Rachel Eidson (Daniel Boone) >> East Stroudsburg freshman Rachel Eidson competed in the 3,000-meter steeplechase for the first time in her college career and came away a winner.
Eidson (Daniel Boone) took the Division II-III steeplechase at Lafayette’s 7-Way Invitational on March 25 in Easton. Her time of 12:20.49 would have won the Division I race.
“Rachel has been a really nice surprise,” cross country and distance coach Joe Koch said. “She had a good cross country season and in the last three or four indoor meets, she really started to develop and drop her times further.”
The coach was impressed with Eidson’s performance at Lafayette.
“She had an outstanding debut and it’s quite an accomplishment to win your first race,” Koch said. “Rachel has an unbelievable future in the steeplechase.”
Eidson opened the outdoor season by finishing 46th in the 1,500-meter run at Charlotte’s 49ers Classic on March 18 in Charlotte, N.C. with a time of 5:02.80. That was also her first collegiate 1,500 after competing mainly in the 800, 1,000 and mile indoors this past winter.
Derek Stump (Exeter) >> The 5-foot-6, 165-pound senior midfielder has a team-high 21 assists for the Albright men’s lacrosse team. He also has scored seven goals for 28 points and has 15 ground balls and four caused turnovers. Stump had three goals and six assists in a 14-8 victory over Delaware Valley on March 25 in Doylestown and came back with a goal and five assists in a 12-11 triumph over Lycoming in the team’s MAC Commonwealth opener on March 29 in Reading to give the Lions a 3-4 overall record.
Xavier Smith (Daniel Boone) >> The junior kicked off the outdoor season with the Penn State men’s track team by capturing the 100 meters at the Pac 12-Big 10 Invitational on March 24-25 in Tempe, Ariz. His time was a personal best 10.47. He ran a leg on the 4×100 relay which finished first in a time of 39.65. Smith also finished sixth in the 200 meters in 21.29. He finished fourth in the 100 (10.59) at last year’s Pac 12-Big 10 meet and the 4×100 finished second (39.92).
Reid Hoff (Governor Mifflin) >> The sophomore is having a solid spring playing with the Alvernia men’s tennis team which is 3-0 after victories over Immaculata (8-1), Summit (9-0) and Neumann (8-1). Hoff is 3-0 playing either No. 3, No. 4 and No. 5 singles and 3-0 competing at No. 2 or No. 3 doubles. He was 2-3 in doubles and 1-5 in singles during the fall season. The Crusaders are 6-2 in matches during both the fall and spring seasons.
Jonathan Bieber (Exeter) >> The Albright junior earned a pair of top five finishes in the season-opening Golden Ram Invitational on March 25 in West Chester. Bieber finished second in the 400 meter hurdles with a time of 58.32 and was fifth in the 110 meter hurdles in 16.14. Both times lead the Middle Atlantic Conference performance list. Beiber finished first in both hurdles (15.63 in the 110 and 54.83 in the 400) at the MAC Outdoor Championships as a sophomore and was fifth in the 400 hurdles (57.34) as a freshman.
Brock Johnson (Boyertown) >> The 5-foot-10, 180-pound junior attack had back-to-back big games to better the 100-point career mark and move into sixth place all-time in points for the King’s men’s lacrosse team. Johnson had four goals and two assists to lead the 3-5 Monarchs to a 15-6 victory over Bryn Athyn on March 25 and came back with four goals and an assist in a 9-6 triumph over Marywood on March 29. He has 17 goals and eight assists on the season and 78 goals and 32 assists for 110 points for his career.
Haley Wentzel (Boyertown) >> The junior scored a career-high five goals on just seven shots and added an assist to lead the Lehigh women’s lacrosse team to a 14-10 victory over American on March 25. She leads the team with 22 goals and has three assists for 25 points. She also has six ground balls, nine draw controls and four caused turnovers for the Mountain Hawks who had their five-game win streak snapped with a 16-9 loss to Navy in a Patriot League test on March 29 to fall to 7-3 overall and 2-1 in league play.
