Mountain Hawks head back to Ocean Breeze for UAlbany Winter Classic

Friday, February 7

Staten Island, N.Y.

Lehigh University

University at Albany

Mountain Hawks head back to Ocean Breeze for UAlbany Winter Classic

2/6/2020 11:21:00 AM | Women's Track and Field

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Another weekend, another competition! The Lehigh women's track and field team continues the grind on Friday. This time, the Mountain Hawks will once again travel to Ocean Breeze in Staten Island, but this time for the UAlbany Winter Classic. The start of events will begin at 12:30 p.m. Friday's Winter Classic will not include team scoring.

Last time out, 13 women broke their personal PRs in certain events. Lehigh competed in the Bison Open and Multi, the Bruce Lehane/Scarlet & White and the Villanova Invitational. The women had multiple performances that stuck out. Morgan McConnell and Camari Griffin had solid times in the 60m and the 200m. In the 60m prelims, McConnell etched a time of 8.19m while Griffin came in at 8.26. In the 200m, McConnell registered a 25.69 time.

The one-two punch of Brittany Curtin (16.81m) and Teasha McKoy (16.21m) continued to improve with good finished in the weight throw. Brett DeWeese (5.33m) and Jordan Otto (1.60m) notched third-place finishes in the long jump and the high jump respectively.

Junior Susie Poore recorded a win the 5K with a time of 27:32.03, while Brooke Schaeffer finished 10^th in the 800m with a time of 2:11.30. Schaeffer's time is the second-best time in the Patriot League.

"Frankly, I'm not surprised with how we performed last weekend. Every girl that went to Boston came back with a PR," said head coach Matt Utesch. "I'm not surprised because these girls focus and bring the intensity every single practice and meet. I'm really happy with how they performed."

Schaeffer was mentioned by the Patriot League this week as an honorable mention. It is the second consecutive week in which a member of the team was given the mention, as Brett DeWeese was given the nod a week ago.

"Well, in some respect it is quite frustrating that she only received honorable mention," Utesch expressed. "I know Brooke is going to use it as fuel. She's coming off a pretty difficult year last year. The reality is she's ready to run and you're starting to see it now. I think you'll see a school record coming soon from her."

On Friday, expect to see a plethora of young members of the team given a chance to rise to the occasion.

"I think we want to start seeing PRs piling up. What we're doing in practice is lowering our volume and raising our intensity. Everything we do now in practice is like a competition. We're trying to mimic the competition in practice." concluded Utesch.

Up next, Lehigh will compete in the Monmouth Winter College Invite. This two-day event will begin on Friday, February 14, concluding the next day on Saturday.