Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell's Postseason Continues at IC4A/ECAC Track & Field Championships
5/10/2012 8:00:00 AM | Women's Track and Field
May 10, 2012
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LEWISBURG, Pa. - After bringing home one championship trophy and nearly two dozen All-Patriot League Team citations, Bucknell track and field will continue its run through the postseason with an appearance at the IC4A/ECAC Championships in Princeton, N.J., this weekend. The Bison, who have grown accustomed to a wealth of championship success of the years, will compete at the three-day meet May 11-13 at Weaver Stadium. They will then head to Swarthmore, Pa., for the Swarthmore Last Chance meet on May 14.
"We have a very large group heading to Princeton for the IC4A/ECAC Championships. Quite a few of them have a chance to make finals and score some points and make the All-East team," said Kevin Donner, who was named the Patriot League Men's Coach of the Year last weekend. "A few have a chance to improve on their marks and put themselves in a position to compete at the NCAA East Preliminary round. For others, this is a chance to gain valuable experience in a high-level meet. We are very excited."
Seven of Bucknell's individual Patriot League champions from a week ago will compete again this weekend. Among them are Emily Ando (Weston, Conn./Weston) in the pole vault, Kat Folger (Groton, Mass./Bishop Guertin) in the javelin, Taylor Funk (Mt. Pleasant, Pa./Mt. Pleasant Area) and Robert Arent (New Providence, N.J./New Providence) in the 400 hurdles, Jennifer Zymet (Paramus, N.J./Paramus) in the 400 meters, Leonard Joseph (Whitesboro, N.Y./Clinton) in the hammer throw and Jordan Donaldson (Saxton, Pa./Tussey Mountain) in the 800. The women's 4x800 relay that won Patriot League gold will also be competing at ECACs but with a slightly different lineup.
THROWS
- Bucknell's throwers make up the team's most well-represented event group at the ECAC and IC4A Championships. Ten of the 36 Bison making the trip to Princeton will compete in the discus, shot put, hammer throw and javelin.
- Competing in three of those four events - discus, shot put and hammer - will be Tom Barr (Ambler, Pa./La Salle College HS). The senior scored in all three of those events at the Patriot League Championships last weekend, taking fourth in the hammer (179-8) and discus (160-5) as well as fifth in the shot put (50-3 ¼).
- At the 2011 IC4A Championships, Barr placed 20th in the discus (150-6) and 25th in the shot (50-2 ¾).
- Another veteran of the IC4As, Quinten Marcott (Wayland, Mich./Wayland) placed 33rd in the shot put last spring, and he'll have another chance in the event on Sunday. The junior has put up even stronger numbers in 2012, however. At the recent Patriot League meet, he was fourth in the shot (51-3 ½) for a second consecutive year and 13th in the hammer throw. Marcott has scored at the league meet in the shot put in each of his three seasons with the Bison.
- Making his first appearance at the IC4A Championships is junior Stephen Koullias (Wyomissing, Pa./Wyomissing). He was second in the shot put, the same event he'll compete in this weekend, with a throw of 52-7 ¼ at the Patriot League meet. He was also 11th in the hammer throw at 159-3, giving him career-best marks in both events.
- Joseph and Ted Mottola (Valhalla, N.Y./Iona Prep) will also have a go in the hammer throw this weekend. Joseph successfully defended his Patriot League title in the event last week, recording a career-best 206-3 in the process. He was also fifth in the discus (157-10) with his best throw since 2010.
- Joseph has two All-East accolades in the last 12 months, one in the hammer last spring after a seventh-place finish with a then career-best 193-9 and one in the weight throw last winter.
- Motolla will make his IC4A debut after placing eighth in the hammer throw at the Patriot League Championships. The junior's qualifying mark came at the Bucknell Team Challenge, however, where he threw a career-best 174-4.
- Four Bison will compete in the discus - Barr and Luke Webster (Pataskala, Ohio/Newark Catholic) on the men's side and Rebecca Misko (Morristown, N.J./Madison) and Abby Monaghan (La Plata, Md./La Plata) on the women's. Misko and Monaghan placed fifth and seventh, respectively, in the discus at the Patriot League Championships. Both put up their best numbers earlier in the season, including a mark of 151-9 for Monaghan at the Bucknell Team Challenge. That mark is tied for fourth in program history and is the junior's first and only throw at better than 150 feet. It's also the team's top throw of the spring.
