that had a great outdoor campaign for us, and Hannah Bonaguidi coming back into the lineup after missing the championship portion of our cross country season and then a big part of track, but she's regaining confidence and coming back to form," Utesch said. "We have some real talent to work with so it's all about everything coming together and getting everyone on the starting line."
Joining the mix will be a crop of eight freshman that will look to make the same strong contributions Lehigh has seen from its recent recruiting classes.
"We have a big freshman class," Utesch said. "They are all at various stages in their training depending on what their high school background was. They are a pretty diverse group from 800m runners to true 10K distance runners, so it'll be interesting to see how some of them make the transition to the 6K cross country distance. They're excited and did a good job in the preseason. They seem to have blended in personality wise with the team, so it should be a good group going forward."
"We have middle and upperclassmen who ran really well last year in cross country and track, so we're hoping that we can build off of our track season last year and really have a strong cross country season," said senior Laura Barnes. "The weather so far has not been as hot as it has been in years past. This year has been mild, so it has allowed us to get some harder runs I without that kind of heat we've had."
A large piece of Lehigh's 2017 season will be spent on the Goodman Campus Course. The Mountain Hawks will host five meets on their home course this season, the most home meets in one season in at least the last 14 years. After this Friday, Lehigh will host Lafayette on Sept. 8, the Paul Short Run on Sept. 29, the Patriot League Championships on Oct. 28 and the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on Nov. 10.
"Most of our meets are at home this year which is amazing for us because that means we run on our course almost very week, so we get more training than everyone else," said Henderson. "We're here all the time from races to practices and getting all that exposure to it is an advantage for us."
"We are really going to use that to our advantage," Utesch said. "We know the type of course we have here at Lehigh so we can really train to what those championship races are going to be like at home and we're really going to focus on that all season. We're able to get out and do a lot of specific work on our terrain on the course and just really feel the rolling hills, know the finish really well and knowing how we want to get out and move through the middle of the race."
After finishing seventh at the PLC in 2015, Lehigh went into last season expecting to surprise some outsiders, and rode the underdog mentality to their second place finish at the league championships. This year, the rest of the league and region have noticed, resulting in the team's No. 8 ranking.
"We're very excited about that, and we feel that we have the kind of talent on the roster than can back that up and make that happen," Utesch said of the rankings. "We're probably in a place where we can take it to the limit a little bit. But, going along with that, it's going to require a bit of a hyper self-awareness on every individual's part to know how to balance the emotion of the excitement and the confidence with the anxiety of racing. We need to understand how those little decisions are going to come into to play so we can make the next level our level."
Lehigh is excited and ready for Friday's season-opener, which will feature several schools from around the region who will be looking to get a feel for the course ahead of this year's regionals, including Delaware, West Virginia, Rutgers, NJIT, LIU Brooklyn, Fairleigh Dickinson and La Salle.
"We're excited to get out and see what some of the freshman that we're racing look like over the 6,000m distance," Utesch said. "It gives them a chance to make that adjustment from the high school 5K distance to race up a little bit. We have some people that we're holding out for various reasons, but the people we are putting on the starting line have very specific reasons that they're racing in this first meet, so it'll be interesting to see how some of them get to step into different roles on the team without everybody on the starting line. We have good competition coming, so it's going to be a good early season meet to really let some new faces have a chance to shine."
Follow Lehigh Cross Country/Track and Field on Twitter and Instagram for exclusive content, team updates and more.
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – As the 2017 cross country season officially gets underway this week, the Lehigh women's cross country team plans to be a force to reckon with. The first piece of the 2017 season will fall into place this Friday as the Mountain Hawks host the Lehigh Invitational.
"It's been feeling a lot more like October than August weather, so that should be good getting us ready for the end of the season," said head coach Debbie Utesch. "It's been great trying to figure out the personality of the team, how this year's group is going to start coming together and where we may be able to go as a program."
The Mountain Hawks enter 2017 with high hopes and the potential for another strong campaign after placing second at last year's Patriot League Championships. Lehigh also finished last season at No. 11 in the USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic regional poll, but have risen to eighth in this year's preseason rankings. The No. 8 slot is the highest-ranking Patriot League team in the Mid-Atlantic region, one spot ahead of two-time defending league champion, Bucknell. The team has two returning seniors in Laura Barnes and Jennifer Burke, along with a strong crop of underclassmen who shined throughout last year in both cross country and track.
"We have a couple great leaders in Laura Barnes and Jen Burke as our two seniors, but they do have a big group of underclassmen to lead," Utesch said. "They're in different places in their training right now as we get ready for these first couple of meets. You're not going to see all of our faces early in the season, but they'll show up sometime later in September."
