Track & Field to Compete in Bison Open, Penn State National Invite this Weekend

1/30/2014 7:00:00 PM | Men's Track and Field

By: TBD

LEWISBURG, Pa. – After an impressive meet last weekend the Bucknell track and field team resumes competition on Friday, splitting its squad between the Bison Open, hosted by Bucknell at Gerhard Fieldhouse, and the Penn State National Invitational, set to take place at the Horace Ashenfelter III Indoor Track. This is an important weekend for both the men's and women's team, as they begin to chase faster times and better distances in preparation for the Patriot League Championships that will take place at Bucknell on February 21-23.

“The rust-busting phase is now over,” said head coach Kevin Donner. “Our focus has switched to improving our times in the running events and increasing our distances in the field events.”

A crew of Bison will make their way out to University Park, Pa. on Friday and Saturday to compete in the prestigious Penn State National Invitational. “We have a lot of athletes going to Penn State,” commented Donner, “and it will give them a higher level of competition. Getting our runners on a banked track will help their times and get them ready for ECACs and IC4As in March.”

Of talented group of athletes selected to compete at Penn State, junior Christian Lupica is one to watch out for. After racing to big wins last weekend in both the 60 hurdles (7.92), an event in which he set a new school record, and the 200 meters (21.85), he will be looking to improve his times in both events at Penn State.

Sophomore John Westwood, junior Kevin Tapper, junior Alex Jagelsky, and junior Andrew Garcia-Garrison will also join Lupica at Penn State, as the quartet is set to compete in the distance medley relay. Each of these runners has had great performances thus far in the season, as Westwood ran an impressive 800 (1:54.29) at the Gulden Invite, claiming a first-place finish and a season-best time, and was followed closely by Jagelsky (1:55.84), an indicator of how strong the relay will be. Both Westwood and Jagelsky will be competing in the invitational 1000 at Penn State in addition to their roles on the DMR.

Tapper, who competed in the 400m at the Gulden Invite and brought in the top Bucknell performance with a time of 49.68, will also be busy at Penn State, as he is set to run both the 400 meter leg of the DMR and compete in the open 500. Anthony Menza, a sophomore who made waves with a persona- best 500 (1:05.17) and first-place finish at the Gulden Invite, will also join Tapper in the 500.

On the women's side, Donner looks forward to blazing times and huge throws from the student-athletes competing at Penn State, including junior Kim Nagotko and senior Jennifer Zymet. Both athletes dominated the 200m race at the Gulden Invite, with Nagotko finishing first with a 25.38, an ECAC qualifying time and a season-best mark. Zymet finished just behind in fourth place, running an impressive 25.83 to follow up her ECAC qualifying time in the 400 meters (57.54).

Nagotko and Zymet will be joined by freshman Reagan Cerney and sophomore Jenn Silvestri, who both competed in the 500 meter race at the Gulden Invite, rocking the Patriot League standings with impressive times in the event that placed them in the top ten in the conference. Cerney will bump up to the 800m run at Penn State, looking to improve her time and seed for the upcoming Patriot League Championships, hosted by the Bison in just three short weeks.

Silvestri is one of the only athletes who will be competing in both competitions this weekend, as she will race in the 60m hurdles in Lewisburg on Friday to improve upon her 9.12 performance at the Gulden Invite, a time that is amongst the fastest in the conference this season. On Saturday, Silvestri will travel out to Penn State to compete in the 400m alongside freshman Allison Sharkey. Sophomore Sophia Nnadi will also be representing the Bison at Penn State, competing in the shot put, an event which she won at the Gulden Invite with a toss of 42-02.00.

While Bucknell will compete in many events at Penn State, most of the Bison will stay in Lewisburg for the two-day Bison Open meet, which begins Friday at 4 p.m. and continues all day on Saturday. This meet will provide a great opportunity for those athletes that are not going to Penn State to compete for top finishes and improve their performances. Some events to look out for include the DMR [Distance Medley Relay] that will take place on Friday night, as well as the field events that will take place throughout the day on Saturday.

With a split squad this will be an important and telling weekend for the Bison. “This is one of my favorite weekends,” allowed Donner, “because it helps determine the 32 athletes we will use at our league meet in three weeks. The set-up enables the athletes to really go after it and turn in great performances.”

The action in both meets is set to begin on Friday evening at 4 p.m. and will resume again on Saturday morning. The multi events will kick things off at Bucknell at 9:30 a.m. on the second day of competition, while the track will start to heat up again at Penn State at 10:30 a.m. Live results will be available for both meets and can be accessed on the Bucknell track & field schedule pages. The entire Penn State National Invitational will also be video streamed by FloTrack.