Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
Patriot League Championships
Women's Cross Country Ties for PL Title, Officially Awarded 2nd After Tiebreaker
11/1/2014 6:24:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- It was a whirlwind of emotions for the Bucknell women's cross country team at the Patriot League Championship on Saturday. At the end of a fantastic 6,000-meter race, the Bison and defending-champion Boston University finished dead even with 52 points. Initially, both teams celebrated co-championships, but later the meet referee cited a 2013 NCAA rule change where a tiebreaker must be employed to declare a champion, and Boston University narrowly came out on top in the tiebreaker.
Senior Katie Jessee earned her second career All-Patriot League citation -- and her first First Team award -- after finishing in third place among 107 competitors. Jessee finished in 20:59.3, trailing only Boston University's Rosa Moreno (20:18.1) and Lehigh's Elizabeth Weiler (20:30.1).
Also for Bucknell, senior Montana DiPietrantonio placed eighth, sophomore Kate Scott took 12th, sophomore Sarah Chandler was 14th and freshman Christine Bendzinski finished 15th. DiPietrantonio, Scott and Chandler were all awarded Second Team All-Patriot League honors.
"I was very proud of how our women performed today," said head coach Kevin Donner. "They decided to go for the win from the get-go. Our weakness throughout the season has been a lack of front-running, but today we had some people run up front, which put us in a position to win a title. The tiebreaker is a new NCAA rule, and although we came up on the short end I was still extremely proud of our performance."
Under the tiebreaker system, each team's top five runners' place finishes are compared head-to-head, and the team that "wins" at least three of those five spots is declared the winner. In this case, Boston University's 1, 2 and 3 runners finished higher than Bucknell's 1, 2 and 3 runners. The Bison came out on top in the 4 and 5 positions, but that was not quite enough.
There have been ties at the Patriot League Cross Country Championship in the past, most notably in 2007, when Bucknell and Navy shared the women's title with 58 points each. One year later, Army and Navy tied for first in the men's meet. This under-the-radar NCAA rule change now prevents co-champions.
There was also a tie for third and fourth place in this year's women's championship. Army and Navy both finished with 70 points, and the Black Knights were awarded third place on the tiebreaker. Holy Cross placed fifth with 130 points, followed by Lehigh (136), American (214), Loyola (235), Lafayette (243) and Colgate (290).
This was the 25th Patriot League Women's Cross Country Championship, and Bucknell has now placed either first or second in 17 of them.
The Bison will be back in action again on Nov. 14 at the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional in State College, Pennsylvania.
Players Mentioned
