Lehigh University Women's Cross Country

Christopher Torpey joined the Lehigh cross country coaching staff in September 2025. Torpey got his start in coaching at the high school level. In 2021, he became the head boys indoor and outdoor track & field coach at Methacton High School, as well as the head gir's cross country coach at Upper Dublin High School. While at Methacton, Torpey played a key role in elevating the distance program to new heights. In his first summer guiding the distance runners, Torpey helped lead the cross country team to their first-ever qualification for the PIAA State Championship. On the track, the majority of his runners made the top-20 school performance list across the distance events, completely overhauling the distance events. In a four year span, his team had 16 athletes and three relays qualify for Pennsylvania state championship meets, with several bringing home state medals in the process. They routinely hit the qualifying standards for the New Balance and Nike national championship meets in the distance medley relay, 4x800, and mile events. In 2022, the team captured Methacton’s first Pioneer Athletic Conference (PAC) championship in outdoor track and field. At Upper Dublin, Torpey led the girls cross country team to a 14-1 record and three Suburban One Liberty Conference Championships. Prior to coaching, the Schwenksville, Pennsylvania native ran cross country at Monmouth University. During his time there he was named to the Northeast Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll, an honor

The 2025 season marks Debbie Utesch’s 29th year with the Lehigh cross country and track and field programs. She has served as the head women’s cross country coach since 1996, and also served as the head men’s coach until prior to the start of the 2008 season, when her former runner Todd Etters ’02 was appointed head coach of the men. Utesch has coached two female national qualifiers in cross country, including Jen Schappert in 2005 and All-American Elizabeth Weiler in 2014. She has also earned one Patriot League Coach of the Year honor. During the 2021 season, Utesch led the Mountain Hawks to a fifth-place finish at the Patriot League Championships. Lehigh finished 17th at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional and defeated rival Lafayette for the 16th consecutive time. While the Mountain Hawks succeeded on the cross country course, they continued to excel in the classroom. Lehigh was named USTFCCCA All-Academic Team and had 17 student-athletes named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll. Senior Kara Bonner was named Patriot League Sportsmanship Award winner for her leadership within the cross country and track and field programs. Lehigh had its 2020 season pushed to the spring of 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Utesch led the Mountain Hawks to a sixth-place finish at the Patriot League Championship where Jamie Zamrin finished 12th overall to be named second team All-Patriot League. Lehigh went on to earn USTFCCCA All-Academic honors as well. Lehigh took fifth place at the Pat

2019 CROSS COUNTRY: Academic All-Patriot League...All-Patriot League Second Team... Academic Honor Roll...Finished second overall at the Lehigh-Lafayette Dual Meet (22:01.50)... Finished 10th out of 170 runners at the Ted Owen Invitational (18:45.50)... Third Lehigh finisher and tallied 135th among 344 runners at the Paul Short Run... First Lehigh finisher and ninth overall at the Patriot League Championships (22:20.0)... Registered 81st overall and second Lehigh finisher at NCAA M-A Regional (21:56.4)... 2018 CROSS COUNTRY: Placed 66th overall and second on the team at the NCAA Regionals (22:34)… Finished eighth overall and first on the team at the Patriot League Championship Meet (22:14.5)… Finished 138th overall and first on the team at the Penn State Open (22:11)… Finished 70th overall and first on the team at the Paul Short Run Gold Race, earning a personal record (21:57)… Finished first on the team and 75th overall at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown Meet in the 5K, earning a personal record (18:21)… Finished first overall at the Lehigh-Lafayette Dual (22:51.83)… Named to the Patriot League Academic Honor Roll… Named to Academic All-Patriot League Team… Named Second Team All-Patriot League. 2017 CROSS COUNTRY: Finished 105th (22:11.2) at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional, hosted by Lehigh…Placed 45th overall at the Patriot League Championships (22:34.9)…Finished 100th overall at the Penn State National Open (22:15.3)…Rounded out the team’s top seven with a time of 22:

Gavin Richards joined the Lehigh cross country coaching staff in September 2025. Before securing his first coaching role, Richards competed at Rutgers from 2...

Mark Will-Weber came to Lehigh in 2022 as a volunteer assistant coach with over 40 years of coaching experience. He served as the head cross country coach for Moravian College for almost two decades, and was often the assistant for their track and field team as well. Before coaching, Will-Weber was the co-captain of the East Stroudsburg cross country team. He was twice all-IC4A in cross-country in the mid-1970s, and All-PSAC in cross country in 1975. After college, he was sponsored by Saucony Running in the 1980s. Will-Weber got into coaching when parents in the Lehigh Valley asked him if he would work with their kids in the summer to prepare them for their upcoming cross-country seasons. In 1987, he started serving as the Head Men's Cross Country Coach at Moravian, and became Head Women's Cross Country Coach in 1992. He led the Moravian women’s cross country team to 10 straight Middle Atlantic Conference titles from 1993 through 2002, and three third place finishes at the Division III NCAA Championships in 1993, 1995 and 2001. He also was at the helm of several men's titles over the years. He coached four NCAA Division III champions, as well as more than 20 All-Americans. Outside of coaching, he wrote for Runner's World Magazine from 1987 to 2001 and penned several books about running, including his best-seller "The Quotable Runner." “I've supported the sport of running in all aspects....cross-country, track, road racing. I've done this as an athlete, a coach, and a journali