By Drew Friedman ’16

The Lafayette track and field team participated in the annual Patriot League championships last weekend at Lehigh University. The women throwers and the pole-vaulters shined for the Leopards.

Rachel Pena ‘14, coming off her third Patriot League female field athlete of the week honor, had another impressive week finishing third in the hammer throw with a heave of 179’. Fellow thrower Gwen Steckel ‘13 finished right behind her with a 166’ 1” toss.  Alex Hunsberger ‘14 also grabbed a top finish in the javelin finals with a distance of 134’ 7”.

School-record holder Elise Buffinton ‘14 added another impressive chapter to her resume and won the pole-vaulting title with a 12’ 2.5’’ vault. Buffinton finished second a year ago.

Devin Smith ‘16 continued her tremendous season with a second place finish in the 400-meter finals. Smith also contributed to the 4x400m relay team of Erin Keen ‘16, Haley Langton ‘15 and Chelsea Marone ‘13. They finished in third with a time of 3:52.

A one-two finish in the steeplechase by Rose Willey ‘14 and Stephanie Benko ‘16 highlighted the second day for the women.

The men were led by their 4x400m relay of Ryan Mcveigh ‘13, Nick Hepp ‘13, Jarrell Bobb, and Billy Leonard ‘14, who placed second in 3:14. Chris Castello ‘15 accumulated 6,110 points in the decathlon to finish third. He finished top five in nine of the ten events. The men’s 4x100m relay team of David Robinson ‘13, Bobb, Jordan Roses ‘16, and Hepp finished fifth overall.

Bucknell won the overall championships with 183 points for the women and 184 for the men.