Friday, October 1
Bethlehem, Pa.
10:15 a.m.
Lehigh University
vs
Paul Short Run
Photo by: Don Paul
Mountain Hawks Come in 21st at 47th Annual Lehigh Paul Short Run
10/1/2021 10:34:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – A senior followed by two underclassmen led the way for the Lehigh women's cross country team as the Mountain Hawks placed 21st in the Gold 6K race at the 47th Annual Lehigh Paul Short Run presented by Asics Friday. Senior Jade Sessions led the way for Lehigh, coming in 99th overall with a time of 21:41.5.
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"This is actually a really interesting race because what I see and what I get on the actual results when the math comes out sometimes look very different," said Lehigh head coach Debbie Utesch. "We had a really good group of women who probably didn't get out positionally as far up in the field as they wanted to, so then they had a hard time making it back through all the traffic. But for where they raced, they did a tremendous job of really latching onto each other. We were 34 seconds from one to five in this field, and that's a really good highlight."
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After Sessions, a pair of underclassmen came in second and third, respectively, as sophomore Christina Yakaboski placed 105th overall (21:44.4) and first-year Maddison Hayes was 128th (21:52.7). Rounding out Lehigh's top five was junior Madison Zaun in 131st (21:55.2) and senior Kara Bonner in 167th (22:15.5).
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"It's just compete, compete, compete, and that's a thing we really wanted to focus on. Honestly, I think we did a pretty decent job of that."
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Overall, 38 teams and 343 individuals competed in the Women's Gold. Several Mountain Hawks also ran in the Open race, with senior Jamie Zamrin leading the way with a 15th-place finish 22:28.5.
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Friday was the first time many Mountain Hawks got to experience the Paul Short Run, which was cancelled last fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
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"There's not a better weather day than what we had here at Paul Short," said Utesch. "The conditions were tremendous, so to be able to return to the cross country Goodman Campus racing course and see all the electricity in the atmosphere from all the teams [was special]. You hear teams talking about the course and how excited they are to be here, the opportunity, the facility and what a great experience it was.
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"I know how much work goes into putting this on and it's a lot of people from across the Lehigh Athletics department. It's a tremendous showcase of what we're able to do at a school like Lehigh."
ÂGallery: (10-1-2021) Women's Cross Country at 2021 Lehigh Paul Short Run
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"This is actually a really interesting race because what I see and what I get on the actual results when the math comes out sometimes look very different," said Lehigh head coach Debbie Utesch. "We had a really good group of women who probably didn't get out positionally as far up in the field as they wanted to, so then they had a hard time making it back through all the traffic. But for where they raced, they did a tremendous job of really latching onto each other. We were 34 seconds from one to five in this field, and that's a really good highlight."
Â
After Sessions, a pair of underclassmen came in second and third, respectively, as sophomore Christina Yakaboski placed 105th overall (21:44.4) and first-year Maddison Hayes was 128th (21:52.7). Rounding out Lehigh's top five was junior Madison Zaun in 131st (21:55.2) and senior Kara Bonner in 167th (22:15.5).
"[Paul Short is] really a kickoff to the hardcore racing season," said Utesch. "We had this meet and in two weeks, we'll go out to Penn State, so another high-caliber competition. Then we really get into what will look like more head-to-head racing. We talked a lot about continuing to compete throughout this whole race because it's easy to get lost in the crowd when you're in the middle of the race.Check out some 🎥 from women's cross country at today's 47th Annual @LehighPaulShort Run, presented by Asics. pic.twitter.com/y0fMevS32B
— Lehigh TF & XC (@LehighTFXC) October 2, 2021
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"It's just compete, compete, compete, and that's a thing we really wanted to focus on. Honestly, I think we did a pretty decent job of that."
Â
Overall, 38 teams and 343 individuals competed in the Women's Gold. Several Mountain Hawks also ran in the Open race, with senior Jamie Zamrin leading the way with a 15th-place finish 22:28.5.
Â
Friday was the first time many Mountain Hawks got to experience the Paul Short Run, which was cancelled last fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Â
"There's not a better weather day than what we had here at Paul Short," said Utesch. "The conditions were tremendous, so to be able to return to the cross country Goodman Campus racing course and see all the electricity in the atmosphere from all the teams [was special]. You hear teams talking about the course and how excited they are to be here, the opportunity, the facility and what a great experience it was.
Â
"I know how much work goes into putting this on and it's a lot of people from across the Lehigh Athletics department. It's a tremendous showcase of what we're able to do at a school like Lehigh."
Â
Women's XC head coach Debbie Utesch following today's 47th Annual @LehighPaulShort Run presented by Asics! pic.twitter.com/3xXSlY0zrs
— Lehigh TF & XC (@LehighTFXC) October 1, 2021
Jade Sessions was women's XC's top finisher today and we caught up with her after the race! pic.twitter.com/vgfc6Ts0E4
— Lehigh TF & XC (@LehighTFXC) October 1, 2021
Christina Yakoboski following today's 47th Annual @LehighPaulShort Run presented by Asics! pic.twitter.com/vldj0PBfvG
— Lehigh TF & XC (@LehighTFXC) October 1, 2021
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
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