Bucknell University Athletics
Track & Field Wraps Up Home Schedule Saturday with Bucknell Winter Classic
2/8/2013 7:00:00 AM | Men's Track and Field
Feb. 8, 2013
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bison track and field will be putting the finishing touches on its championships prep when it hosts the 19th Annual Bucknell Winter Classic on Saturday at Gerhard Fieldhouse. Competition at the final home meet of the indoor campaign begins at 9:30 a.m. Live results will be available at BucknellBison.com.
The Orange & Blue claimed 14 individual wins at last year's Bucknell Winter Classic, seven on the men's side and seven more on the women's. Despite the meet being unscored, the Bison should have plenty to smile about as 12 of those victories are back on the roster in 2013. From the group of gold medalists, only shot put champions Sarah Bella and Tom Barr graduated.
SPRINTS/HURDLES
- The Bucknell men had quite the 1-2 punch in the sprints at last weekend's Youngstown State National Invitational thanks to Justin Hicks and Christian Lupica. Hicks and Lupica finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 60-meter dash. Lupica added a school record in the 60-meter hurdles and Hicks was second with a career-best time in the 200.
- The 60 featured one of the closest finishes possible in a race. Although Hicks was third with a time of 6.92 seconds, the senior was a mere 0.006 behind the winner and Lupica was just .01 behind Hicks.
- Lupica broke his own school record in the hurdles, running 8.04 in both the prelims and the finals to win the event. The sophomore currently holds three school records (60 hurdles, 200m, 300m). Bucknell Hall of Famer Thomas McLean is the only other Bison with three program standards (800m, 1000m, 4x800). Lupica also ranks among Bucknell's top 10 in the 60 (fourth) and the 4x400 (eighth).
- Sasha Hornock gave Bucknell its third school record of the weekend when she finished third with a time of 7.74 in the 60-meter dash. The senior had been tied with Tolu Tayanjuola for the program's best mark (7.75) a time she set in the prelims at last year's Patriot League Championships.
- Kim Nagotko ran career bests in both the 60 and the 200. With her time of 7.85 in the shorter race, she now ranks third in program history. There are now three current Bison ranked in the top four of the 60. Joining Hornock and Nagotko is Emma Rice in fourth (7.88). Nagotko's 200-meter time of 25.13 is also third in program annals and was the fastest by a Bison since Hall of Famer Yetunde Daniels set the school record (24.94) in 2000.
- The Bison won three individual titles on the track at the 2012 Bucknell Winter Classic and two of those were at a distance of 500 meters or shorter. Hana Casalnova was the victor in the 500 with a season-best time of 1:17.35, while Jennifer Zymet won the 200.
MID-DISTANCE/DISTANCE
- Few runners have finished at the front of the pack this year as consistently as John Westwood and Caroline Tolli. The duo swept the gold medals at 800 and 1,000 meters at Youngstown State. Westwood now has five wins in six races this winter, while Tolli was four wins in five races.
- Tolli enjoyed what may have been the best single weekend of her career at Youngstown State. The senior broke the school record in the 1,000 meters (2:50.88) by nearly two seconds and ran a second personal best in the 800 meters (2:13.17) taking her from being unranked in program history to No. 4. Tolli was named the Bison Athlete of the Week and the Patriot League Track Athlete of the Week on Monday for her performance.
- Bucknell could not have asked for much better races than it got in the women's 1,000 at Youngstown State. Tolli led a pack of Bison that also included Casalnova in second, Emily Waksmunski in fourth and Kylie Pearse in seventh. The Bison tallied 25 points in the event, playing a major role in the team's 12.5-point lead after the first day of competition.
- By the end of the meet, which the Bison women won by a slim 0.16 seconds over second-place Duquesne, 83 total points had come from the middle distance and distance unit. That accounted for more than half of the team's 150.16 points on the weekend.
- Casalnova has now finished runner-up in the 1,000 at the Youngstown State National Invitational in each of the last two seasons. When she took second last winter as a sophomore, Casalnova also came home with the school record, a standard she held until Tolli's race last Friday.
- Pack running was a boon for the Bucknell men in their convincing team win at Youngstown State. Nowhere was that more obvious than in the 3,000 meters where Robert Yamnicky, Andrew Garcia-Garrison, John Dugan, Harrison Brakewood and Andrew Kuchta placed first through fifth, respectively.
- Yamnicky was also the 3,000-meter winner at last year's Bucknell Winter Classic. He was joined at the top of the podium on the men's side by Tyler Erhard, who took the title in the 1,000 meters, and Alex Jagelsky, who won the 500. Kylie Pearse was the 1,000-meter winner for the women.
JUMPS
- Jason Brown was Bucknell's only winner in the jumps at Youngstown State, but several other Bison still put up numbers to be proud of. Brown was the high jump champion at the Ohio meet for the second year in a row, this time clearing a career-best 6-7 and moving into a tie for ninth all-time at Bucknell. Also making their way up the top-10 lists with last week's performances were Ray Holmes and Nathaniel Witter. Holmes' 48-10 in the triple jump was a career best as was Witter's 15-9 in the pole vault.
- Alex Prieto and Kevin Tapper were the only two jumpers at Youngstown State to finish in the top five of both horizontal jumps. Prieto was second in the triple jump and fourth in the long, while Tapper was third in the triple and fifth in the long.
- Olivia Massey established herself as one of Bucknell's top jumpers in both the long and triple jump last weekend. Her go in the triple jump was the first of her career, however. The senior put up a mark of 35-6 ¾ to finish fifth and almost two feet ahead of teammate Jessica Matsinger in eighth.
- Alexandra Romanelli and Emily Ando were both winners at the 2012 Bucknell Winter Classic and both took their titles with career-best marks. Romanelli's victory came in the triple jump with her mark of 38-7 ½ going down as one of the best in program history until she improved on that distance the following week at the Patriot League Championships. Ando won the pole vault with a height of 11-9 ¾, which still stands as the best clearance in her career.
THROWS
- Of Bucknell's six competitors in the shot put at Youngstown State, three of them posted at least a season best. Quinten Marcott was fifth (51-2 ¾), Stephen Koullias was seventh (50-3 ¼) and Jack Fellows was ninth (49-11) in their best outings of the year. Marcott, Fellows and Luke Webster, who was fourth with a mark of 51-3 ½, also put up better numbers last weekend than they did at the 2012 meet.
- In addition to his career best in the shot put, Fellows also recorded a personal best in the weight throw. The sophomore was fourth with a mark of 52-10 ¼. He was second on the team to only Leonard Joseph, who won the weight throw for the fourth time this winter.
- Abby Monaghan and Abigail Brundage were the top finishers for the Bison women. Monaghan was fourth in the weight throw and Brundage took sixth in the shot put, making them the only two Bucknellians in scoring position in the throws.
- Monaghan and Joseph helped complete a Bison sweep in the throws at last year's Bucknell Winter Classic. Both won the weight throw, while Barr and Bella took both took first in the shot put and second in the weight throw.
LOOKING AHEAD
Next up is the meet everyone has been waiting for. The Bison will head to the Patriot League Championships Feb. 15-17 at West Point, N.Y. Both Bucknell squads will be attempting to defend their titles from last winter.
