Saturday, September 18
Easton, PA
9:30 a.m.
Lehigh University
21
at
40
Lehigh-Lafayette Dual
Photo by: Don Paul
Women’s Cross Country Tops Lafayette for 16th Straight Time
9/18/2021 3:13:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
EASTON, Pa. – Led by junior Madison Zaun and senior Jade Sessions, who finished first and second overall, the Lehigh women's cross country team defeated Lafayette for a 16th straight time on Saturday in Easton. The Mountain Hawks finished with a low score of 21 to Lafayette's 40 to retain the Bryan Mundy Trophy. Two Leopards finished third and fourth, but Lehigh runners finished in fifth through 11th in an impressive and convincing performance.
Zaun led the way with a time of 22:33.96 while Sessions finished in 22:37.79.
"I saw a team that made a decision before the gun went off that they were going to go out and run smart and take the victory," said Lehigh head coach Debbie Utesch. "They really implemented a lot of the race plan just as we spoke about. Lafayette has a really strong 1-2 running right now and they're deeper than they've been in the past, so we knew we were going to have our hands full up front. Maddie Zaun and Jade did a great job of really going after their front two and navigating the hills on a very different type of course than our home course of Goodman Campus."
Behind the front two, graduate student Kara Bonner was the next Mountain Hawk to finish, placing fifth (23:00.55). Rounding out Lehigh's top seven were freshman Maddison Hayes in sixth (23:11.45), junior Annalise Davis in seventh (23:23.62), sophomore Christina Yakaboski in eighth (23:24.50) and freshman Savanah Beavers in ninth (23:28.11).
"I was really pleased to see how the two freshmen Maddie Hayes and Savanah Beavers handled a much more difficult course in only the second 6K of their collegiate careers," said Utesch.
Saturday marked the second time in as many events that Zaun and Sessions were the first Mountain Hawks to finish. This one came in a rare dual meet against a single opponent.
"We had a really specific race plan going into today, so I just stuck right to that, worked with my team and did exactly what we planned to do," said Zaun. "This has been a longtime rivalry; It has a lot of history. It's a big deal to us. We had won 15 years in a row, now 16. It was important to us to keep that streak going."
The Mountain Hawks were running for much more than themselves on Saturday.
"There's so much history to this competition," said Utesch. "We're running for all the people who have ever worn the Brown and White singlet. There's alumni who flew in from Colorado to be here to watch this race, so it's a big deal. We're the first competition at Lehigh this fall [across sports] We wanted to kick it off right."
The Mountain Hawks will return to action on Friday, Oct. 1 when they host the 47th annual Paul Short Run presented by ASICS.
Gallery: (9-19-2021) Women's Cross Country at Lafayette, 9/18/21
Zaun led the way with a time of 22:33.96 while Sessions finished in 22:37.79.
"I saw a team that made a decision before the gun went off that they were going to go out and run smart and take the victory," said Lehigh head coach Debbie Utesch. "They really implemented a lot of the race plan just as we spoke about. Lafayette has a really strong 1-2 running right now and they're deeper than they've been in the past, so we knew we were going to have our hands full up front. Maddie Zaun and Jade did a great job of really going after their front two and navigating the hills on a very different type of course than our home course of Goodman Campus."
Behind the front two, graduate student Kara Bonner was the next Mountain Hawk to finish, placing fifth (23:00.55). Rounding out Lehigh's top seven were freshman Maddison Hayes in sixth (23:11.45), junior Annalise Davis in seventh (23:23.62), sophomore Christina Yakaboski in eighth (23:24.50) and freshman Savanah Beavers in ninth (23:28.11).
"I was really pleased to see how the two freshmen Maddie Hayes and Savanah Beavers handled a much more difficult course in only the second 6K of their collegiate careers," said Utesch.
Saturday marked the second time in as many events that Zaun and Sessions were the first Mountain Hawks to finish. This one came in a rare dual meet against a single opponent.
"We had a really specific race plan going into today, so I just stuck right to that, worked with my team and did exactly what we planned to do," said Zaun. "This has been a longtime rivalry; It has a lot of history. It's a big deal to us. We had won 15 years in a row, now 16. It was important to us to keep that streak going."
The Mountain Hawks were running for much more than themselves on Saturday.
"There's so much history to this competition," said Utesch. "We're running for all the people who have ever worn the Brown and White singlet. There's alumni who flew in from Colorado to be here to watch this race, so it's a big deal. We're the first competition at Lehigh this fall [across sports] We wanted to kick it off right."
The Mountain Hawks will return to action on Friday, Oct. 1 when they host the 47th annual Paul Short Run presented by ASICS.
Women's XC head coach Debbie Utesch following the team's 1️⃣6️⃣th straight win over Lafayette! pic.twitter.com/fgNgKivuwZ
— Lehigh TF & XC (@LehighTFXC) September 18, 2021
Maddie Zaun led the way for the women at Lafayette and here's what she had to say after the race! pic.twitter.com/wuF7ofkJSR
— Lehigh TF & XC (@LehighTFXC) September 18, 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
/ Women's Cross Country
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