Assistant Coach: Aaron Lyle

• Primary Event Groups: Men’s and Women’s Sprints/Hurdles/Relays
• Alma Mater: Elizabethtown College ‘03

The 2005-06 season was Coach Lyle’s very first as the sprints/hurdles/relays coach at his alma-mater. He wasted no time implementing new training techniques which lead to an impressive list of accomplishments and new school records.

Under Coach Lyle’s tutelage, a contingent of first-year students including Tina Bucci '09, Stephon Finley '09, Katelyn John '09, Jason Mastroianni '09, and Lindsey Oliver '09 improved at a tremendous rate. They joined upperclassmen Mike Bauer '07, Darren DeAngelis '06, Lori Havrilak '07, Erin Lichti '06, and Nicole Murphy '08 to bring home an unprecedented ten gold medal performances for the men and women at the MAC Championships. Of the eight sprint relays contested at the indoor and outdoor conference championships in 2006, Elizabethtown College won seven.

Although neither relay team made the final cut for the national championships, both the women’s 4X100m and 4X400m relays achieved the NCAA Division III Outdoor Track & Field Championships provisional qualifying standard with season bests of 48.53 and 3:57.64. The women’s 4X400m relay team consisting of Bucci, John, Murphy, and Lichti ran their 3:57.64 at the 112th Penn Relays Carnival. Their performance yielded a Penn Relays win for the third year in a row, broke the old MAC/Centennial Penn Relays record, a new school record, and gave them a NCAA Division III provisional qualifying time in the event for the first time in school history.

Individually, there were exciting gold medal performances at both the indoor championships (i.e., Finley in the 55m) and outdoor championships (i.e., Lichti in the 200m and Bucci in the 400m), but nothing compared to senior Erin Lichti’s qualifying for the NCAA Championships for the first time ever in her final season. Entering the 2006 NCAA Division III Outdoor T&F Championships in the women’s 200m with the 20th fastest time in the nation she barely missed the finals (top 9 in the 200m). Yet, Lichti broke the 25-second barrier for the first time ever with a school and personal record time of 24.90 and finished 10th in the nation to cap off a brilliant athletic career as one of the true pioneers of the women’s track & field program at Elizabethtown College.