Two Victories and One Top Patriot League Time Highlight Three-Meet Weekend for Lehigh

Friday, April 20

Princeton, N.J.

All Day

Lehigh University

Larry Ellis Invitational

Photo by: Don Paul

Two Victories and One Top Patriot League Time Highlight Three-Meet Weekend for Lehigh

4/21/2018 8:59:00 PM | Women's Track and Field

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

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh women's track and field team had three athletes earn victories over the weekend and had another turn in a top time in the Patriot League as the team split up for three separate meets on Friday and Saturday. Lehigh had six athletes hit ECAC qualifying marks at the Larry Ellis Invitational at Princeton, including sophomore Ashleigh Crawford who ran the Patriot League's fastest 3,000m steeplechase of the season. Sophomore Jordan Otto finished tied for second in the high jump at the highly competitive Virginia Challenge, and Erin Racano and Tyler Bannister both grabbed wins at the Greyhound Invitational at Moravian, where the Mountain Hawks landed eight athletes on the podium.

Virginia Challenge (Virginia/Blacksburg, Va.)
Featuring top competition from across the nation, Lehigh had four female representatives at UVA for the Virginia Challenge. On Friday, junior Kaitlyn Toman placed fourth in the pole vault after clearing 3.71 meters. She cleared the same height as the second and third place vaulters, who all finished behind Tennessee's Hannah Jefcoat (3.86m). Freshman Madisyn Hawkins (3.41m) finished in a tie for 10th. On Friday evening, sophomore Hannah Patrick threw the javelin 44.38 meters to finish seventh. On Saturday afternoon, sophomore Otto tied for second place in the high jump as one of four athletes to clear 1.61m, finishing five centimeters shy of the winner.

Larry Ellis Invitational (Princeton/Princeton, N.J.)
Crawford had a solid performance on Friday evening with a sixth place personal record time of 10:28.77 in the steeplechase that was also an ECAC qualifier and as of Saturday evening, ranks as the top time in the Patriot League this season by over 16 seconds. Stacie Nadel also met the ECAC qualifying time in 10:49.07 to place 14th of 34 overall. Both competed in the same heat, with Crawford winning and Nadel coming in fourth.

Elsewhere on the track, freshman Alexis Smith set a new PR of 58.04 seconds to place 20th in the 400m dash. In Friday's 800m Elite, sophomore Brooke Schaeffer topped her PR and hit an ECAC qualifying time by winning her heat in 2:11.31 to place 15th overall out of 59 runners; junior Clare Severe followed just behind in 18th place (2:12.00). As of Saturday evening, both times from Schaeffer (third) and Severe (fifth) rank in the top five in the PL this season. In Saturday's 800m, sophomore Sophie Antonioli took 10th place overall out of 45 (2:16.02), leading the way for Lehigh's four runners in the event with Kristen Lavallee (21st/2:18.01) and Elyse Barkstrom (24th/2:18.75) both following with PRs.

In Saturday's 1500m, sophomore Diana Hammerstone cracked the top 10 out of 39 runners in personal record fashion (8th/4:41.39), followed by Laura Barnes (11th/4:42.58), and freshman Miranda Royds in 16th (PR-4:44.76). Maura Henderson represented Lehigh in Friday's seeded 5K, where she raced to a 16th place finish of 17:21.98. Noreen Byrne took home 12th in the 400m hurdles (1:03.22) after placing second in her heat.

In the field events, Paige Grossman finished in fifth place with a new PR and ECAC qualifying mark in the hammer throw of 53.14m, and freshman Brittany Curtin did the same in ninth place in 49.98m. Freshman Briana Wanbaugh was the third Lehigh thrower to hit an ECAC mark after placing fifth in the javelin (41.91m).

Greyhound Challenge (Moravian/Bethlehem, Pa.)
In the field events, Tyler Bannister leapt her way to the top spot on the podium with her win in the high jump by clearing 1.65m. She was joined in the top 10 of the 22-person event by Noa Levy (5th/1.55m), Olivia Reinold (7th/1.55m) and Alexis Wintle (10th/1.55m).

Sophomore Cate Shippee (11.15m) took runner-up in the triple jump and Armani Comick (10.95m) narrowly missed the podium in fourth place. Both athletes also leapt their way to PRs in the long jump as Shippee narrowly missed the podium in fourth place (5.35m), and Armani Comick finished eighth (5.21m).

Grossman rounded out her two-meet weekend on Saturday with a runner-up showing in the shot put (36.88m). Freshman Brianna Wanbaugh fell just short of the podium in fourth place of the javelin (39.10m) with Rebecca Price finishing 10th (31.80m). Caity Reverand took fourth in the pole vault (3.35m).

On the track, freshman Erin Racano took home the top prize after breaking the tape in the 400m hurdles (PR-1:04.25), and was joined on the podium in third place by classmate Kaja Skerlj who also PR-ed at 1:06.22.

Freshman Kara Bonner rounded out the podium of the 1500m in third place with a new PR of 4:53.19. Sophomore Sydney Brannon followed close behind in sixth place in 5:00.02.

Giavanna Tabbachino made her collegiate 5K debut in 16th place (20:37.87). After winning the 100m hurdle prelims in PR fashion (15.29), freshman Maddy Harding took runner-up in the finals with Bannister taking fourth (16.05).

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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