Christian Limawan | The Bucknellian Mike Muscala ’13 one of ten finalists for the award, given to outstanding student athletes.
Basketball center Mike Muscala’13 has been chosen as one of the finalists for the Senior CLASS award, a national honor that receives only ten male and ten female nominations per sport from around the country. The award is given each year to an athlete that excels in “Community, Classroom, Character, and Competition.”
The award is decided by the votes from fans and Division I head coaches. Votes can be submitted once a day on either the Senior CLASS Award website or the Senior CLASS Award fan page on Facebook. Voting will remain open until March 25th.
Muscala is in the middle of an incredible season. He leads all of Division I Basketball with 16 double-doubles, and ranks fourth in rebounds with 264. He also leads the Patriot League in scoring with 437 points, and is also first with 64 blocked shots.
Muscala, a management major, made Dean’s List last semester, and was a member of the Patriot League All-Academic Team in 2011 and 2012.
Past winners of the Senior CLASS Award include J.J. Redick, Manti Te’o, Kirk Cousins, and Tim Tebow.
Make sure to go online and vote for one of the most prolific athletes to ever wear a Bison uniform!
Xiaolong Li | The Bucknellian The men’s squash team poses with Frank Wiegand ’60 in the new squash court. Coming off their Patriot League Tournament victory, the Bison won all four of their matches on Saturday.
Andrew Arnao
Senior Writer
The men’s squash team celebrated the dedication of its new playing facility, the Wiegand Squash Center, with a round-robin tournament against Denison, Fordham, Northeastern and Lehigh on Feb. 2. The dedication came a week after the Orange and Blue won the Patriot League squash tournament, a stunning achievement for a team that was formed less than five years ago.
“With the dedication of these courts, Bucknell has just become a better place,” Frank Wiegand, one of the primary donors, said in a short speech at the event.
The team was the brainchild of Morgan Beeson ’12 and Kirk Bonner ’12, who were both present during the dedication ceremony. When the team formed in 2008, there were only five members during the team’s inaugural trip to Princeton, two of whom had never played squash before.
“We were literally the worst team in the country!” Beeson said.
The squash team faced additional adversity in the outdated American dimension courts, which are narrower than the now standard international dimension courts. The squash team aimed to fix this problem, and last spring enough money was raised by parents and alumni to install four new, international dimension courts.
The men’s squash team has since evolved into a formidable powerhouse. The roster now boasts 16 members. The Bison proved their strength by defeating Colgate to win the Patriot League Tournament last weekend, while impressively outlasting varsity squash teams such as Navy.
In the tournament, the Bison won all four matches, including dominant 9-0 shutouts against Fordham, Northeastern and Lehigh.
The men’s squash team will look to ride this wave of recent success into Nationals next week at Yale.
Sasha Hornock ’13 was part of a spectacular day for the Bison last weekend, when two school records were broken and the women’s track and field team won by a mere 0.16 points. For Hornock, who broke the tie for the best 60 meter dash time in Bison history, it was just another day of putting her name in the record books.
Hornock has been blazing around the track for the past three years as a Bison and has records in the top 10 for the 60 meter, 100 meter, 200 meter, long jump and various relays. The 60 meter event is where Hornock has thrived. During prelims of a meet last season, Hornock tied a school record with a time of 7.75 seconds. It took almost a year, but she finally moved into sole possession of the Bison record when she ran for 7.74 seconds during the Youngstown State Invitational last weekend.
In addition to garnering six points on her record-breaking finish, Hornock also garnered one point with her eighth place finish in the 200 meter, while finishing .04 seconds ahead of the next competitor. This extra point proved to be crucial, as the Bison managed to win the meet with 150.16 points, just ahead of Duquesne.
In addition to her achievements this year, Hornock has been successful for most of her tenure as a Bison. She was voted Player of the Year in 2009, and last year she was chosen for the Academic All-Patriot League Team for both indoor and outdoor track and field. Her performance so far this season indicates that her accolades will only continue as she finishes her final year.
Hornock and the rest of the women’s track and field team will return to action Saturday for the Bucknell Winter Classic.
Hometown: Dover, Pa.
Major: Biology
Top 60 m dash time: 7.74 seconds (all-time school record)
The women’s tennis team started off its spring season with a decisive 5-2 victory against Saint Francis (Pa.) on Feb. 2.