Lehigh returns six letterwinners from last season, including reigning first team all-league honoree Maura Henderson, who finished fifth overall at last fall's Patriot League Championships, before capturing three league titles between indoor and outdoor track, and an NCAA First Round appearance outdoors. Sophomore Hannah Bonaguidi returns after missing last year's PL Championships due to injury. She opened her collegiate career last year by winning both the Lehigh Invitational and the Lehigh-Lafayette dual meet and finishing second on the squad at the Paul Short Run.
Sophomore Ashleigh Crawford finished all her races in the team's top five last year, including placing in the top third overall at the league championships. She capped a solid outdoor track season by medaling (3rd place) in the steeplechase at the outdoor PLC. Sophomore Diana Hammerstone and junior Stephanie Hayes return after both being consistent members of the team's top seven last year, with each earning one team top-three finish apiece last year. Hayes, along with junior Stacie Nadel, both scored in the steeplechase at last year's outdoor championships and look to keep building on those performances heading into cross country.
"Maura is obviously coming off a tremendous sophomore campaign the whole way through from cross country to what she did in the steeplechase during the outdoor season at the PLC, and the NCAA First Round," Utesch said. "She's really looking to build on that since this is only going to be her second cross country season. She's really just like a sophomore this season, so she's pretty excited and has some lofty goals set for herself. She has a tremendous supporting cast in those steeplechasers who ran with her. We scored four girls with her at the Patriot League Championships last year, so they really made a tremendous jump in the spring and are ready to transfer that over to the cross country course.
"Laura Barnes is a middle distance specialist that had a great outdoor campaign for us, and Hannah Bonaguidi coming back into the lineup after missing the championship portion of our cross country season and then a big part of track, but she's regaining confidence and coming back to form," Utesch said. "We have some real talent to work with so it's all about everything coming together and getting everyone on the starting line."
Joining the mix will be a crop of eight freshman that will look to make the same strong contributions Lehigh has seen from its recent recruiting classes.
"We have a big freshman class," Utesch said. "They are all at various stages in their training depending on what their high school background was. They are a pretty diverse group from 800m runners to true 10K distance runners, so it'll be interesting to see how some of them make the transition to the 6K cross country distance. They're excited and did a good job in the preseason. They seem to have blended in personality wise with the team, so it should be a good group going forward."
"We have middle and upperclassmen who ran really well last year in cross country and track, so we're hoping that we can build off of our track season last year and really have a strong cross country season," said senior Laura Barnes. "The weather so far has not been as hot as it has been in years past. This year has been mild, so it has allowed us to get some harder runs I without that kind of heat we've had."
A large piece of Lehigh's 2017 season will be spent on the Goodman Campus Course. The Mountain Hawks will host five meets on their home course this season, the most home meets in one season in at least the last 14 years. After this Friday, Lehigh will host Lafayette on Sept. 8, the Paul Short Run on Sept. 29, the Patriot League Championships on Oct. 28 and the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional on Nov. 10.
"Most of our meets are at home this year which is amazing for us because that means we run on our course almost very week, so we get more training than everyone else," said Henderson. "We're here all the time from races to practices and getting all that exposure to it is an advantage for us."
"We are really going to use that to our advantage," Utesch said. "We know the type of course we have here at Lehigh so we can really train to what those championship races are going to be like at home and we're really going to focus on that all season. We're able to get out and do a lot of specific work on our terrain on the course and just really feel the rolling hills, know the finish really well and knowing how we want to get out and move through the middle of the race."
After finishing seventh at the PLC in 2015, Lehigh went into last season expecting to surprise some outsiders, and rode the underdog mentality to their second place finish at the league championships. This year, the rest of the league and region have noticed, resulting in the team's No. 8 ranking.
"We're very excited about that, and we feel that we have the kind of talent on the roster than can back that up and make that happen," Utesch said of the rankings. "We're probably in a place where we can take it to the limit a little bit. But, going along with that, it's going to require a bit of a hyper self-awareness on every individual's part to know how to balance the emotion of the excitement and the confidence with the anxiety of racing. We need to understand how those little decisions are going to come into to play so we can make the next level our level."
Lehigh is excited and ready for Friday's season-opener, which will feature several schools from around the region who will be looking to get a feel for the course ahead of this year's regionals, including Delaware, West Virginia, Rutgers, NJIT, LIU Brooklyn, Fairleigh Dickinson and La Salle.
"We're excited to get out and see what some of the freshman that we're racing look like over the 6,000m distance," Utesch said. "It gives them a chance to make that adjustment from the high school 5K distance to race up a little bit. We have some people that we're holding out for various reasons, but the people we are putting on the starting line have very specific reasons that they're racing in this first meet, so it'll be interesting to see how some of them get to step into different roles on the team without everybody on the starting line. We have good competition coming, so it's going to be a good early season meet to really let some new faces have a chance to shine."
Follow Lehigh Cross Country/Track and Field on Twitter and Instagram for exclusive content, team updates and more.
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