Rachel Shaw (Boyertown) >> The 5-foot-7 junior midfielder has scored five goals for the Washington College women’s lacrosse team. She had two goals in a 10-7 victory over Albright on March 14 in Hilton Head, S.C. Shaw also has seven ground balls, seven draw controls and two caused turnovers for the Shorewomen who are 5-3 overall and 0-1 in Centennial Conference play after an 11-10 overtime league loss to Dickinson on March 25 in Carlisle.
Lauren Waller (Boyertown) >> The freshman infielder is hitting .362 for the Gwynedd Mercy softball team. She has 17 hits in 47 at-bats with three doubles, a triple, a home run, nine runs scored and 11 RBIs. She’s also 5-for-5 stealing bases and has made two errors on 52 chances (.962). Waller had an inside-the-park home run and an RBI triple to lead the Griffins to a 5-3 Colonial States Athletic Conference victory over Summit on March 25 to move the team’s record to 6-8 overall and 2-0 in league play.
Ross Pilliod (Berks Catholic) >> The sophomore from Reading has been the top finisher for the St. Joseph’s men’s golf team’s first two matches of the spring. He tied for 31st in Villanova’s Wildcat Invitational March 27-28 in Malvern with a five-over-par 74-73-147. The Hawks tied for 13th. On March 18-19, Pilliod tied for 39th at the Mission Inn Spring Spectacular in Howey-In-The-Hills, Fla. with a 230 total on rounds of 74, 77 and 79. St. Joseph’s finished 15th out of 17 teams.
Mary Kate Duncan (Berks Catholic) >> The Moravian junior captured the javelin throw at Lafayette’s 7-Way Invitational on March 25 in Easton. Competing in the Division II-III meet, Duncan hit 141 feet, 2 inches beat the runner-up by almost 18 feet. She would have won the Division I javelin. The effort was an ECAC Division III qualifying distance and was the second best in the Landmark Conference thus far this season. Duncan, from Reading, finished fifth in the javelin at the NCAA Division III Championships (145 feet) last year as a sophomore.
Amanda Hess (Brandywine Heights) >> The junior went 2-for-4 for the Arcadia softball team in a 6-5 season-opening loss to Susquehanna on March 12 in Leesburg, Fla. But she was injured and had to sit out the next 11 games. Hess returned to the starting lineup on March 25 and helped the Knights top Stevenson 8-0 and 8-2 in the MAC Commonwealth openers in Stevenson, Md. She went 3-for-7 in the two games with a double, an RBI and a run scored. The sweep gave Arcadia a 10-4 overall record and a 2-0 mark in league play.
Lucas Warning (Kutztown) >> The senior captured the shot put to help the Lehigh men’s track team kick off its outdoor season by winning Lafayette’s 7-Way Invitational on March 25 in Easton. Warning posted a distance of 57 feet, 11/2 inches on his fourth try of the day. His best performance at Lehigh came at the Patriot League Indoor Track Championships on March 18 in Boston when he finished first with a toss of 59 feet, 101/2 inches. He had eight firsts and two seconds during the indoor season.
Adrienne Puglia (Hamburg) >> The Lock Haven senior finished second in the hammer throw at the season-opening Susquehanna’s Jim Taylor Invitational on March 25 in Selinsgrove. She had a toss of 137 feet, 1 inch. That was well off her personal best of 147 feet, 10 inches which she recorded while finishing seventh in the same meet as a sophomore. Puglia is fresh from winning weight throw (56-31/4) at the PSAC Indoor Championships in Edinboro.
Sam Lichtner (Twin Valley) >> The senior right-hander is 5-5 with a 3.97 earned run average for the 8-18 Mount St. Mary’s softball team. She’s pitched in 14 games with 12 starts and in 67 innings has given up 84 hits and 46 runs, 38 earned, with 41 walks and 34 strikeouts. In her latest start, she pitched a complete game 4-1 victory over Coppin State on March 29 in Emmitsburg, Md. In seven innings, she gave up six hits, an earned run with two walks and two strikeouts. She’s pitched in 78 games with 48 starts and is 19-30 for her career with 170 strikeouts for The Mount.
