Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell Teams to Participate in Five Patriot League Championships This Weekend
4/26/2004 8:00:00 AM | General
April 26, 2004
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell's spring athletic teams have the chance to win five Patriot League titles, all in one weekend starting on Friday. The men's and women's track and field, men's and women's lacrosse and softball teams will be in action spread over three states.
The track and field squads will kick off the weekend at Army's Shea Stadium on Friday at 1 p.m. with the decathlon and heptathlon competitions for men and women, respectively. The day will continue with field events beginning at 2 p.m. and running events starting at 4 p.m.
Friday continues with the men's lacrosse team's semifinal contest against Hobart at 3 p.m., which takes place at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. The game will be an Internet-only broadcast with Doug Birdsong on the play-by-play. Navy and Colgate play in the first semifinal at noon. Bucknell is in search of its fifth-straight Patriot League title.
Saturday's action starts bright and early, as the softball team takes on host Lehigh to kick off that Patriot League Tournament at 9 a.m. Depending on the outcome of that game, Bucknell will play at either 1 or 3 p.m. on Saturday versus one of the other two tournament participants, Colgate and Army.
Just as the first pitch is thrown in Bethlehem, Pa., the Patriot League Track and Field Championships will resume with the multi-event competitions at 9 a.m. on Saturday. Field events will resume at 11 a.m., with running events starting back up at 12:10 p.m. The Bison women are looking for their fifth title in six years after a third-place finish last year, and are coming off an indoor title at Bucknell's Gerhard Fieldhouse in February. Host Army has won every men's league crown since 1992, as Bucknell won in 1991 before the Black Knights joined the conference in track and field. But the string can be broken, as Navy ended Army's nine-year run in indoor championships this year.
While the men's lax tournament will take Saturday off, the Bucknell women's lax team will play its semifinal match against American at 2:30 p.m. on the Hamilton, N.Y., campus of Colgate. That will follow the Colgate-Lafayette semifinal at noon.
While the track and field trophies will be handed out on Saturday, the lacrosse and softball titles will be awarded Sunday. If the men's and women's lacrosse teams win their semifinal matches, the women will vie for their first Patriot League crown at 1 p.m. while the men will look to win the first men's Patriot League Tournament contested, starting at 2 p.m. If the Bucknell softball team can earn two victories on Saturday, the championship game will begin at 1 p.m. Sunday, with an if-necessary game to follow in the double-elimination format. The Bison women have won one Patriot League crown, in 1997 during the full six-team tourney format.
Visit www.BucknellBison.com throughout the weekend for updates on the Patriot League Championship action. If you can't get to a computer, call the Bison Sports Hotline at (570) 577-1919 for updates.