- Misko was 16th (139-0) in the discus at the 2011 ECAC Championships, while Monaghan was 22nd (133-11)
- Webster will take another shot at the Bucknell record in the discus on Saturday afternoon. With his career-best 168-6, Webster is just six inches shy of tying J. Michael Dakan's top mark of 169-0 set in 1978. Dakan's record is the fourth-oldest in program history behind Thomas McLean's 1974 mark in the 800 meters and 1976 record in the 400 as well as Bill Gravely's 1976 record in the triple jump.
- Folger and Tayler Siegrist (Madison, N.J./Madison) will represent the Bison in the javelin. Folger collected her first Patriot League title in the event a week ago with a throw of 145-7, but her best mark of the season came at the Bucknell Team Challenge. That throw of 156-6 ranks third in program annals and is just over two feet off the school record.
- Folger was 20th at last year's ECAC Championships (120-3).
- After placing third at the 2011 Patriot League Championships, Siegrist suffered a bit of a setback last weekend with an eighth-place finish. She'll look to regain her end-of-the-season form that earned her 13th at the ECAC Championships and a trip to the NCAA East Regional a year ago.
JUMPS/POLE VAULT
- Ando, Ray Holmes (Campbell, N.Y./Campbell-Savona Central) and Jason Brown (Plainville, Mass./Bishop Feehan) will cover the jumps for Bucknell this weekend. Ando claimed her first career Patriot League title in the pole vault in big fashion last weekend. The sophomore became the fourth Bison in program history to clear 12 feet when she finished with a mark of 12-1 ½. She now ranks third all-time at Bucknell.
- Holmes and Brown were also scorers for Bucknell at the league meet. Holmes took third in the triple jump, the same event he will compete in at the IC4A Championships. The sophomore recorded a distance of 48-5 ½ last weekend, but his career best came earlier this spring at the Bison Outdoor Classic. That mark of 48-8 ranks third in program annals. This weekend will be Holmes' first career appearance at IC4As.
- Brown will also be competing in his first-ever IC4A Championships, but his turn will come in the high jump. The junior cleared a career-best 6-8 ¼ to take fourth place at the league meet. He is now tied with teammate Andrew Powell (Charlton, Mass./St. John's), Nicholas Hruch and Richard Simpson for fourth in the program record books.
SPRINTS
- Bucknell broke three school records at the Patriot League Championships and one of them was in the women's 4x100 relay. Funk, Zymet, Emma Rice (West Roxbury, Mass./Boston Latin School) and Sasha Hornock (Dover, Pa./Dover) combined for the fastest time in school history - 47.45 seconds. It was the sixth time this season that the quartet has raced together and they have never finished worse than sixth place.
- The Bucknell 4x100 record has fallen twice in the last year, and both times it came at the Patriot League Championships. Prior to last weekend, Zymet, Funk, Christina Muccio (Andover, Mass./Andover) and Hornock set the then-record of 47.70 to win league gold in 2011.
- The men's 4x100 will also compete at the IC4A Championships with Christian Lupica (Newtown, Pa./Holy Ghost Prep), Kamal Riley (Hyde Park, Mass./Charlestown), Jacob Eaton Hall (Elmira, N.Y./Elmira Free Academy) and Justin Hicks (Wilmington, Del./Tower Hill School) doing the honors. The relay was second at the Patriot League meet with a time of 41.44 seconds that ranks fourth in program annals.
- The 4x100 relay of Marlon Woods, Hicks, Riley and Isaih Bell claimed All-East honors last spring with a seventh-place finish (41.02).
- Zymet, Hicks and Riley will also compete individually at this weekend's championships. Zymet will compete in the 400 meters, the same event in which the sophomore is a two-time Patriot League champion. Hicks and Riley will both compete in the 100 meters. Hicks was named All-East in the event in 2011, placing fourth (10.71).
HURDLES
- Bucknell showed off its 1-2 punch in the men's hurdles with Arent and Lupica at the Patriot League Championships. Arent, who will compete in the 400 hurdles on Saturday, swept the hurdles races at the league meet. It was his third consecutive conference win in the 400 hurdles and his first at the 110-meter distance. Arent was also second in the 400 meters and fourth as the anchor of the 4x400 relay, earning him the honor of Susquehanna Valley Limousine Bison Athlete of the Week on Monday.
- Arent finished 14th in the prelims of the 400 hurdles at the 2011 IC4A Championships, but his 2010 performance was record-setting. As a sophomore, he set the school record of 51.59 seconds with a fourth-place finish and earned All-East honors in the process.
