Category: Track & Field

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Men Sports Track & Field Women

Records fall for track & field team

Emily Evancho

Staff Writer

The men’s and women’s track and field teams both had a successful weekend at the Bucknell Team Challenge on April 20. Along with the men’s first-place and the women’s second-place victory in the team standings, both teams also broke school records, including women’s Kim Nagotko ’15, who claimed school records in the 100 and 200 meters, and men’s Christian Lupica ’15 and Luke Webster ’13, who broke their records in the 110-meter high hurdles and discus, respectively.

“Both the men’s and women’s team had a very competitive meet between the other big schools that were there and the weather conditions,” Nagotko said. “Regardless of it all, we performed our best and proved to ourselves and the Patriot League that we are ready and nothing is going to get in our way of us bringing home two championships.”

The men’s team captured its fifth consecutive team title at the Bucknell Team Challenge, overshadowing second-place Penn State by 179 points. Lupica ran home with victories in the 400-meter hurdles (55.11 seconds), and in 110-meter high hurdles, with a record-shattering 13.96 seconds. Justin Hicks ’13 also excelled with wins in the 100 and 200 meters. Webster threw past his own school record in discus to land a mark of 172-3. Kevin Keller ’15 also dominated in the long jump with a mark of 23-10 1/4.

“Our jumps and sprints are very dangerous. We have the potential to do something that’s never been done before,” Keller said.

The women’s team placed second in the team standings with 128 points, falling behind only Penn State by 95 points. Bison victories came in the distance events from Caroline Tolli ’13 finishing first in the 800 meters (2:12.42). Tolli also helped to pull the win in the 4×800 with a final time of 9:56.81. Abby Monaghan ’13 grasped the third Orange and Blue triumph for the women’s team in discus 150-5. Nagotko also finished third overall in the 100-meter (12.05), and second in the 200-meter with 24.59 seconds. Sasha Hornock ’13 seized the third spot behind Nagotko in the 200-meter.

“This was a great weekend for all athletes across the board. Men and women had outstanding performances,” Hicks said. “As our Patriot League Championships are quickly approaching, our team is excited for a great meet and it’s showing through all of our great times and marks. Hopefully we can continue our success and carry this speed into the Patriot Leagues Championships.”

The men’s and women’s teams will compete again in the Penn Relays and Bloomsburg Maroon and Gold Invitational this weekend. After these events, both teams will move on to the Patriot League Championships beginning on May 3 in Bethlehem, Pa.

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Men Sports Track & Field Women

Track opens spring season

Andrew Arnao

Sports Editor

The men’s and women’s track and field teams opened their season in Baltimore, Md. on March 30. Half the squad participated in the UMBC Invitational, where the Bison recorded 11 wins, while the other half partook in the Maryland Invitational, where Luke Webster ’13 broke the school record in the discus.

Eight men recorded wins at the UMBC Invitational. Christian Lupica ’15 took home two gold medals after victories in the 110-meter high hurdles and the 400-meter hurdles, while Ryan Johnson ’16 and Chris Oesterlin ’14 rounded out the individual running events with wins in the 800 meters and 1,500 meters, respectively.

A relay team of Kamal Riley ’14, Lupica, Jacob Eaton Hall ’14 and Justin Hicks ’13 won the gold in the 4×100 meter. Also recording first-place finishes for the Bison were Daniel Markwalter ’13 in the pole vault and Ray Holmes ’14 in the triple jump.

Webster’s record-breaking discus toss of 170-10 was also good enough for second place, beating his previous best mark by several feet.

The women’s team recorded six total wins across both Invitationals. At the UMBC Invitational, Jennifer Zymet ’14 took the gold in the 400 meters, while Chrissy Haney ’16 was victorious in the 400-meter hurdles. In the long distance events, Beth Braunegg ’14 won the 800 meters and Kylie Pearse ’15 won the 3,000 meter steeplechase.

In field events, Emily Ando ’14 finished first in the pole vault, with four other Bison also finishing in the top five spots. At the Maryland Invitational, Abby Monaghan ’13 rounded out the list of victorious Bison with a first place finish in the discus.

