Bucknell University Athletics
Men's Golfer Ken Kosteva Earns Senior Athletic Award at Bucknell
6/26/2001 8:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
June 26, 2001
LEWISBURG, PA -- Bucknell senior men's golfer Ken Kosteva (Berwick, Pa./Central Columbia) 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.
Kosteva won the Ronald J. "Pete" Pedrick Award, presented to senior athletes "in recognition of demonstrated improvement and special contributions to Bucknell athletics over a four-year period." Kosteva shared the award with field hockey player Maura Higgs.
In addition to Kosteva and Higgs, 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.
Kosteva, a four-year starter and two-year captain, finished his Bison career with an 18-hole average of 79.2 through 71 rounds of golf. He shot a career-low 69 in the fall of 2000 at the Bucknell Invitational, and shot over half of his career rounds sub-80. A member of the 2000 All-Patriot League Team after a second-place individual finish that year, Kosteva was a model of improvement over his four years. As a freshman, he averaged 82.5 strokes each time out. He improved that average to 79.5 as a sophomore, and shot 77.7 during his junior year. Kosteva ended his career with a senior year average of 77.4, his best 18-hole average for an entire year.
The Bucknell men's golf team concluded its 2001 spring season with a fourth place finish at the Patriot League Championship held at Navy. Kosteva just missed his second-straight All-Patriot League honor, finishing one stroke out of 10th place.
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.
