Track and Field to Host Bison Outdoor Classic on Saturday and Sunday

4/10/2014 3:34:00 PM | Men's Track and Field

By: TBD

LEWISBURG, Pa. – As the Bucknell track and field team gears up for its third weekend of outdoor competition, teams from all across the country will be on their way to Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium for the Bison Outdoor Classic, a two-day meet scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday. This will be the first time this season that the Bison will compete at home, and with beautiful weather in the forecast and a heat sheet filled with top athletes, it is shaping up to be a great weekend of competition.

“Every year, the Bison Outdoor Classic and the Bucknell Team Challenge are the two meets where the majority of our best performances take place,” commented head coach Kevin Donner. “This year will be no different. The Bison Outdoor Classic will feature strong competition across all of the events, and it should be a great weekend of running, jumping and throwing.”

After a tough first meet in bad weather at UMBC, both the men's and women's teams bounced back last weekend with strong outings at the Colonial Relays, with the men winning the team title and the women finishing fifth. The Bison will look to continue that success this weekend, improving on their performances and continuing to build towards the Patriot League Championships.

Sophomores Chrissy Haney and Jenn Silvestri are both coming off strong performances in the 400m hurdles in Virginia, with Silvestri working her way onto the program's list of top-ten performers in the event, and both athletes are scheduled to compete in the 100m high hurdles and the 400m intermediate hurdles this weekend, where they will look to set themselves up for a good seed at the Patriot League meet. Senior Jennifer Zymet, the three-time defending 400m champion, will be competing in the race for the first time this season, and will be joined by freshman Elyse Pettaway, who ran a solid time of 59.20 in the open 400m last weekend before turning in a blazing split of 57.50 in the 4x400m relay

Senior Hana Casalnova and freshman Sarah Chandler represented Bucknell's middle distance runners in Virginia with strong races in the 800m event. Casalnova ran a time of 2:10.46, an ECAC qualifying mark, to finish fourth, while Chandler also turned in an impressive performance, finishing 16^th with a time of 2:12.61. Casalnova will be back in action this weekend in the 800m and will also tackle the 1500m, while Chandler will be competing in the 3000m steeplechase.

The women's squad was also very impressive in the field events at the Colonial Relays, and the group was led by sophomore Sophia Nnadi, who placed in all three of her events. Nnadi finished fifth in the hammer throw with a heave of 149-06 and sixth in both the shot put and discus with marks of 42-09.50 and 131-08, respectively. Nnadi was joined in the throwing ring by sophomore Abigail Brundage, who finished eighth in the shot put, while sophomore Dayna Simone and freshman Stephanie Easse both competed in the javelin

On the men's side, the field events produced the majority of the team's points last weekend, with junior Kevin Tapper taking the lone individual title with his winning leap of 47-07.00 in the triple jump. The performance was a personal-best and makes him the sixth-best performer in the event in school history. Senior Alex Prieto also competing in the event, finishing seventh with a jump of 45-06.00. Both will be competing in the long jump and triple jump this weekend, while Tapper will also run the in the 400m.

Juniors Jack Fellows and Brian Monahan also contributed significant points to the team's total with their performances in the throwing events. Fellows finished second in the discus, third in the hammer and ninth in the shot put, while Monahan came home with sixth place finishes in the discus and shot put, as well as a seventh place finish in the hammer. Junior Laddie Trees scored points in the javelin with a fifth-place toss of 202-07.00, while freshman Daniel Elijah Kay did the same in the high jump, clearing 6-04.25 to tie for sixth.

Junior Christian Lupica, who finished second in the 100m high hurdles with a time of 14.61 last weekend, will compete in both the 100HH and the 400IH at this meet. Seniors Patryk Najbar, Kamal Riley and Jacob Eaton Hall combined with sophomore Anthony Menza to finish second in the 4x200m relay with a time of 1:29.18 in Virginia, and will all be back in action this weekend. Najbar will be competing in the 100m, Riley will run both the 100m and 200m, and Eaton-Hall will move up to a longer event, competing in the 400m. All three seniors will be joined by Lupica in the 4x100m relay.

Sophomores John Westwood and Zachary Moon highlighted Bucknell's performances in the middle distance events, with each running on the third-place distance medley relay team as well as competing in individual events. Westwood turned in an impressive 1500m race and will be competing in the 800m this weekend, while Moon will also be running in the 800m. Junior Andrew Garcia-Garrison, who will be competing in the 5000m this weekend, also ran a leg of the distance medley relay and competed in the 1500m last weekend. He finished fifth in the event with a time of 3:49.38, an IC4A qualifying mark.

Competition in the Bison Outdoor Classic will begin on Saturday afternoon, with field events scheduled for 1:30 p.m. and running events set to begin at 2:45 p.m. The meet will continue on Sunday morning, with action on the field beginning at 10:30 a.m. and track races starting at 11:00 a.m. The link to the live results for the meet will be available on the track and field schedule pages.