The men’s and women’s track and field teams will return to action this weekend at the Colonial Relays in Williamsburg, Va.

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Men Sports Track & Field Women

Track heads outdoors for start of spring season

Andrew Arnao

Sports Editor

After a brief hiatus, the men’s and women’s track and field teams are getting ready to get back in action as they begin the outdoor portion of their schedule. The preseason so far includes the success of several Bison at the Washington and Lee Carnival last weekend, as well as the Bison receiving high rankings for the upcoming outdoor season.

Three Bison track and field members travelled to Lexington, Va. to participate in the Washington and Lee Carnival. Emma Rice ’15, Michaela Read ’16 and Cody Haupt ’16 performed well at the event, earning top-15 finishes in each of their respective events.

Rice competed in the 100 meter and 200 meter, placing 11th in the 100 meter with a time of 13.20 and placing 13th in the 200 meters with a time of 27.10. Read placed 15th in the pentathlon with a score 3,185 points, while Haupt managed 14th place in the decathlon with a total of 4,787 points.

The Orange and the Blue also fared well in the outdoor preseason polls, with both the men’s and women’s teams earning second place. The men, looking to defend their three consecutive Patriot League titles, scored a 90, closely trailing first-place Navy by two points. The women, winners of three of the last four championships, scored an 89, also trailing first-place Navy by six points. Both the Bison and Navy finished the voting far ahead from the rest of the Patriot League, indicating that the battle for this year’s crown will come down to a close competition between these two teams.

The Bison look to put their right foot forward as they begin their outdoor season this weekend at the UMBC Invitational in Baltimore, Md.

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Men Sports Track & Field Track & Field Women

Women’s track wins PL Tournament

Edward Louie | The Bucknellian Chrissy Haney '16 embraces a teammate. Her contributions helped the women's track & field team win the Patriot League Tournament.
Edward Louie | The Bucknellian
Chrissy Haney ’16 embraces a teammate. Her contributions helped the women’s track & field team win the Patriot League Tournament.

Billy Tyler

Assistant Sports Editor

Both the men’s and women’s track teams capped off successful regular seasons with great performances at the Patriot League Championships this past weekend.

The women’s track team won their 15th Patriot League Championship in program history. The Bison entered the final day of the three-day competition with only a 1.67 point advantage over second place Lehigh. As other teams faded after multiple days of grueling events, the Bison continued to perform at a high level.

Behind gold medal performances from Sophia Nnadi ’16, Caroline Tolli ’13, Jennifer Zymet ’14 and Alexandra Romanelli ’13, the Bison surged ahead to win with a final score of 162 points, 52 ahead of second place Navy.

The men’s track team also found great success at the Patriot League Championships, finishing in second place, only 23 points behind winner Navy. The 182 points scored by the Bison would have been good enough to win two of the past three championship meets, but unfortunately Navy had too many strong performances in the end.

Fourteen members of the team earned All-Leagues Honors, including Alex Prieto ’14, Kevin Keller ’15, Justin Hicks ’13 and Kevin Tapper ’15 who all earned recognition in multiple events.

The final indoor event of the season for the Bison will be on March 1-3 at the IC4A/ECAC Championships in Boston.

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Men Sports Track & Field

Men’s track ends regular season on high note, wins five events

Thomas Walter

Staff Writer

The men’s track and field team ended its regular season with a successful weekend of five event victories as it hosted the Bucknell Winter Classic, its final meet before the Patriot League Championships this weekend.

Leonard Joseph ’13 placed first in the weight throw with a 63-8.25 toss, successfully defending his title from last year. Kevin Keller ’15 won the long jump with a distance of 23-2.25, while Alex Prieto ’14 was victorious in the triple jump with a 47-5.75. Patryk Najbar ’14 also placed first with a time of 7.00 seconds in the 60-meter dash.

Nathaniel Witter ’14 rounded out the individual victors after clearing 15-3 in pole-vaulting, resulting in his second straight win at this event.

“My win this week gave me confidence in my consistency … but for me to achieve what I want at the Patriot League meet, I will need to jump higher than what I won with this past weekend,” Witter said. “I do know that it is obtainable, though, and with the energy level that this weekend will bring, anything is possible.”

