Tolbert and Kirshenbaum Lead Lehigh Through Three-Meet Weekend

Friday, April 20

Princeton, N.J.

All Day

Lehigh University

Larry Ellis Invitational

Photo by: Don Paul

Tolbert and Kirshenbaum Lead Lehigh Through Three-Meet Weekend

4/21/2018 11:41:00 PM | Men's Track and Field

RESULTS
Larry Ellis Invitational: TFRRS
Greyhound Invitational: TFRRS | HTML
Virginia Challenge: TFRRS | PDF

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Senior John Tolbert (steeplechase) and sophomore Jeffrey Kirshenbaum (5K) both ran the second fastest times this season in the Patriot League in their respective events on Friday evening as part of the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton. The meet was one of three on Friday and Saturday for the Lehigh men's track and field program, which also had athletes competing at the Greyhound Invitational at Moravian and the Virginia Challenge. All told, Lehigh had four athletes hit four IC4A qualifying marks at Princeton, including Henry Paul and Alexander Fitzgerald. At Moravian, sophomore Joey Kelly had a podium finish of third place in the pole vault and junior Ryan Givens turned in the PL's season-best long jump at Virginia.

Virginia Challenge (Virginia/Blacksburg, Va.)
Senior Patrick Reilly competed in the 10K on Saturday evening at UVA and turned in the third-fastest time in the PL this season by finishing 26th in 31:21.90. Earlier in the day, junior Givens leapt his way into fifth place out of 18 in the long jump at 7.04 meters, the longest jump in the Patriot League this season.

Larry Ellis Invitational (Princeton/Princeton, N.J.)
In the seeded 5K on Friday, Kirshenbaum and Fitzgerald both hit IC4A qualifying times after finishing in the top 10. Kirshenbaum set a PR of 14:21.53 to finish in sixth place overall, which ranked as the second fastest time this season in the Patriot League as of Saturday night. Fitzgerald came just under two seconds shy of his PR in eighth place (14:31.84), which ranked as the ninth fastest PL time this season. In Saturday's unseeded 5K, freshman Brad DeMassa led Lehigh by crossing the line in fifth place, also in personal record time (14:54.67).

Tolbert and Paul both hit IC4A qualifying times and set new PRs with their 3K steeplechase performances after Tolbert (9:08.70) won his heat and finished ninth and Paul took 22nd (9:21.48). As of late Saturday, Tolbert's performance also ranked as the No. 2 time in the PL this outdoor season, while Paul's sat sixth in the league for the season.

Freshman Samuel Tapera led Lehigh in 22nd place of the 100m dash, winning his heat in 11.10 seconds. Junior Emre Soybas finished 23rd in the 200m dash (22.33) and 14th/39 in the 400m dash in 49.33 seconds to lead LU in both events. Freshman Sean Brown paced Lehigh in 21st place of the 800m run in 1:56.00 with junior Clay Stabolepszy finishing close behind in 28th (1:56.93). Sophomore Victor Yegon had a solid 1500m run for Lehigh, setting a new personal record of 3:58.65, finishing eighth out of 50 runners overall and second in his heat.

In the field events, Anastasios Mouzakis finished 11th at 51.11 meters in the hammer throw and Kyle Sult placed seventh out of 31 in the javelin (55.30m).

Greyhound Challenge (Moravian/Bethlehem, Pa.)
In the field events at Moravian, Kelly and Max Jordan both cleared 4.41 meters in the vault, with Kelly landing on the podium in third after clearing the bar successfully on his first attempt, and Jordan finishing fourth after clearing the height on his second chance. In the triple jump, senior Taj-Blount Oden finished seventh out of 26th at 13.60m.

In the finals of the shot put, Alexander Rodgers finished at 13.87m for an eighth place tally. Over in the discus, Lehigh had four finish in the top half of the field with Anastasios Mouzakis (15th/40.67m) and Riley LaRiviere (16th/PR-40.34m) leading the way for Lehigh, followed by Rodgers in 21st (38.93m) and Adam Freesman (22nd/38.85m) coming just four centimeters shy of his PR.

Freesman (14th/44.20m) and Mouzakis (15th/44.14m) led Lehigh in the hammer throw, placing back-to-back. In the javelin, Jarrett Taneyhill registered a 22nd place finish of 47.90 meters.

James Chappell ran 1:57.85 to lead LU in 16th place of the 800m run, finishing 16th place out of 70. David Fletcher followed right behind in 19th (1:58.62). Over in the 1500m, freshman Eric Kersten finished eighth out of 45 in 4:04.09, setting a new PR, while Mitchell Daddario (13th/4:10.09) and Ryan Paradise (17th/4:13.64) also cracked the top 20.

Up next, Lehigh will have several athletes compete at the Penn Relays at Franklin Field in Philadelphia starting on Thursday, and will host the Lehigh Games at Goodman Campus on Friday and Saturday.

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