Lehigh Wins 12th Straight Against Lafayette as Meet is Decided by Final Event

Saturday, January 31

Bethlehem, Pa.

Lehigh University

Lafayette College

Photo by: Don Paul

Lehigh Wins 12th Straight Against Lafayette as Meet is Decided by Final Event

1/31/2026 11:13:00 PM | Men's Track and Field

Results

BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Lehigh men's track hosted Lafayette at Rauch Fieldhouse on Saturday. The Mountain Hawks narrowly defeated the Leopards 92-89 to earn their 12th straight win in The Rivalry, presented by Lehigh Valley Orthopedic Institute, part of Jefferson Health.

"It was so close because Lafayette always shows their best self when we race each other, which is great," head coach Khayla Atte praised.

The field events kicked off the meet with sophomore Jaden Ferguson winning two events in his season opener. His jump of 6.99 meters led a trio of Mountain Hawks to a sweep in the long jump. First-year Konstantinos Panagopoulos continued his week by week improvement, setting a new personal record of 6.92 meters to place second. Junior Andrew Clark placed third, jumping 6.77 meters. Panagopoulos also earned a third place finish in the triple jump. His 13.57 meter jump was second on the team only to senior Daniel Givens, who won the event by jumping 13.72 meters.

Junior Eli Johnson and Tyson Utesch led Lehigh in the pole vault, with each of them clearing the 4.45 meter height. Johnson took second based on attempts, but Utesch set a new personal record for his third place finish.

Joseph Nowakowski earned two podium spots in the field events. He continued his senior season improvement in this competition, coming away with two personal records. His event winning 16.75 meter launch of the shot put was a new personal best by two-hundredths of a meter. This throw puts him as the third furthest shot putter in Lehigh indoor track history. His other personal best throw came in the weight throw, where he placed third with a 15.43 meter toss. First-year Chance Stuart was victorious in that event, winning with a 16.14 meter throw.

Lehigh's two individual track wins came in two of the longer distance events. Senior Alex Heidemann won the 800 meter run, crossing the line at 1:53.55. Junior Aidan LaTourette took third in the race, he ran a new personal best time of 1:54.19. Sophomore Ian Zalewski and senior Dan Malatesta took the top two spots to control the 1000 meter race. Zalewski won the event in a personal best time of 2:31.06, followed closely behind by Malatesta in 2:31.43.

Junior Eddie Moore battled in the short sprints, getting edged out at the line in both the 60 and 200, with Atte saying he "took the sprints on his shoulders." Both Moore and Lafayette sprinter Kaseme Leckie crossed the line with 6.90 on the clock, but Leckie clocked in two thousandths of a second before Moore despite a personal best performance. Moore came in second once again in the 200, running 22.50.

The Mountain Hawks fought hard in the distance events, coming short of the win in the one mile and 3000 meter races by less than three seconds each. Sophomores Charlie Butler and Ben Connell earned the second and third podium spots in the mile, with Butler finishing at 4:31.19 and Connell crossing at 4:34.64. Junior Ryan Baker placed second in the 3000, running 8:37.05.

Lehigh picked up runner-up finishes in each of the remaining individual events. Junior Nathan Oliphant placed second in the 60 meter hurdles, clocking a 8.38-second race. Sophomore Nick Bressi placed second in the 400, running 50.95. The Mountain Hawks earned two podium finishes in the 500 meter race, with first-year Mekhi Britt placing second with a 1:07.26 run, and junior Logan Haverkamp finishing in 1:08.30 in third.

Lehigh came into the final two relays with a three point lead over Lafayette. Despite Bressi nearly closing a major gap, the team of him, Clark, Haverkamp, and Peter Priestner finished second in the 4x400 (3:27.03) to bring the Lehigh lead to one. Heading into the 4x800, the winning relay team would come away with the Bryan Mundy trophy. After a first leg by LaTourette, Britt extended the gap by a significant margin to give Zalewski and Heidemann enough space to hold on and win the event in 7:48.51, clinching the meet victory.

"I knew our 800 guys and I was very confident," said Heidemann. "Obviously there's a lot of pressure with the whole meet riding on us, that's kind of why we do it. I live for those moments where it's on my shoulders and there's no other four guys I'd want running that 4x8."

Speaking to Atte about the narrow victory, she said: "The men showed dog. I've been challenging the men because they've been showing too much fear in their eyes. Today they showed me that they can dig deep."

The Mountain Hawks compete again next Friday at the Fastrack National Invite.