Knowles Makes Patriot League History as Lehigh Finishes Fourth at Patriot League Championships

Saturday, February 17

Lewisburg, Pa.

All Day

Lehigh University

Patriot League Championships

Trevor Knowles Field Athlete of the Meet 2018

Knowles Makes Patriot League History as Lehigh Finishes Fourth at Patriot League Championships

2/18/2018 9:14:00 PM | Men's Track and Field

Complete Results: TFRRS | PDF (Men)

LEWISBURG, Pa. – Senior Trevor Knowles became the first male athlete in Patriot League history to win four straight heptathlon titles at the PL Indoor Track and Field Championships on Sunday afternoon. While competing in the heptathlon, Knowles also raced in the open finals of the 60m hurdles, where he finished runner-up. Knowles' efforts led to him being voted as the PL Men's Outstanding Field Performer of the Meet. Lehigh earned two additional podium finishes on Sunday courtesy of senior Kyle Kirk in the 800m and Ryan Givens' third place leap in the high jump.

As a team, Lehigh finished fourth overall out of nine teams with 81.5 points. Navy won their sixth straight team title and seventh in the last eight years. All told, Lehigh captured seven podium finishes at the championships, including a pair of second place finishes and one league championship.

Knowles finished with a total of 5,313 points and won three of the seven events in the hep, including the 60m dash, 60m hurdles and the shot put. In the final three events on Sunday, he began the day with a win in the hurdles in 8.24 seconds, took sixth in the vault 4.35m and finished runner-up in the 1,000m (2:48.51). In the middle of competing in the hep, he also raced in the finals of the open 60m hurdles, where he crossed the finish in 8.19 seconds, finishing second and earning Second Team All-PL honors.

"He does nothing but win PL titles," said head coach Matt Utesch. "He's completed the indoor sweep. He is the king of it. He bruised his heel pretty bad running the hurdles yesterday, but came out and got warmed up today, competed in the multi hurdles, then the open hurdles, then vaulted for a very long time, and came back with a solid time in the 1000. It proves he has a lot of character to come out and deal with the pain he had to battle through and win it all."

Sophomore Kyle Sult also competed in the heptathlon, finishing sixth overall with a PR of 4,724 points. He highlighted his day on Sunday with a new PR of 3:04.67 to culminate the event in the 1,000m.

"Part of reason Kyle came to Lehigh was so he could train with Trevor," Utesch said. "He knew he wanted to learn from him and he had a massive PR overall and a huge PR in the 1,000. I think he learned a lot from him today."

Kirk capped his strong senior indoor season with the first All-PL honor of his career, crossing the line in runner-up position of the 800m run in 1:55.11. James Chappell also competed in the 800m and placed sixth (1:57.25), just six hundredths shy of his PR. In the 1,000m finals, Kyle Berman broke his PR in 2:30.33 to finish in sixth place.

"That was really a great race and he was smart about how he ran," Utesch said of Kirk. "(Assistant coach) Todd Etters did a great of prepping him to go out and run it. An opportunity presented itself and he jumped all over it."
In the mile, freshman Sean Brown finished eighth overall with a new PR of 4:15.23. Junior Emre Soybas represented Lehigh in the 400m dash, where he finished sixth in 50.38.

In the 3,000m, senior Patrick Reilly and sophomore Jeffrey Kirshenbaum led LU with back-to-back finishes in seventh and eighth places, respectively. Both crossed the line in 8:23.51, with Reilly taking seventh by four thousandths of a second. Junior Brian Arita was next for Lehigh in 12th place (PR-8:33.33) and senior John Tolbert (8:34.31) followed in 13th.

In the distance medley relay, Ryan Grace, Soybas, Kirk and Matt Kravitz led Lehigh to a fifth place finish of 10:19.69, and in the 4x400 relay, Evan El-Halawani, Berman, Chappell and Brown combined to finish seventh (3:30.75).

Over in the field events, Givens earned himself a bronze medal finish by tying for third in the high jump at 2.04m. It was his second bronze medal finish of the championships, paired with his long jump from Saturday.

"He's been very consistent at Patriots for us," Utesch said. "He's almost always on the podium. I think Ryan struggled a bit through some injuries this season. He made a decision this weekend that he was going go and perform the way he wanted to. He proved it today the PLC is crazy. It was great to see him on the podium."

Senior Michael Gooding led Lehigh in the triple jump, flying 13.95m to finish sixth. Over in the throws, junior Alexander Rodgers placed 11th overall with his throw of 14.80m.

The Mountain Hawks will now have a month-long break prior to the start of the outdoor season, with their first meet scheduled for Mar. 16-17 in Orlando, Fla.

"We started out the weekend by asking them to go out and do something that they have never done before," Utesch said. "We may not have a won a team title or as many titles as some past years, but we had a lot of PRs and did things that we have never done before. I'm as proud of this team as any that I've ever coached. "They did a great job and at our meeting at end of day, I challenged them to carry it into the outdoor season and do the same kind of thing, and I don't think there was a kid in the room who won't do that. I think you're going to see a more intense Lehigh team week in and week out."

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