The Lehigh men’s and women’s track and field teams both concluded the weekend with successful performances at both the Armory Invitational in New York City and the 23rd annual John Covert Classic, which took place at Rauch Fieldhouse.
On Friday, the team was split up and only part of the team competed at the Armory Invitational. The men’s team earned two IC4A-qualifying marks. Senior Ryan Mahalsky ran the 5,000 meter race in 14:28.91 to qualify and senior Adeolu Adesida earned a qualifying mark as well with his 2.04 meter lap in the high jump.
“It is typically hard to come off the Lehigh-Lafayette Dual meet where there is so much energy to a weekend where our team is split up into two different locations,” senior captain thrower Ben Beauchamp said. “But after hearing about all of the PRs that people got this weekend, I would say that it did not effect us too much,”
The women’s team also excelled at the Armory Invitational. A standout performance from junior Elizabeth Weiler, who set a new Lehigh record in the 5,000 meter race with a time of 16:55.56, helped the Mountain Hawks achieve a successful finish.
“Overall I believe it was clear both our men’s and women’s teams performed very well at the Armory Invitational,” Weiler said. “We achieved a number of personal bests and I think this result will be extremely critical going forward.”
Strong performances were also apparent at the Covert Classic the next day. For the women’s team, sophomore Courtney Avery took first place in the high jump and the 4×800 meter relay team of freshmen Laura Barnes, Kristen Lavallee, Hannah Leskow and Kathryn Phillips claimed a first place finish, as well, with a time of 9:59.63.
“We only have a few weeks until the Patriot League championship meet and it’s important to have good times and marks like these going into such an important competition,” Weiler said. “This weekend really helped us accomplish that.”
The men’s team proved to be successful in many events at the Covert Classic, claiming four first place finishes. Junior Cody Israel won the triple jump, senior Derek Gaul won the long jump and freshman James Chappell was victorious in the 1,000 meter run. The 4×800 meter relay team came in first, as well.
“This year I think the team is doing a great job of supporting one another and setting the bar high,” sophomore sprinter and hurdler Katie Hatler said. “At practice people are pushing and critiquing each other, which can be seen directly by the results of the meet. At meets, our team is supporting and cheering for each member as they compete. Additionally, the team is doing great at setting goals.”
Although both of the meets were invitationals and were not scored, the team overall feels like it accomplished a lot and that it is in a good spot for the next few meets, but also feels there are still areas to improve upon.
“We need to work on bringing more energy to all of our meets, not just the Dual meet and the Patriot League Championships,” Beauchamp said. “If we can accomplish this in the next couple weeks, we will be right where we need to be for the indoor championships.”
Both the men and women are set to compete next at Yale’s Giegengack Classic next weekend.
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