Women's Track and Field Thrives At Angry Bird Challenge With First Place Finish

Saturday, January 15

Bethlehem, Pa.

Lehigh University

Angry Birds Challenge

Photo by: Don Paul

Women's Track and Field Thrives At Angry Bird Challenge With First Place Finish

1/15/2022 8:42:00 PM | Track and Field, Women's Track and Field

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Coming off of a month-long break for the holidays, the Lehigh women's track and field team returned to Rauch Fieldhouse on Saturday for the Angry Birds Challenge. The Mountain Hawks showed no signs of rust, finishing first with 176 points, six wins and 19 personal records.

All eyes were on first-year student-athlete Melissa Cunningham, who moved to second all-time in the 60m with a new PR of 7.78. Her first place finish in the 60m was followed by a second place finish in the 200m (25.84) where she is still currently tied for sixth all time.

The Mountain Hawks were able to find success in the sprints and middle distance events. Senior Kaja Skerjl had a strong performance in the 400m where she finished first with a time of 1:00.12. Senior Chae Kim added a third place finish in the 60m hurdles (9.20).

"The first-years, in general, really utilized their peers really well today," said Assistant Coach Brooke Astor. "I think we were a little short handed in the jumps but they did a good job of working with one another to help correct small things that they needed to work on."

Lehigh's jumps group was led by first-year Casey Talamini-Kelemen, who placed second in the triple jump (11.55m) and added a seventh place finish in the pole vault (3.05m). Fellow first-year Randi Conroy added to the success of the jumps group with a third place finish in the pole vault (3.35m). Junior Calista Marzolino (1.60m) and sophomore Kerry Perna (1.55m) also found success in the high jump on Saturday. The duo finished second and fourth, respectively.

"Casey took advantage of each event, took it one event at a time and ended up, I think, surprising herself," Astor said. "Every jump she came back and said 'Ok that was pretty good,' smiled a little bit and said 'What do I need to do to get first place?' so that kind of fire is really fun to see from a first-year."

First-year student-athlete Amanda Mircovich placed third in the 800m (2:19.17). Sophomore Christina Yakaboski (2:19.43) and senior Kara Bonner (2:20.03) both added new personal bests while finishing fourth and fifth, respectively, in the 800m.

The women's distance group had a strong performance on Saturday. Leading the way was senior Jamie Zamrin (18:29.16) and junior Madison Zaun (18:35.05) who finished first and second, respectively, in the 5000m. Seniors Jade Sessions and Hetty McMillan added two second place finishes for Lehigh. Sessions placed second in the 3000m with a time of 10:13.40 and McMillan placed second in the mile with a new personal best of 5:06.15.

"This meet gave us an opportunity to run people in off events and it was nice to see some of them run in an event that they've either never done before or rarely done before and have some pretty good performances," said Assistant Coach Deb Utesch.

"Hetty McMillan, I thought had a great meet. She had a huge PR in the indoor mile, finished second and had a good meet. Elena Perez-Segnini, it was the first time we've seen her race since her first-year. She had a really solid day in the mile and DMR," Utesch said. "Jade Sessions ran in her first 3k, coming off of a heavy week of camp training and had a really solid performance there."

Leading the throws was senior Teasha McKoy, who finished first in both the weight throw (12.80m) and shot put (17.52m)

"She didn't exactly hit the marks she wanted to but today was all about competing and coming back from break," said Assistant Coach Allison Taub. "I think the big highlight for her was the weight throw. Going into the last throw she was in second and she wanted to defend her title at home so she had to hit a big one on the last one and she ended up winning that event."

Lehigh finished first overall with 176 points. Monmouth finished second with 142, followed by Binghamton with 129 and Sacred Heart in fourth place with 93.

Next Saturday, the women's team will compete in two events. Some of the Mountain Hawks will travel to the Villanova Open in Staten Island, N.Y. Others will compete at the John Covert Classic at Rauch Fieldhouse. Even though the John Covert Classic will be held on Lehigh's campus, Moravian is the host institution for the meet.