- Freshman Lupica will get his first taste of the IC4A Championships in the 110-meter hurdles on Saturday. The newcomer, who already has an All-East citation after his performance in the 60 hurdles last winter, was second in the 110 hurdles at the recent Patriot League meet. His time of 14.45 seconds was a career best and ranks fourth in program history. His sixth-place finish in the 400 hurdles also came with a personal record of 54.93, giving him the eighth-fastest time in program history.
- Combined with his second-place finish as a member of the 4x100, Lupica tallied 17 points in his first outdoor Patriot League Championships.
- Funk will represent the Bison women in the 400 hurdles this weekend. The senior, who is making her first ECAC appearance as an individual, won the event at the Patriot League Championships with a career-best 1:01.95. That time ranks third on the program record list and was more than one second ahead of her next closest competitor.
MIDDLE DISTANCE
- It should come as no surprise that the various 800-meter races this weekend will each include a Bison. Hana Casalnova (Grove City, Pa./Grove City) and Donaldson will each compete in the open races, while both the Bucknell men and the women will field 4x800 relays.
- Donaldson defended his Patriot League 800-meter title a week ago and did it with the fastest time of his career (1:50.52). Casalnova also put up a career-best time (2:09.90) in the event to finish third.
- Donaldson, whose seven marks on the Bucknell top-10 lists currently ties him for third-most, finished 21st at the 2011 IC4A Championships with a time of 1:52.25.
- Both 4x800 relays broke school records at the 2012 Patriot League Championships. The women's time of 8:44.94, thanks to Emily Waksmunski (Carrolltown, Pa./Bishop Carroll), Beth Braunegg (Williamsport, Pa./Loyalsock Twp.), Caroline Tolli (Lockport, N.Y./Lockport) and Casalnova, was also a Patriot League record. Dustin Horning (Elizabethtown, Pa./Elizabethtown Area), Chris Oesterlin (Nahant, Mass./St. John's Prep), Dennis Logan (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) and Donaldson took the men's record in 7:30.63, topping the previous standard of 7:31.84 set in 1982 and matched in 1983.
- Both the Bison men and women will have slightly different looks at this weekend's championships from what they showed at the league meet. Chelsea Lodato (Matawan, N.J./Great Bridge) will replace Casalnova on the women's side, while Tyler Erhard (Millerstown, Pa./East Juniata) will step in for Donaldson on the men's. It will the first time each of these combinations has been used.
- The women's 4x800 ran some of the fastest times in program history at the 2011 ECAC Championships. Tolli, Erin Holbrook (East Aurora, N.Y./East Aurora), Waksmunski and Casalnova ran 8:58.01 in the prelims for what is now the eighth-fastest time in program history, then reversed their order in the finals for a time of 8:58.04, the ninth-best time at Bucknell. The quartet finished fourth in the finals for All-East honors.
DISTANCE
- Emily Liggett (Grosse Point, Mich./Lawrenceville School (N.J.)) will represent the Bison women's distance runners, competing in both the 5,000 and 3,000 meters, while John Dugan (Ramsey, N.J./Ramsey), Michael McGowan (Ardmore, Pa./Lower Merion), D.J. Krystek (Pitcairn, Pa./Gateway Senior) and Dave Brown (Westborough, Mass./Westborough) will represent the men. Dugan will make his appearance in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, and Dugan, Krystek and Brown will each compete in the 10,000.
- Despite having two seniors and a junior in that group, the Bison distance runners are largely inexperienced when it comes to the IC4A and ECAC Championships. It will be the first championship appearance for all five.
- Liggett was fourth in the 1,500 and seventh in the 5,000 at the recent Patriot League Championships. The best times of her career came earlier this spring, however. In the 5K, it was 17"05.91 at the Bison Outdoor Classic and in the 3,000 it was 9:45.55 at the Penn Relays. Both marks ranks third all-time in program history.
- Dugan put up the team's best steeplechase time of the season when he placed fifth at the Patriot League Championships. The freshman crossed the line in 9:14.02.
- Krystek finished six in a fast 10K at the Patriot League Championships. Each of the first five finishers broke the conference record. Krystek clocked in at 30:49.32. Brown was ninth (31:05.90) in the race, while McGowan was 14th (32:00.22).
DECATHLON
- A late accepted entry to the IC4A Championships, Sam Brandstadt (Utica, N.Y./Whitesboro) will compete in the decathlon, which begins Friday afternoon and resumes on Saturday morning. Brandstadt made a late push to finish sixth in the multi event at the Patriot League Championships. His 5,902 points also places his fifth in program annals.
LOOKING AHEAD
A select few will continue their seasons May 24-26 at the NCAA East Preliminary. Qualifiers will head to Jacksonville, Fla., to try to punch their ticket to June's NCAA Championships.
