Lehigh runner Maddie Hayes makes strides

Maddie Hayes started running with her school’s cross country program in third grade. At the time it was just for fun.

Now a senior on the Lehigh women’s cross country team, running is much more than just a source of entertainment. 

Hayes said her dad, who ran cross country throughout high school and college,  has always been a huge inspiration for her.

She said while races were difficult for her when she was young, she fell in love with the simplicity of the sport. 

“I think I was pretty terrible when I started,” Hayes said. “I would cry every race, but practices were fun.”

Towards the end of middle school, Hayes said she realized how much training is required in cross country. 

“I learned if you run over the summer, you’ll improve quite a bit,” Hayes said. “I started having success, and I think I kind of got hooked on that part of it.”

She said since then, running has been an outlet for her and, in some ways, an escape. 

Hayes’ high school graduating class was one of the last applicant pools that navigated COVID-19 protocols while applying to colleges. She said this meant she was never able to have an official visit, and all of her recruiting was online.

Hayes said the biggest draws for her to choose Lehigh were the girls on the cross country team and head coach Debbie Utesch. 

Hayes said she could tell the team culture was something she wanted to be a part of and the coach really cared, even through just Zoom calls and emails. 

Hayes is a biology major on the pre-med track. While she said being able to run was important to her during the college search process, her main focus was attending a school where she could be a well-balanced student athlete. 

“In my college search, I knew I was looking for academics first, and Lehigh definitely fit that profile,” Hayes said. 

Lucy Afanasewicz, a junior on the team, said Hayes has done an incredible job of managing her student-athlete duties, and the team looks up to her ability to thrive in both areas. 

“I’ve never met somebody that can do it all like she can,” Afanasewicz said. “I don’t know how it’s humanly possible, but she gets it done.”

The team dynamic was something Hayes found to be crucial once she arrived at school, and she credits her teammates with helping her succeed.

Hayes said her Lehigh cross country career has had its ups and downs. 

“It’s just been a long process of figuring out what works for me in different contexts,” Hayes said.

This semester, her hard work has paid off. 

For the first time in her Lehigh career, Hayes picked up her first individual race win finished at the team’s annual rivalry meet against Lafayette on Sept. 21. 

She was named the Patriot League Women’s Runner of the Week. 

“It’s a little thing, but it’s a nice reminder that consistency pays off,” Hayes said. 

In every sport at Lehigh, matches against Lafayette are highly anticipated, pressurized and mark a significant moment in the season.

“We always go into (the rivalry meet) very seriously, because we want to carry on the legacy,” Hayes said. 

Hayes said it was important for the girls in the senior class to run a strong race that would leave an impression and precedent for years to come. 

Hayes said because of this, the team went into the meet with a specific strategy. They knew which girls they wanted to finish in which positions in order to control the race. 

Utesch said Hayes is always thinking ahead to the next thing that needs to be done and ways the team can be more efficient.  

Hayes said the team has been competing with a split squad structure, and the rivalry meet was the first they ran with a full squad. 

Hayes said it was nice to finally see how the entire team worked together.

Utesch said this recent win is a direct reflection of Hayes’ growing confidence in her own abilities. 

“To be able to always say, ‘I won the Lehigh-Lafayette Dual Meet,’ is just a great notch in her belt,” Utesch said.