“I think our team came out with a great deal of energy for our first match of the season. We all remained positive throughout our matches and I think that brought us to victory,” Lydia Colvin ’15 said.
Maria Cioffi ’16 and Colvin led the Bison as they competed at the West Branch Tennis Club, with Cioffi winning the No. 2 singles match 6-4, 6-1, and Colvin ousting her opponent in the No. 3 match 6-0, 6-2. Jen Bush ’15 and Christie Schneider ’15 also won the No. 5 and No. 6 matches, respectively, to round out the field for the Orange and Blue.
“[Head coach Rebecca] Helt has been saying a lot lately that ‘practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.’ I think if we stay in that mindset and push ourselves to stay dedicated and focused in training, then we’re in for a very successful and rewarding season,” Bush said.
Cioffi and Colvin also performed strongly in the doubles portion of the match, as both of them earned another victory on the day with their 8-3 win in the No. 2 match. Bush also got her second win on the day, as her and Stephanie Pino ’16 won their No. 3 doubles match 8-4.
“The more matches we get under our belts, the more confident our players will feel. Confidence leads to better execution. I think we have good talent, we just need to see who gains the confidence to compete in the big matches,” Helt said.
The Bison will travel to Pittsburgh this weekend to compete in matches against both Pittsburgh and Duquesne.
The men’s tennis team shook off its winter coats and delivered a 5-2 victory in its first game on Feb. 2 against Saint Francis (Pa.). The Orange and Blue were especially triumphant in doubles play with a sweep in all three doubles matches.
The Bison effortlessly handled St. Francis’s doubles teams with the closest match being an 8-3 win by Nick Bybel ’16 and Josh Katten ’13. The other two doubles teams of Kelly Morque ’13/Evan Zimmer ’13 and Aiden Lynch ’14/Chris Tortora ’14 also defeated their Saint Francis opponents with an 8-2 win each.
“Everyone had high energy from the start of doubles, and that energy carried on into the singles matches,” Tortora said.
Singles weren’t as easy for the Bison as Zimmer and Katten struggled early on in their matches. Nonetheless, both demonstrated determination when they fought back to achieve dual victories for each match. Bybel triumphed easily in his singles match, winning 6-2, 6-0.
“We’re always glad with grabbing the first victory of the season, but aim to stay balanced and focused on our goals at the end of the season at the Patriot Leagues. It’s going to be a fun year,” Scott Bernstein ’14 said.
The Bison play their next pair of matches this weekend in Pittsburgh against Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne.
Edward Louie | The Bucknellian Members of the men’s track team, pictures here at a recent home meet, raced past their competition at the Youngstown State Invitational in Ohio.
Thomas Walter
Staff Writer
Men’s Track & Field Travel’s To Youngstown State Invite; Records Continue to Be Broken
Christian Lupica ’15 led the men’s track and field team to a 322.5 point victory at the Youngstown State Invitational this past weekend. The Bison finished 205.5 points ahead of second-place Duquesne.
The men’s team concluded the event with wins in eight events. The Orange and Blue finished in the first five spots in the 3,000 meter and four of the first five in the 400 meter. In the field events, Ray Holmes ’14, Alex Prieto ’14 and Kevin Tapper ’15 finished first, second and third in the triple jump, respectively.
The weekend, however,belonged to Lupica; in the 60 meter, he ran a personal best of 6.93 seconds to finish fourth. In the 60-meter hurdles, he broke his own school record by one-hundredth of a second at 8.04 seconds.
“Running a personal record is always a great and rewarding feeling, and breaking my own school record is just extra,” Lupica said. “It’s a real confidence booster to be running my best this close to the league championship, and I plan on riding the positive momentum through the rest of the season and hopefully run some more personal bests.”
Lupica and the rest of the Bison will look to gain some final momentum before the Patriot League Championships as they host the Bucknell Winter Classic Saturday.
The Bison women’s track and field team traveled to Ohio to compete in the Youngstown State Invitational, where two school records were broken and a victory was claimed. Caroline Tolli ’13 rewrote the record books in the 1,000 meter, while Sasha Hornock ’13 registered a new best in the 60 meter race. The Orange and Blue were victorious by just 0.16 points.
Tolli led the competition in the 1,000 meter event, claiming first with 2:50.88. Close behind Tolli was runner-up Hana Casalnova ’14 with 2:54.22.
