Lehigh men’s and women’s cross country teams enter season with optimism

Both the men’s and women’s Lehigh cross country teams have high hopes for the 2026 season. 

Despite former men’s cross country head coach Todd Etters resigning from his position before the 2025 season, senior runner Thomas Smigo said he’s feeling confident with Debbie Utesch as both the men’s and women’s head coach.

“I think we could be a team that nobody saw coming,” Utesch said. 

To check the athletes’ summer progress, the team does a time trial race.

Utesch said the race revealed different types of competitiveness among the first years and returners, and both teams are optimistic.

Smigo said their main focus this preseason has been positivity. If the teams pass each other on runs during practice, they always yell encouraging words and root for one another during races. 

The men’s team placed eighth out of 10 teams at the Patriot League Championships last year. 

“I think last year the main problem was that we overthought the race,” Smigo said. 

Utesch said she focuses coaching on the mental aspect of the sport, and is currently working on reframing the team’s internal dialogue while racing.

“If you can catch that (internal dialogue) sooner and be prepared to address that with positivity, then that’s going to turn into grinding through the part of the race that hurts and coming out the other side with a better performance,” Utesch said. “So that’s where the positivity piece comes through.” 

Utesch also said the team talks about competing with curiosity.

Senior Hope Trimmer said this helps with expanding what each athlete thinks they are capable of.

 “(Utesch) always just says ‘Be curious about what you can do,’” Trimmer said. “Maybe you’re like, ‘I don’t know if I can run this personal record, but let’s see. What’s the worst that could happen?’” 

Utesch remains the sole head coach of both teams, overseeing 38 student-athletes. Rather than having 40 individual meetings to stay connected with her team, Utesch does journal check-ins to make sure she’s able to be attentive to the entire squad.

“At the end of every week, when we have our Sunday practice, it’s a big reflection time on the previous week,” Utesch said. 

This role isn’t new to the dual-team coach. Utesch coached both teams when she came to Lehigh in 1997 for over 10 years.

“They’re motivated differently,” she said. “They respond to things differently. They have different levels of resiliency. The way they approach victories and defeats is different. So, from that standpoint, it was kind of fun to get back to that.” 

Trimmer said even though last season was complicated because of the coaching change, the teams and Utesch were able to adjust, even if it meant things would be different. 

She also said the adjustment included athletes getting used to just not having as much individual time with Utesch because she was spread so thin. 

However, she said she does know for a fact that a lot of the men’s team have said that Coach Deb is one of the best things that’s ever happened to them.

“She quickly just came in and said, ‘All right, I’ll take care of this,’” Smigo said. “And since then, she’s been the coach, and she’s been incredible.”

The teams are setting high expectations for themselves. 

Utesch said each race leading up to the championships serves as momentum builders and helps put a little bit of pressure on the athletes to prepare for the biggest meet of the season in November.

“Our goal is to keep moving forward and to finish above top 13 in the region and then probably fourth place in the Patriot League,” Smigo said. 

Bucknell is hosting the Patriot League Championships this year, a course that Urtesch said the women have traditionally run well. 

The team hopes to beat Lafayette for the 27th consecutive year at the Lehigh-Lafayette dual meet on Sept. 25.