Cooper Sutton – Page 25 – The Bucknellian

By Cooper Sutton

Sports Editor

Both the men’s and women’s teams claimed titles in the Bucknell Invitational this past weekend. Colgate, Connecticut, Fairleigh Dickinson and George Mason all competed.

Lauren Lucido ’11 won the Flight A singles tournament—possibly the highest achievement attainable over the weekend. She defeated Fairleigh Dickinson’s Elmine Botes in the finals.

“I felt no pressure coming into the final match on Sunday. I had just lost to [Botes] in the tournament at Army the previous weekend, so I had nothing to lose in our rematch,” Lucido said.

Even though she quickly fell behind 2-5 in the first set, she kept her composure and came back, winning the set in a tiebreaker. Lucido stayed hot for the second set, and she won the match 7-6, 6-3.

The men’s team also played well. “I thought the team performed great this weekend. To win three titles was a notable accomplishment,” Flight B singles champion Kelly Morque ’13 said. The other two titles came in Flight C singles from Gregory Maxson ’12 and in Flight B doubles from Gregg Cohenca ’12 and Mark Malloy ’12.

Morque’s victory at the Invitational improves his record this fall to a 10-0.He defeated Ryan Carr of Connecticut in one of the most contentious matches of the season. After the two players split the first two sets at 6-4 apiece, Morque took the 10-point “super tiebreaker” with a score of 13-11 for his second championship of the fall.

In the Flight C championship, Maxson rebounded from a 6-3 loss in the first set to take the second set in a tiebreaker then to win the super tiebreaker 10-8. Cohenca and Malloy also had a tight match, winning 8-6 in their eight game pro-set.

Because this was the last home tournament of the fall, the teams should be able to take this momentum into the upcoming seasons.

By Chris McCree

Writer

The men’s and women’s cross country teams competed on a very muddy course at the Paul Short Invitational last Friday. The women’s team claimed 14th place out of a tough 41-team field, marking its third straight year with a top-15 finish at this invitational. An injury-plagued men’s team finished 40th out of 42 teams.

The Paul Short Invitational consisted of top-tier programs such as University of Virginia and Georgetown.

Anchored by strong performances from Sarah Moniz ’11 and Stephanie Fulmer ’12, the Bison women showed they can compete on a larger scale.

“The Paul Short Invitational can sometimes be overwhelming, but it was a good learning experience for us as we prepare to face some of the top teams in the nation at Pre-Nationals,” Moniz said.

Moniz was the only Bison to finish in the top 50, claiming 48th with a time of 21:28 in the six–kilometer race. Out of the three Patriot League teams competing, the Bison women finished second, beating Lehigh but finishing behind Colgate.

“We were very excited about the personal improvements of some of our athletes in the Open race,” Moniz said.

Joshua Clark ’11 was the only runner to finish in the top 200 for the men’s team by running a 25:44 in the eight-kilometer race.

“One of our top runners, Keith Sansone [’12], was not able to run due to injury. Evan Novakowski [’11], another one of our top runners, had to end the race early due to injury. We also have Dave Brown [’12] and Charlie Murphy [’11] who are returning from injury that will just get better and better,” Clark said.

Even with the injuries, the Bison were not happy with their overall performance.

“We can run much better as a team than we did this weekend. We are a pack team without a front runner and we didn’t run as a pack,” Clark said.

The Bison hope to use these next two weeks to practice hard and to allow their injuries to heal.

Both the men’s and women’s teams will race again on Oct. 16 when they head to Terre Haute, Ind. for Pre-Nationals.