By Gina Morrone ’14
Despite great efforts from many athletes, the Lafayette track and field team fell to the Lehigh Mountain Hawks on Saturday. The Hawks dominated the women 109.5-71.5, and despite placing first in nine out of 16 events, the men fell 97-84. Lehigh used a plethora of second and third place finishes to overcome the Leopards.
Jerome Rudolph ‘12 contributed three first place finishes for Lafayette. Rudolph boasted a distance of 7.32 meters in the long jump. He also placed first in the 60-meter dash. He completed the run in 6.89 seconds, an improvement from his personal best 6.98 seconds, which qualified him for the IC4A competition in December. His third win of the day came in the 200-meter dash, where he posted a time of 22.48 seconds.
“Extravagant,” Rudolph said, when asked how winning feels at Lehigh. “I have had the opportunity to play Lehigh in football and in track and there is no other comparison for competing against Lehigh. It is always interesting and more suspenseful to compete against Lehigh on their turf because you have the opportunity and the satisfaction of beating up on the home team, not to forget your main rival. It is always more intense because the home crowd isn’t rooting for you so you have to be tough.”
Rudolph and his team are preparing for their final meets, the Patriot League Championship, and the IC4A and ECAC competitions.
“Of course I want to win every event I participate in at league champs, and do well enough at IC4A’s to make it to the regional championship in my indoor/outdoor events as well as the men’s 4×100 meter relay,” Rudolph said.
Many other Lafayette men earned first place finishes. Nick Henderson ‘12 and Michael Thompson ‘12 placed first and second in the pole vault, posting heights of 4.50 meters and 4.35 meters respectively. Chris Parker ‘13 claimed the top spot in the 800-meter run in 1:57.92 seconds. Josh Sadlock ‘12 made a big move with 600m to go in the 3,000-meter run and won in 8:53.44 seconds. This time was nearly four seconds faster than Lehigh’s Tyler Mueller ’14, the second place finisher. Nick Hepp ‘13 and Bill Leonard ‘12 each won their events, the 400-meter and 500-meter dashes. Hepp completed the sprint in 50.66 seconds, and Leonard finished in 1:06.97 seconds.
In the relays, Hepp, Leonard, Neil Franzese ‘14, Ryan McVeigh ‘13, Nick DeRosa ‘12 and Chris Pregler ‘12 snatched the 4×400-meter relay from Lehigh’s squad, finishing in 3:25.32 seconds, to Lehigh’s 3:26.21 seconds. In the 4×800-meter race, Andrew Haff ‘15, Matt Piazza ‘12, Derrick Hargwood ‘14, and Parker defeated the Lehigh runners, winning in a time of 8:17.52 to Lehigh’s 8:32.04.
In the women’s race, Senior Joelle Neilson ‘12 jumped 11.75 meters and Brittany Powell ‘15 leaped 11.16 meters to claim the top two spots in the triple jump competition.
Elise Buffinton ‘14 and Brooke Kohler ‘12 , vaulted 3.35 meters and 3.05 meters respectively to combine for first and second place finishes. However, their efforts were not close to enough, as the Mountain Hawks placed first in all 10 track events.
Last weekend, Buffinton set a new school record in the pole vault, after a few months of tweaking her technique.
“Breaking the school record was definitely a highlight,” Buffinton said. “But more than that, the height was also a indoor personal best for me so I think that means even more, because it means there is still a lot of room for improvement, and hopefully I’ll be able to keep jumping even higher in the future.”
The two jumpers are always looking to improve, and hope to do so in the league competition.
“We’re really lucky to have a competitive meet in the season before Leagues,” Kohler added. “It helps us prepare for it mentally and physically by getting a taste of what’s to come,”
The Patriot League Championship is approaching quickly, and the Lafayette teams will see Lehigh once again.
“They are definitely competitive,” Buffinton said. “They are always just as prepared as we are going into meets and they’ll compete just as hard.”
The Leopards will next compete at the New Balance Invitational today and tomorrow.