The Orange and Blue stole two additional individual wins. Katie Jessee ’15 won the 5,000 meter with 17:42.36, while Jennifer Zymet ’14 claimed first in the 500 meter with 1:16.06.
On the field, Yanelis Mestre ’15 posted a career best in the pole vault event. She tied for fifth, clearing a height of 11-5.75. In the long jump, Olivia Massey ’13 and Alyssa Cardillo ’14 took fourth and fifth place, respectively. In the weight throw, Abby Monaghan ’13 claimed fourth.
After the first day of competition, the Bison collected a total of 85.5 points. This put the Orange and Blue in the lead by 12.5 points over Dayton, who stood in second place.
The next day of competition proved just as successful for the Bison. Hornock set a new record in the 60 meter with 7.74 seconds, while Tolli claimed another first-place finish in the 800 meter with 2:13.17.
Kim Nagotko ’15 was the runner-up in the 200 meter event with 25.13. Beth Braunegg ’14 claimed second place in the mile with 5:01.12. Montana DiPietrantonio ’15 took the bronze in the 3,000 meter event with 10:14.91. Finally, the 4×400 relay team finished third with 3:52.45.
The Bison ultimately reigned as victors with a lead of less than one point over Duquesne.
“The team had a good meet overall. We were able to beat Duquesne, which shows how much we have improved as a team this season. We had previously lost to them by over 30 points. We are looking to use the momentum of this meet for the Patriot League Championships in two weeks,” Hornock said.
The Orange and Blue will compete in their last meet before the Patriot League Championships at the Bucknell Winter Classic Saturday in Gerhard Fieldhouse.
Conor Pierson | The Bucknellian Bryson Johnson ’13 shoots the ball over a Navy defender in the Bison’s 69-54 victory over the Midshipmen. Johnson lead the team with 20 points.
Eric Brod
Senior Writer
Bryson Johnson ’13 broke the Bison record for three-point baskets in a career and tallied a season-high 20 points to lead the men’s basketball team to a 69-54 victory over Navy. The Orange and Blue improved to 19-4 overall and 6-1 in league play, while the Midshipmen fell to 7-16 (1-6).
Johnson came into the game needing just one basket to break the record, and he wasted little time, hitting his first three-pointer of the night 57 seconds into the contest for his 295th career three-pointer.
“I never really thought about any records when I first began here, but as I got closer, people kept mentioning it. It was something that happened because I have great teammates who are unselfish and get me open looks,” Johnson said.
Johnson hit another three shortly after his first to give the Bison a 6-2 lead, and after his fourth three of the night, he extended the lead to 19-8.
“I think early on we did a good job throwing it inside and our bigs did an even better job passing back out to the perimeter when the zone collapsed on them, and that gave the wings open looks from the outside,” Johnson said.
Three-point shooting was just part of the story in the Bison’s performance. The Orange and Blue used their size advantage to out-rebound Navy 47-20, led by Mike Muscala ’13, who tied his career high with 19 rebounds to go along with 11 points in 25 minutes of game time. Eleven of the Bison’s 47 rebounds came on the offensive glass, giving them 17 second-chance points.
“Bryson [Johnson] got us started early on with a ton of threes. It was nice to see him break the record in front of the home crowd,” Muscala said. “After that I think we all played our roles well, hitting mid-range jumpers, driving in the lane and then rebounding our misses and converting them into second-chance points.”
The Orange and Blue extended their lead to 16 in the first half before Navy went on a mini-run to end the half to cut the lead to 34-22 at halftime. After Navy scored the first basket of the second half, the Bison went on a 12-0 run to extend their lead to 22. The run began on a driving layup by Cameron Ayers ’14, who was fouled on the shot and was able to complete the three-point play.
The bench also provided a major spark in the second half as the Bison continued to build up their lead. Ben Brackney ’14 hit Ayers for a wide-open three that made the score 53-31 with 7:56 left, and finished the game with four points. Chris Hass ’16 contributed six points, and Cory Starkey ’15 contributed four points and four rebounds. Brian Fitzpatrick ’13 provided tremendous hustle and rebounding, and put in an emphatic dunk off a great pass from Johnson to give the team a commanding 57-35 lead with 6:51 to play.
