Bucknell University Athletics
Men's Water Polo Player Wins Senior Athletic Award
6/26/2001 8:00:00 AM | Men's Water Polo
June 26, 2001
LEWISBURG, PA -- Bucknell senior James Miante (Annapolis, Md./Broadneck) received a special award at the University's annual Senior Athletic Awards Banquet, sponsored by the Bison Club and held at the University in early May.
Miante won the Lee S. "Bud" Ranck Memorial Award, presented to senior athletes "for outstanding spirit and contributions to the Bucknell athletic program." Miante shared the award with women's water polo player Julie McLaughlin.
In addition to Miante and McLaughlin, several other student-athletes were honored at the banquet, including the winners of the Christy Mathewson Award, given to the most outstanding athletes in the senior class. All-American football and baseball standout Kevin Eiben won the men's Mathewson Award, while women's swimming standout Molly Lowe won the women's Mathewson Award.
Miante, a driver for the Bison, had his finest season wearing the Orange and Blue in 2000. Over the course of a 42-contest schedule, Miante tallied 36 goals and 36 assists for Bucknell and finishes his career at BU with 86 goals and 102 assists. Miante, perhaps one of the hardest working members of the team, was recognized by head coach John Zeigler as a co-recipient of The Coach's Award for "the individual who demonstrates the most work ethic, dedication and goes above and beyond what is asked of him." In addition to his athletic accomplishments, Miante was selected to the College Water Polo Association All-Academic team in each of his four years.
The Bucknell men's water polo team completed a tough 2000 schedule with a 21-21 final record. The Orange and Blue finished with a 3-5 record in the Southern Division of the Collegiate Water Polo Association, turned in a third place finish at Southern Championships and returned to the Eastern Championship, finishing seventh.
Bucknell is a highly-selective, privately endowed liberal arts institution with an enrollment of approximately 3,650 undergraduate students. Bucknell competes in NCAA Division I as a member of the Patriot League, along with Army, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh, and Navy. Army and Navy do not compete in the league in football. Fordham and Towson are associate members of the league in football and Georgetown will join as a football-only member in 2001. American University will also become an all-sport member in 2001-2002.
In two of the past nine years, Bucknell ranked FIRST in the nation in the graduation rate of its student-athletes, and in the ten years the NCAA survey has been conducted it has never been lower than seventh. In addition, Bucknell ranks third in Division I in the total number of GTE Academic All-America selections, with 100 national Academic All-Americans since 1970.