Witter also knows that the team has a long way to go before it can be satisfied. But, its performance from this past weekend gives the team more confidence heading into this coming weekend.

“I think that everyone on the team is excited to see what we can do,” Witter said. “There has been some fall backs due to sickness but many people are stepping up.”

The Bison will make a run to defend their Patriot League title this weekend in West Point, N.Y.

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Men Sports Track & Field

Men’s track dominates competition in Ohio

 

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.
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.

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Men Sports Track & Field

Joseph leads men’s track & field

Thomas Walter

Staff Writer

Leonard Joseph ’13 became the most decorated Patriot League field athlete of all-time with an exceptional performance at the Bison Open & Multi this past weekend. Robert Yamnicky ’13 also helped set the pace for the Bison at the Gerhard Fieldhouse, while Kevin Tapper ’15 led the Orange and Blue at the Penn State National Invitational.

At Penn State, Tapper recorded a victory in the 500 meters with a time of 1:04.28. Back in Lewisburg, Yamnicky took home the gold medal in the mile with a time of 4:21.38.

However, the weekend belonged to Joseph. At Penn State, he threw for 65.75 feet. It was Joseph’s first throw longer than 64 feet, and it was also the second longest throw in Bison history. He finished second in the meet, but was first among all collegiate competitors.

Joseph also won the Patriot League Field Athlete of the Week award for his performance this past weekend. It was the eighth time he won this award in his career, passing former Bison standout Tyler Hoffman’07 and making him the most decorated Patriot League field athlete in history.

“[Tyler] Hoffman was a great thrower and it is an honor to say that I have surpassed him in that area,” Joseph said.

“Lenny Joseph has really worked himself into one of the best hammer throwers in the nation with virtually no prior experience. He came into school as a discus thrower,” head coach Kevin Donner said. “He has put himself in the position where he is one of the elite Patriot League Athletes of all time and now one of the top throwers in the country.”

With Patriot League Championships only two weeks away, Donner is excited about the championship, but he points out that the team will need to stay healthy to compete.

“We need to live clean and try to avoid getting sick or hurt. It comes down to the little details from putting time in the training room to even stretching and eating well, which contribute to the body being 100 percent for competitions,” Donner said.

The Bison will return to competition this weekend as they travel to the Youngstown State Invitational.

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Men Sports Track & Field

Men’s race to first place finish

Edward Louie | The BucknellianEric Balaban '14 and Andrew Kuchta '16 dash off in the 5,000 meter. Both runners contributed to the Bison victory.
Edward Louie | The Bucknellian
Eric Balaban ’14 and Andrew Kuchta ’16 dash off in the 5,000 meter. Both runners contributed to the Bison victory.

Thomas Walter

Staff Writer

Over the past weekend, the men’s track and field team finished first in the team standings at the Gulden Invitational for the second year in a row. The team captured first place in the 400 meters, shot put, 60-meter hurdles, 3,000 meters, 800 meters, weight throw and high jump.

Perhaps most impressive is the record-setting way the Bison won these events. Kevin Tapper ’15 and Luke Webster ’13 both entered the Bison record books in their events.

Tapper ran the 400 meters in 49.31 seconds and Webster won the shot put with a throw of 53′ 4.25″, a career best. He now holds third place in program history.

“After a weekend off and some hard training, it was nice to get back to competing,” Webster said. “I don’t mean to be cliché, but it feels good.”

Webster also believes the competition the Orange and the Blue will be facing in the next couple weeks will be difficult, but will ultimately help them succeed.

“In the next few weeks the team will see a lot of good competition and some fast tracks,” Webster said. “The combination should help us move forward from the victory this past weekend and get some great marks to set us up for the championship portion of the season which is only a month away.”

Other individual winners included D.J. Krystek ’13, John Westwood ’16, Leonard Joseph ’13, Jason Brown ’13 and Christian Lupica ’15. They led the Orange and the Blue to a total of 224 points, finishing 64 points ahead of second place Shippensburg.

