Season Preview: Veteran Mountain Hawks poised for success
8/30/2018 4:03:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
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After finishing in second place at the 2016 Patriot League Championships and placing fourth last year, the Lehigh women's cross country team's end goal is obvious…
Heading into the 2018 season, the Mountain Hawks understand that reaching their end goal is a journey. A succession of events. A marathon, not a sprint.
Much like a cross country race.
"I am trying to be cautiously optimistic, not getting carried away with the end goal and really focusing on day-to-day over the course of the season that ultimately culminates with what we want to achieve at the end of the season," said head coach Debbie Utesch.
The Mountain Hawks are poised to achieve in 2018 due in large part to a veteran roster that brings not only talent, but also intangibles such as leadership.
"Maura Henderson and Stacie Nadel are our captains, but when we went through our captains voting process, we had six women who received votes from across the team, which really shows a lot of strong leadership skills in the upperclassmen," said Utesch. "We're encouraging all of them to continue refining those leadership skills, helping out without feeling like they're stepping on anybody's toes."
Like the depth of leadership Utesch is seeing, that depth is translating onto the course.
"In the past, we've really had just one or two frontrunners," said Utesch. "One of the differences I'm seeing this year, and it could be because we are more heavily junior and senior based, is that we could have a pretty significant pack up front. Ashleigh Crawford, Maura Henderson, Stacie Nadel, Hannah Bonaguidi, Steph Hayes, Diana Hammerstone, I'm rattling off a bunch of names off the top of my head, which reflect a lot of women running at a new level. That is really exciting."
Lehigh hopes past success, both in cross country and track and field, will come together with a strong culture that was developed all summer and preseason, to help the program win the coveted championship.
"A lot of our athletes have had a lot of success, whether it's being a Patriot League champion in the steeplechase, a Patriot League runner-up or posting incredible PRs over the course of the indoor and outdoor seasons," said Utesch. "It generated a lot of confidence for those women and now they're together in the fall, in a season that's a little bit more team oriented. They're ready to bring those individual successes from their track seasons together and show it on the cross country course."
Last spring, current junior Ashleigh Crawford won a Patriot League outdoor championship in the steeplechase, just ahead of senior Stacie Nadel, who was runner-up in the event. Junior Hannah Bonaguidi was part of Lehigh's Patriot League championship distance medley relay team during the indoor season. Also, senior Maura Henderson has won multiple Patriot League titles in track and field during her decorated career.
Senior Captain Maura Henderson
"We could have a pack towards the front and not have a distinct frontrunner this year because we have so many women able to run at a pretty high level," said Utesch.
Along with their track and field success, these Mountain Hawks have run at a high level in cross country as well. Last year, Henderson placed eighth overall at Patriots to earn second team All- League, one year after finishing fifth to garner first team All-League.
One big difference between last year and this year is location of meets. In 2017, the Mountain Hawks had five home meets, including the Patriot League Championships and NCAA Regionals. This year, Lehigh is home just one time, for the 45th annual Paul Short Race.
Rather than being a negative, road meets so much should put the Mountain Hawks in different environments and help them prepare for whatever is thrown their way during championship season.
"We had all of the championships on our course last year, which is obviously a huge advantage, but you lose the challenge of being forced to respond to circumstances," said Utesch. "When you're so familiar with a place, you comfortably anticipate what's next and you lose some of the dexterity to be able to respond to different things that get thrown at you in a race. It could be terrain-based because you're on a new course, or your competition not reacting how you expected them to.
"Having all these road trips in the middle of the season will also give us an opportunity to work on mental toughness," Utesch continued. "You have to be ready for things you're not so familiar and comfortable with, and find out what happens when you get outside your comfort zone."
The Mountain Hawks will begin moving outside their comfort zone from the very beginning, competing at the Bison Open to become acclimated to Bucknell's 2K loop course, where the 2018 Patriot League Championships will be held.
"Our first race isn't even a full race distance," said Utesch. "Not everybody is going to compete in that race, but everyone will have the opportunity to feel the course at a race pace, whether it's actually competing that day or doing a workout. For the freshmen, it will be a good opportunity for them to really experience their first collegiate race, even though it's not a full 6K distance. For the rest of the team, it will be an opportunity to feel what the course is like when they're running hard."
The first race will be more of a "feeling out" of sorts, essentially an extension of preseason.
Senior Captain Stacie Nadel
"Our next competition after Bucknell is our big Lehigh-Lafayette dual meet," said Utesch. "We've been fortunate to have a streak of wins against them, but a full-team effort is needed. We don't underestimate them. Then, we go to Boston (for Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown), which is the beginning of some really high-level invitationals on our schedule – between Boston, Paul Short and the Penn State National Open. Those types of races will really set the team up and reflect whether we have that pack of frontrunners who can do some damage when they're racing against nationally-ranked teams."
Speaking of rankings, the Mountain Hawks are no strangers to regional rankings. They enter this season No. 15 in the USTFCCCA Mid-Atlantic Regional Rankings.
Rankings don't win championships, but they're indicative of a program that is always competing for titles. In order to reach that goal, the Mountain Hawks are approaching this season much like a cross country race. By staying focused on the smaller goals, they remain on path towards their bigger picture.
It's not how you start, but how you finish.
"We're focusing a lot on mental toughness, a high level of competitiveness and what it looks like as you approach a workout," said Utesch. "A hard workout can be as daunting as high-level competition. You can't just flip a switch in a competition and expect that to come out. You have to do it on a daily basis."
