Friday, September 1
Bethlehem, Pa.
5:30 PM
Lehigh University
vs
Lehigh Invitational
Women's Cross Country 2023 Season Preview
8/31/2023 2:29:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
Mountain Hawks Tabbed #14 In NCAA Mid-Atlantic Preseason Rankings
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – New additions to the team have arrived, summer workouts have concluded, and Lehigh women's cross country is set to take on the 2023 season. After a fourth-place finish in the Patriot League and several high-scorers on the team a year ago, expectations are high for the Mountain Hawks.
Not only is head coach Debbie Utesch (now entering her 26th year) excited for the year ahead, her peers think highly of this year's Mountain Hawks squad as well. Lehigh was ranked #14 in the 2023 NCAA DI Women's Cross Country Regional Rankings for the Mid-Atlantic region. Utesch believes that the team's ranking is a testament to the quality of her runners and the profile of her program.
"I feel like preseason rankings are both a nod to the senior class that just graduated because they helped set up a pretty solid season last year, and it's also a nod to the way the program is looked at by our peers," said Utesch. "I think that's a good nod to consistency of being a regionally ranked team hopefully year in and year out as we continue through."
While Lehigh did graduate six seniors, they bring back a talented group of runners back into the fold in 2023.
"Christina Yakaboski and Lucy Afanasewicz were both scorers for us in the 1500s. Savanah Beavers and Lindsay MacLellan were both scorers for us in the 3000m steeplechase, and then Abigail Tenreiro was the ECAC runner-up in the 10k," said Utesch. "Those women are all back and will join some other key women that will help solidify a good nucleus of runners in our program this year."
In addition to the accomplished returning runners, the Mountain Hawks welcome seven first-years to the squad, the team's biggest class since 2018. Utesch says that she's seen the newcomers adapt well to the speed of Division I running.
"From what I've seen they've done a good job of stepping up to the more intense training, having a lot of quality women to train beside," said Utesch. "I think our upperclassmen have done a really nice job of making them feel welcome in joining our program and laying out the expectations of what it means to be a Lehigh women's cross country runner."
The team will be quite busy to start the season, as the Mountain Hawks host the Lehigh Invitational Friday and then will travel to Colgate for the Harry Lang Invitational on Saturday. While the men's team is running both races, Utesch will split her team in two groups this weekend. One group will stay at home and another will head up north and run the Colgate course, which is the site of this year's Patriot League championship.
"[Splitting the team] gives women across our squad an opportunity to be scorers because it's not our whole squad competing together and maybe take on some different roles that they wouldn't traditionally take on when putting 20 women on the starting line," said Utesch.
While the team is slated to run on Colgate's course again later in the season, Lehigh will also compete on its own course three times this year. Not only are the Mountain Hawks hosting a race tomorrow, they will also host the annual Paul Short Run and the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional this season.
"We have our strategies on the way our course is run, and we're able to implement those and be familiar with them because we are practicing them all season," said Utesch. "The fact that we do host the Mid-Atlantic region speaks a lot to many of areas of Lehigh athletics and the way they are able to put on a high-caliber NCAA qualifying event."
Overall, Utesch sees this weekend as a good litmus test for her squad, not just to see how well they run, but more so how her team will compete.
"It's more about seeing where your team is, putting some runners in different roles, and for us specifically seeing the course up at Colgate," said Utesch. "I'm not as worried about the team competitive result as I am in seeing what type of competitiveness individuals put forth."
Women's cross country will run the Lehigh Invitational 6k on Friday at 5:30 p.m. They will then travel up to Hamilton, New York to run in Colgate's Harry Lang Invitational on Saturday with an expected start time of 11:00 a.m.
Not only is head coach Debbie Utesch (now entering her 26th year) excited for the year ahead, her peers think highly of this year's Mountain Hawks squad as well. Lehigh was ranked #14 in the 2023 NCAA DI Women's Cross Country Regional Rankings for the Mid-Atlantic region. Utesch believes that the team's ranking is a testament to the quality of her runners and the profile of her program.
"I feel like preseason rankings are both a nod to the senior class that just graduated because they helped set up a pretty solid season last year, and it's also a nod to the way the program is looked at by our peers," said Utesch. "I think that's a good nod to consistency of being a regionally ranked team hopefully year in and year out as we continue through."
While Lehigh did graduate six seniors, they bring back a talented group of runners back into the fold in 2023.
"Christina Yakaboski and Lucy Afanasewicz were both scorers for us in the 1500s. Savanah Beavers and Lindsay MacLellan were both scorers for us in the 3000m steeplechase, and then Abigail Tenreiro was the ECAC runner-up in the 10k," said Utesch. "Those women are all back and will join some other key women that will help solidify a good nucleus of runners in our program this year."
In addition to the accomplished returning runners, the Mountain Hawks welcome seven first-years to the squad, the team's biggest class since 2018. Utesch says that she's seen the newcomers adapt well to the speed of Division I running.
"From what I've seen they've done a good job of stepping up to the more intense training, having a lot of quality women to train beside," said Utesch. "I think our upperclassmen have done a really nice job of making them feel welcome in joining our program and laying out the expectations of what it means to be a Lehigh women's cross country runner."
The team will be quite busy to start the season, as the Mountain Hawks host the Lehigh Invitational Friday and then will travel to Colgate for the Harry Lang Invitational on Saturday. While the men's team is running both races, Utesch will split her team in two groups this weekend. One group will stay at home and another will head up north and run the Colgate course, which is the site of this year's Patriot League championship.
"[Splitting the team] gives women across our squad an opportunity to be scorers because it's not our whole squad competing together and maybe take on some different roles that they wouldn't traditionally take on when putting 20 women on the starting line," said Utesch.
While the team is slated to run on Colgate's course again later in the season, Lehigh will also compete on its own course three times this year. Not only are the Mountain Hawks hosting a race tomorrow, they will also host the annual Paul Short Run and the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional this season.
"We have our strategies on the way our course is run, and we're able to implement those and be familiar with them because we are practicing them all season," said Utesch. "The fact that we do host the Mid-Atlantic region speaks a lot to many of areas of Lehigh athletics and the way they are able to put on a high-caliber NCAA qualifying event."
Overall, Utesch sees this weekend as a good litmus test for her squad, not just to see how well they run, but more so how her team will compete.
"It's more about seeing where your team is, putting some runners in different roles, and for us specifically seeing the course up at Colgate," said Utesch. "I'm not as worried about the team competitive result as I am in seeing what type of competitiveness individuals put forth."
Women's cross country will run the Lehigh Invitational 6k on Friday at 5:30 p.m. They will then travel up to Hamilton, New York to run in Colgate's Harry Lang Invitational on Saturday with an expected start time of 11:00 a.m.
Players Mentioned
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
/ Women's Cross Country
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