The Orange and the Blue will compete again on Jan. 25-26 in the Bison Open & Multi and the Penn State National Invitational.

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Men Sports Track & Field

Men’s track records 12 individual wins

By Colin Fields

Staff Writer

The men’s track team, the defending Indoor and Outdoor Patriot League champion, racked up 12 individual victories at the Bucknell Team Challenge at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium last weekend. The Bison compiled 292.5 points, just under the rest of the field combined, in one of their best performances of the year.

The Orange and Blue throwers have been stellar all year long and Saturday was no different. Luke Webster ’13 came just six inches short of the school discus record that has stood for nearly 35 years with a toss of 168’ 6’’. Webster’s toss put him in both second in the meet and second in the school record books. Tom Barr ’12 also performed well in the discus; the shot put record holder put up a toss of 162’ 3’’, breaking the 160-foot mark for the first time in his career in the discus. Barr also posted a career best in the hammer throw, with a toss of 182’ 11’’. He was bested by teammate Leonard Joseph ’13 whose toss of 204’ 5’’ moved him to third place in Bison history.

“I would say that the start our team has had is encouraging because most of our athletes, if not all, are not peaking yet, but they are performing extremely well. Having two consecutive home meets allows us to capitalize on a familiar environment as well as a larger audience than we typically have,” Joseph said.

Jason Brown ’13, Nathaniel Witter ’14 and Alex Prieto ’14 picked up wins in the high jump, pole vault and the long jump. Andrew Powell ’12 and Kevin Keller ’15 also picked up second-place finishes for the Bison.

Christian Lupica ’15 took first in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 14.7 seconds and teammates Robert Arent ’12, Dan Mularz ’12 and Powell helped fill four of the top five spots in the event.

“Being able to have our two meets at home is definitely a nice perk. We train on the track every day so we are familiar with running on it, and not having to worry about travel time and living out of a hotel makes it a lot easier to have a flexible routine and eat/sleep/warm-up in a way that is best for you,” Lupica said.

Several Bison will compete this weekend in the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, while the test of the team will travel today to Bloomsburg for the Maroon & Gold Invitational. These are the last events for the Bison until the Patriot League Outdoor Championships on May 4-5 in Worcester, Mass.

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Men Sports Track & Field

Men’s track dominates in home meet

By Colin Fields
Staff Writer

The men’s track team had an impressive performance as the host university of the Bison Outdoor Classic. The event is unscored for team competition but the Bison toppled more than 20 top-10 marks and are pressing for a third straight outdoor title.

On Sunday, Ray Holmes ’14 increased his career best by nearly two feet in the triple jump with a distance of 48’ 8’’, ranking him third all-time at the University.

“We have a great team this year and our start this season shows the depth of our team on both the men’s and women’s side of the program. We have already had a lot of great performances and everybody is getting better as the weeks tick away towards the Championships,” Holmes said.

The Bison throwers have torn through the Bison record books this season, and last weekend was no different. Leonard Joseph ’13 placed second in the hammer toss by becoming the fourth Bison to ever clear the 200 foot mark and moving him into fourth in Bison history.

There were plenty of personal records broken over the weekend, including Daniel Markwalter ’13 placing third in the pole vault clearing 15’ 9’’, moving him into fourth in program history.

On the track Robert Arent ’12 and Christian Lupica ’15 performed well in the 400 meter hurdles. Arent finished third with a time of 53.02 and Lupica 10th with a time of 55.08 seconds, moving him into the top 10 in Bison history.

“As a team, we’ve been training hard and not really worrying about peaking yet, so the fact that we are still competing so well as a whole just means that by the championship portion of our season, when everyone is at their peak form, we are going to be a really tough team to beat,” Lupica said.

The Bison are hosts again this weekend at the Bison Team Challenge, the season finale for the Bison at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium.

“Competing at home allows us to be more relaxed and comfortable which is conducive to getting good marks on the track and in the field. We’re looking to win our third outdoor championship in a row. Getting this outdoor season off to a good start puts us in good position to defend our championship title,” Arent said.

The Patriot League Championships will be held May 4 and 5 in Worcester, Mass.