Friday, November 10
Bethlehem, Pa.
1:00 PM
Lehigh University
vs
NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional
Photo by: Don Paul
Mountain Hawks Place 15th At NCAA Mid-Atlantic To Conclude Season
11/10/2023 3:35:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Lehigh men's cross country wrapped up their season on Friday afternoon from their own Goodman Campus cross country course at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional. The team placed 15th from a pool of 26 competing schools.
The top finisher for Lehigh was first-year Thomas Smigo, who placed 35th with a time of 30:38.3. The rookie out of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania had a very strong finish to his first season in the brown and white, placing first for the Mountain Hawks in each of the past three races.
"It was quite the transition from 8 to 10k, I could definitely notice the difference," said Smigo. "I had a lot of self-motivation throughout the race. I was around a lot of Pitt guys, so I had sort of a 'rivalry' with them if you will, and then I recognized some people from high school I knew as well, so that was kind of my motivation during the race. Then after 8k, it was just about finishing."
Smigo's performance comes off the heels of his sixth-place finish at last month's Patriot League Championships, a performance that awarded him All-Patriot League first team honors and Lehigh's first-ever Patriot League Rookie of the Year. Despite the early success in his career, Smigo says he wasn't anticipating any of that to be the case in his first season.
"I really wasn't expecting any of this," said Smigo. "I remember putting individual goals in the beginning of the year, and I put 'score at the Lehigh-Lafayette meet' and 'make the regional meet', so I kind of wasn't expecting this, but I'm really happy that I ended up doing as well as I did."
"[Thomas] is a strong, gutsy kid," said head coach Todd Etters. "He's setting himself up not only to have a great first year, but also a great career."
Rounding out the top three finishers for Lehigh were juniors Aidan Lynch and Kevin Harvey, who have been two of the Mountain Hawks' top performers all season long. Lynch crossed the finish line in 31:01.9 to place 50th while Harvey placed 102nd with a time of 31:58.4.
"Kevin's been battling injury for the last six weeks, so for him to come out and still be able to race at such a high level is pretty impressive," said Etters. "I thought Aidan Lynch moved up pretty well throughout the race… [the speed at the start] caught us on our heels a little bit, but I thought our guys regrouped."
Other finishers at Friday's regional for Lehigh included Alex Heidemann (122nd, 32:29.6), Derek Coceano (128th, 32:39.6), Dan Malatesta (143rd, 33:09.2) and Noah Zahn (158th, 33:38.5).
"We saw the deoth really step up today," said Etters. "Our 4-5 guys really stepped up and wanted to get back on what they had done at the Patriot League meet, and I think they did a better job there."
As a team, Lehigh placed 15th with a score of 428 points. Their finish earned them third place overall of the six competing Patriot League schools.
"I think this season is a springboard for us," said Etters. "I think we went through some growing pains this year and certainly last year too, but now we've got some pieces in place where we can now be more aggressive… We want to do bigger things, we don't want to be 15th in the region, we don't want to be 5th in the league, we want to get back to where we're competing at a higher level than that, and I think we have the pieces in place to do so."
Follow Lehigh men's cross country on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
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The top finisher for Lehigh was first-year Thomas Smigo, who placed 35th with a time of 30:38.3. The rookie out of Kintnersville, Pennsylvania had a very strong finish to his first season in the brown and white, placing first for the Mountain Hawks in each of the past three races.
"It was quite the transition from 8 to 10k, I could definitely notice the difference," said Smigo. "I had a lot of self-motivation throughout the race. I was around a lot of Pitt guys, so I had sort of a 'rivalry' with them if you will, and then I recognized some people from high school I knew as well, so that was kind of my motivation during the race. Then after 8k, it was just about finishing."
Smigo's performance comes off the heels of his sixth-place finish at last month's Patriot League Championships, a performance that awarded him All-Patriot League first team honors and Lehigh's first-ever Patriot League Rookie of the Year. Despite the early success in his career, Smigo says he wasn't anticipating any of that to be the case in his first season.
"I really wasn't expecting any of this," said Smigo. "I remember putting individual goals in the beginning of the year, and I put 'score at the Lehigh-Lafayette meet' and 'make the regional meet', so I kind of wasn't expecting this, but I'm really happy that I ended up doing as well as I did."
"[Thomas] is a strong, gutsy kid," said head coach Todd Etters. "He's setting himself up not only to have a great first year, but also a great career."
Rounding out the top three finishers for Lehigh were juniors Aidan Lynch and Kevin Harvey, who have been two of the Mountain Hawks' top performers all season long. Lynch crossed the finish line in 31:01.9 to place 50th while Harvey placed 102nd with a time of 31:58.4.
"Kevin's been battling injury for the last six weeks, so for him to come out and still be able to race at such a high level is pretty impressive," said Etters. "I thought Aidan Lynch moved up pretty well throughout the race… [the speed at the start] caught us on our heels a little bit, but I thought our guys regrouped."
Other finishers at Friday's regional for Lehigh included Alex Heidemann (122nd, 32:29.6), Derek Coceano (128th, 32:39.6), Dan Malatesta (143rd, 33:09.2) and Noah Zahn (158th, 33:38.5).
"We saw the deoth really step up today," said Etters. "Our 4-5 guys really stepped up and wanted to get back on what they had done at the Patriot League meet, and I think they did a better job there."
As a team, Lehigh placed 15th with a score of 428 points. Their finish earned them third place overall of the six competing Patriot League schools.
"I think this season is a springboard for us," said Etters. "I think we went through some growing pains this year and certainly last year too, but now we've got some pieces in place where we can now be more aggressive… We want to do bigger things, we don't want to be 15th in the region, we don't want to be 5th in the league, we want to get back to where we're competing at a higher level than that, and I think we have the pieces in place to do so."
Follow Lehigh men's cross country on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram for continued updates on the Mountain Hawks.
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Players Mentioned
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/ Men's Cross Country
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/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
/ Men's Cross Country
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