Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell's Dugan, Lupica to Compete at USATF Junior National Championships
6/12/2012 8:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
June 12, 2012
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell will be well represented at the USA Track & Field (USATF) Junior National Championships this weekend as Christian Lupica (Newtown, Pa./Holy Ghost Prep) and John Dugan (Ramsey, N.J./Ramsey) make the trip to Bloomington, Ind., to compete in the 110-meter hurdles and the steeplechase, respectively. The national meet at the Robert C. Haugh Track and Field Complex is set to run June 15-17.
Lupica will be the first to take to the track. The freshman will open with the 110 hurdle prelims at 4:05 p.m. on Friday with the event finals slated for 7:05. In addition to Lupica, declared athletes from the college ranks include Texas A&M, George Mason, Cincinnati, Harvard and Western Carolina. The Aggies' Kenneth Minkah enters with one of the top times, having finished 15th in 13.87 seconds at the NCAA West Preliminaries late last month.
Lupica enters Friday's race with a career-best 14.45 seconds, a time that earned his second at the Patriot League Championships and fourth on the program's record list. Most recently, he was 18th in the prelims at the IC4A Championships (14.67).
Dugan will also face his share of college competition in the 3,000-meter steeplechase when the race goes off at 4:30 p.m. on Sunday. He is one of 11 collegiate competitors in a field that includes Princeton's Edward Owens. Owens finished second in the steeplechase at the IC4A Championships this spring, clocking in at 8:56.39.
In his rookie campaign, Dugan posted a career-best 9:14.02 to take fifth place at the Patriot League Championships in early May. He nearly equaled that time at the following IC4A Championships where he was 14th in 9:14.44.
Lupica and Dugan are the first Bison men to make the trip to the Junior National Championships since Leonard Joseph (Whitesboro, N.Y./Clinton) in 2010. Joseph, who competed at the NCAA Championships last Friday, placed seventh in the hammer throw two years ago.
To qualify for the USATF Junior National Championships, athletes must be U.S. citizens, be at least 14 years old on the day of the meet and not turn 20 during 2012, and meet the qualifying standard for their event.