After struggling from the line in previous matches, the Bison shot an impressive 16-19 from the line. The Orange and Blue also shot 46.9 percent from the field, and 7-19 from three-point range, led by Johnson’s 6-10 shooting from beyond the arc. On defense, the Bison held Navy to 31.7 percent shooting from the field.
“We did a good job getting out and pressuring their perimeter players because they have a lot of shooters, so we tried to force them to take shots inside the arc and try to make them uncomfortable while running their offense,” Johnson said.
The Bison return to action Saturday, travelling to West Point to kick off the second half of league play against Army. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.
“Army is a tough place to play on the road and they play really fast, so in front of their home crowd, they can really get the momentum in their favor with a couple easy hoops in transition,” Johnson said. “It will be a good test for us and we will have plenty of time to prepare for them with no midweek game this week, so we are looking forward to it.”
After staging two consecutive second half comebacks, the women’s basketball team couldn’t replicate the same performance against Navy, suffering a 61-40 defeat in Annapolis, Md. on Feb. 2. The Orange and Blue dropped to 13-9 overall, finishing the first half of Patriot League play with a 4-3 conference record.
Turnovers hindered the Bison in the first half as they gave up the ball six times in the first 10 minutes of play. The Orange and Blue did most of their scoring outside of the paint with all five of their three-pointers coming in the first half, including two from Katherine Harris ’15. Unfortunately, Navy kept pounding the ball inside, outscoring the Bison 22-10 in the paint. The score was 36-27 at the break.
“In both of our last two games we’ve dug ourselves a hole at the beginning that proved too hard to get out of. Both American and Navy pressured us and forced us into making more turnovers than we would like to at the beginning of the game,” Harris said.
Navy eventually regained a 10-point lead early in the second half, but the Bison were determined not to let the game slip away from them, as forwards Felicia Mgbada ’13 and Lindsay Horbatuck ’13 scored consecutive baskets to trim the lead to six. After a Navy three-pointer, the same duo scored two lay-ups to make it 41-37 with less than 10 minutes left in the game.
Mgbada scored the Bison’s final points on a lay-up, as Navy’s defense held the Orange and Blue scoreless in the last 7:27 of the game.
Horbatuck recorded her 13th career double-double and her 30th career double-digit rebounding game with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Audrey Dotson ’15 had nine points and six rebounds, while Shelby Romine ’14 finished with eight points and five rebounds. Harris and Mgbada scored six points each.
Points in the paint and points off turnovers stifled the Bison offense as they were outscored 32-20 and 16-4 in those categories, respectively.
“The good thing is that now we have a week to prepare ourselves for the second round of Patriot League play. Now that we have seen every team once, we know we need to focus on the little things and make sure we are coming out completely prepared to go up against what every team is going to throw at us,” Harris said.
The Orange and Blue will look to gain back some momentum, as they host Army tomorrow at 7 p.m.
Estie Pyper | The Bucknellian Stephen McPeek ’14 tries to pin his opponent in one of the wrestling team’s recent matches. The Bison defeated George Mason 21-12 in their home match last Saturday.
Billy Tyler
Assistant Sports Editor
The men’s wrestling team earned a 21-12 victory against George Mason, where the Bison got ahead early and never looked back in Davis Gym.
The Orange and the Blue took the first seven bouts of the match and a 21-0 lead. All seven bouts were won by decisions and included notable victories by Paul Petrov ’16, Corey Lear ’13 and Joe Stolfi ’15.
Petrov, in the 133 lb. bout, fell behind and entered the third period trailing 5-1. He put on a remarkable performance in that third period, going 9-1 and sealing the 10-6 victory. Lear, ranked 17th in the country in the 165 lb. weight class, won his team-high 19th match of the year against George Mason, shutting out his opponent 6-0. In the heavyweight bout, Stolfi won handily by a score of 5-1. This victory extended his win streak to eight consecutive bouts.
Other notable wins for the Bison include Robert Schlitt ’16 in the 174 lb. weight class with a 6-4 decision, Robert Marchese ’16 in the 184 lb. class with a 5-2 victory, Tyler Lyster ’15 in the 197 lb. class with an 8-2 victory and Austin Miller ’15 in the 125 lb. class with a 7-4 comeback victory.
The next match for the Bison will take place on Friday at 5 p.m. in Davis Gym. They will take on Penn College of Technology and Lock Haven in back-to-back matches.
