Bucknell University
IC4A Championships
Arent Sets 400 Record as Bucknell Men's Track & Field Places 12th at IC4A Championships
3/4/2012 7:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
March 4, 2012
BOSTON - Six Bison men earned All-East accolades and Robert Arent set the Bucknell 400 meter record as the Bison closed out competition at the IC4A/ECAC Championships on Sunday. Arent repeated as an All-East honoree with a fourth-place finish in the 400, while crossing the line in 47.46 seconds. Bucknell tied for 12th in the team standings, giving the squad its best finish since 2007. The Bison women also set two new program top-10 marks in the distance medley relay and 3,000 meters.
The men's squad totaled 26 points. With its 12-place finish out of 47 teams, Bucknell earned its best mark in the standings since it was 10th five years ago. Its six All-East honors also set the program record. After Tom Barr and Leonard Joseph were recognized yesterday on the first day of competition, Arent, Christian Lupica, Alex Jagelsky and Andrew Powell joined in the awards on Sunday.
"Although it was a very up and down meet for us, we did have a lot of great performances. Scoring 26 points is one shy of our all-time best from 2007," said head coach Kevin Donner after the meet. "Barr winning the weight throw was huge, and school records from Arent and Lupica were an added bonus. It was also great to have a pair of freshmen score with Lupica and Jagelsky."
A year after placing sixth in the 400 meters, Arent improved to fourth place at the 2012 edition of the IC4A Championships at Boston University. At 47.46 seconds, the senior bested the previous school record held by Kerry Boyle by one-tenth of a second. It was also Arent's career best by nearly four-tenths of a second.
Rookies Lupica and Jagelsky were also All-East honorees in the 60-meter hurdles and 1,000 meters, respectively. Lupica was seventh in the hurdles with a time of 8.20 seconds. The freshman's high point came during the semifinals earlier in the day when he posted a time of 8.11. That ranks second in program history, just .04 off Arent's school record.
Lupica was also ninth in the 200 meters. After setting the Bucknell record in the event at 21.58 in yesterday's prelim, he crossed the line in 21.80 in the final. That time tied the previous school record set by Noel Powell in 2003.
Jagelsky placed sixth in the 1,000 with a time of 2:28.11. On the women's side, Hana Casalnova was ninth in the 1,000 in 3:03.62, just missing the chance to score for the Bison. Casalnova was coming off a record-setting outing in the event's preliminaries yesterday, when she finished in 2:52.33.
"We had a number of near misses in the preliminary rounds and a number of inconsistencies," Donner said of his women's team performance. "We also had some bad luck, which caused us to not score any points. I believe some of our ladies had a hard time mentally preparing after an emotional league meet. With that said, Hana broke our school record in the 1,000 and Emily Liggett ran a great 3K. I was also pleased with the 4x400 team and Zymet in the 200. We have a young women's team that will learn from this experience."
Liggett ran the best 3,000-meter race of her career, finishing with a time of 9:50.93. The mark was nearly eight seconds faster than her previous personal best and moved her up to fourth in program annals. The distance medley relay also broke into the Bucknell top-10 with a time of 11:59.78.
Completing the group of those to receive All-East citations was Powell in the heptathlon. The senior finished eighth with 5,012 points.
After winning the weight throw yesterday, Barr took 10th in the shot put (54-2 ½). Alex Prieto led the Bison in the triple jump with a 16th-place finish (46-10 ¾).
Bucknell will now look to the outdoor campaign. First up is the Virginia Military Institute Invitational slated for March 31 in Lexington, Va.
