BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The Lehigh men’s and women’s track and field teams were picked to finish fourth and third in the Patriot League’s preseason poll released on Friday. Last season, the Lehigh men finished fourth at the Indoor Patriot League Championships, while the women finished third. Lehigh begins its indoor season tonight with the Lehigh Season Opener inside Rauch Fieldhouse at 5 p.m.
The men garnered 62 points in the voting, while the women received 71 finished 18 points shy of Bucknell for second. Last season, the women (108 points) came up just 16 points behind second-place finisher Navy (124 points) in the final standings of the Indoor Patriot League Championships. The Mountain Hawk men completed the championships scoring 65.5 points which was good for a fourth-place finish.
This season, Bucknell and Navy each received eight first place votes and 92 points to draw for the preseason poll lead on the men’s side. Army was third with 74 points, while Lafayette collected 50 points for a fifth-place ranking. Colgate (33), American (30) and Holy Cross (15) rounded out the men’s poll with the sixth, seventh and eighth place predictions, respectively.
On the women’s side, after finishing second in last year’s final indoor standings the Navy women garnered 11 first-place votes and 95 points to sit atop the Patriot League preseason standings. Following the Mids are the defending champion Bison of Bucknell which gathered five first-place votes and 89 points for a second place ranking. Following the Mountain Hawks is the Army Black Knights with 58 points. Holy Cross’ 51 points put them in fifth, while Colgate (38), Lafayette (32) and American (14) were predicted to finish sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively.
The Mountain Hawks’ indoor season begins tonight at 5 p.m. with the Lehigh Season Opener inside Rauch Fieldhouse.