Posted: 02/02/2012
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh women’s track and field team will split up to participate in a pair of meets this weekend. Some Mountain Hawks will compete at the prestigious New Balance Collegiate Invitational at the NYC Armory on Friday and Saturday while the rest of the team while compete in the John Covert Classic which Lehigh will host at the Rauch Fieldhouse on Saturday.
The New Balance Collegiate Invitational will feature over 100 colleges highlighted by some of the top track and field programs in the nation including seven of the Top 10 teams (No. 2 LSU, No. 3 Arkansas, No. 4 Clemson, No. 5 UCF, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 BYU and No. 8 Texas Tech).
The meet is set to begin Friday at 11:00 a.m. and will continue Saturday at 9 a.m.
At the Invitational last season, Lehigh had some stellar individual performances. Katherine Pierce placed fifth in the 5,000-meter run, posting a time of 17:24.30. The Mountain Hawks also placed well in the 500-meter dash as Elizabeth McManus finished 11th (1:17.09) and Kathleen Ryan was 34th (1:20.64). In the 1,000-meter run, Jessica Kendzor placed 16th with a time of 2:55.47 while Lauren Pietrosh finished 25th with a time of 2:56.90. And Alexis Weiner was ninth in the 3,000-meter run with a time of 10:23.07.
The Mountain Hawks also had success at last year’s John Covert Classic as Lehigh had six first-place finishes, three in track and three in field events. Lehigh won the 400-meter dash, 1,000-meter run, 3,000-meter run, pole vault, triple jump and weight throw.
Saturday’s Classic is slated to start at 10:00 a.m.
Lehigh is coming off a dominating 109.5-71.5 dual meet win over rival Lafayette as the Mountain Hawks took first in all 10 track events. Lehigh was led by senior Alexandra Doersam who broke her own school records in the 60-meter dash and the long jump as she sparked the Mountain Hawks to their third straight victory.
Doersam, the reigning indoor Patriot League long jump champion, set a school record in the event with a distance of 18-10ft (5.74m), surpassing her own record of 18-5ft (5.61m) which she set last season. Doersam’s jump also qualified her for the ECAC’s, beating the 5.70m that was required to qualify.
Doersam also took first in the 60-meter dash with a school record 7.84 seconds, breaking her own record of 7.89 seconds which she set two weeks ago at the Mountain Hawk Invite.
For her efforts, Doersam was named the Patriot League Female Field Athlete of the Week
After the pair of meets over the weekend which will split up the team, the Mountain Hawks will return to action together for the Lafayette/Rider Invitational at the NYC Armory Friday, February 10th.