Bucknell University Athletics
From the AD's Desk
4/11/2014 3:35:00 PM | General
Greetings Bison Fans!
Well we have put another winter season in the books, and we are well underway with what we would normally refer to as the “spring” season, although our student-athletes and coaches have hardly experienced “spring” conditions here in the Northeast.
Each of our outdoor programs has battled the elements in preparation for their championship seasons. Practicing and competing in adverse weather conditions is certainly challenging, and all of our spring programs should be commended for their flexibility with all of the postponements and changes to practice and game schedules.
Despite the Kodiak conditions, the Bison baseball and softball teams are off to very strong starts in Patriot League play. The baseball team completed a four-game sweep of Navy, which was the preseason co-favorite in the league, and then took 3-of-4 from Lehigh to remain atop the league standings. Pitching has been the key. The Bison allowed only four total runs in the four victories in the Navy series. The softball squad has already played three Patriot League series, and Bonnie Skrenta's squad took two out of three in each series with defending-champion Army, Holy Cross and Lafayette.
The men's lacrosse team has faced some challenges this spring but is right in the thick of the Patriot League playoff race. The Bison have two league games remaining in the regular season, including a nationally televised game against Loyola on Apr. 17. This is Loyola's first season in the Patriot League, and the Greyhounds are currently ranked No. 1 in the country. The Patriot League Tournament has expanded to six teams for men's and women's lacrosse this season, and the postseason gets underway with quarterfinal games on Apr. 22.
Women's lacrosse recently won three games in a row, including a pair of thrilling one-goal victories over American and Holy Cross. Despite a slow start to the season, the team is still in contention for a postseason berth.
Other spring sports such as tennis, golf, rowing and track & field are building up for their Patriot League championship competitions coming up in the next few weeks. We will be hosting the Patriot League Women's Tennis Championship next weekend (Apr. 17-20), and that same weekend the women's golf squad will be at Saucon Valley Country Club in Bethlehem for the Second Annual Patriot League Women's Golf Championship.
West Point will be the site for the men's tennis (Apr. 24-27) and men's golf (Apr. 26-27) championships. The track & field championships will be held May 2-3 at Navy, and May 16 is the date for the women's rowing championship on Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass.
The women's water polo team will compete at the Southern Championship at Harvard this coming weekend, and then we will host the CWPA Championship at Kinney Natatorium Apr. 25-27.
All of this spring action comes on the heels of an exciting winter campaign. Both Bison basketball teams played some very good basketball this season, only to see their years end earlier than expected. The men's team had to replace one of the all-time great senior classes, one that produced over 4,500 points and won three straight league titles. The Bison had some early season success, including a thrilling win at Penn State in November. After some struggles during the middle portion of league play, Coach Paulsen went to a bigger lineup, and the team responded with a six-game winning streak to end the regular season. The Bison climbed up to the No. 4 seed and hosted Army in the Patriot League Tournament quarterfinals, but the Black Knights rallied late and hit a game-winning shot in the final few seconds. Despite all of the graduation losses, the team still finished with a winning record both overall (16-14) and in league play (11-7). Cameron Ayers was named Patriot League Player of the Year, and while he is part of another senior class that will be tough to replace, another promising recruiting class is on the way next year.
In the meantime, the team still has some basketball left, as it will play five games on a 10-day tour of Belgium, France and Switzerland at the end of May.
Aaron Roussell's women's basketball team finished with an identical 16-14/11-7 record and also hosted a Patriot League Tournament game at Sojka. Unfortunately the Bison ran into a hot Holy Cross team that day and they were eliminated in the quarterfinals. The women's team also had more basketball in them. The Bison earned a first-ever trip to the Women's Basketball Invitational (WBI) postseason tournament, where they fell to Maine in the first round. Shelby Romine, the team's lone senior, had a fantastic final season, and we will all miss watching her play next year.
The Bison sent two more wrestlers to the NCAA Championships this season: 125-pounder Paul Petrov and heavyweight Joe Stolfi, who became the third Bucknell wrestler to win an EIWA title. Joe set a school record with 23 pins this season. He finished 34-8 and had an 18-match winning streak at one point.
It was a very good season for the Bison men's and women's swimming & diving teams. In dual meets, the women finished 8-2 and 6-0 against Patriot League competition, while the men went 7-3/5-1. Both teams defeated Navy in dual meets, and that men's victory was historic, as the Midshipmen had never before lost a Patriot League dual. At the Patriot League Championships, the women finished second and the men fourth. Outstanding senior Mike Nicholson graduated as the highest championship point-scorer in his class across the entire league.
Bucknell hosted the Patriot League Indoor Track & Field Championships at Gerhard Fieldhouse back in February. The men finished a close second to Navy, while the women took third behind Boston University and Lehigh. Both teams then performed very well at the IC4A/ECAC Championships in Boston. The men took sixth out of 41 teams, the best IC4A finish in program history, and then they won the Colonial Relays in their first scored outdoor meet last week.
So it is an extremely busy time for Bison Athletes. Perhaps the weather has something to do with it, but the spring season always seems to speed along very quickly. The winter/spring season overlap also seems to get broader each year. With official spring sports seasons starting earlier than ever, there are frequent conflicts for space and support staff with the winter teams still in the thick of their championships seasons.
One area that is always a major challenge during those busy overlap months is in sports medicine, and I am very pleased that we have been able to make major strides with some new staffing models this year. Many of our older alums will remember the legendary Hal Biggs running a one-man athletic training operation along with some student helpers back in the day. Well now associate director of athletics for sports medicine Mark Keppler is one of 11 full-time certified athletic trainers on staff.
With longer competition seasons and the proliferation of non-traditional practice seasons, our 11 full-time athletic trainers are still challenged to provide support for 27 varsity programs, but we are in a much better position than even a year ago at this time. Mark has done a terrific job managing this larger staff and the corresponding logistical issues related to office space, training room hours, etc.
So spring is flying by, and before you know it, we will be saying farewell to another outstanding graduating class.
Our student-athletes continue to amaze me with their academic accomplishments. Did you know that during the fall semester we had 240 student-athletes make the Dean's List with grade-point averages of 3.50 or higher? That is about one-third of our varsity student-athletes.
Reflecting on this season, one of those small but lasting memories for me came right after our big 3-1 men's soccer victory over Holy Cross back in November. The Bison clinched a playoff berth with that win, and immediately after shaking hands with his opponents, senior defender Joe Meyer grabbed his bags and literally ran out of Holmes Stadium. A car was waiting for Joe in the parking lot, headed to the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, where he was to receive an NYC Post Society of Military Engineers Scholarship Award. Joe is a mechanical engineering major with a 3.93 cumulative GPA, and this year he earned All-Patriot League honors for his terrific play on the field and First Team Academic All-America honors for achievements in the classroom.
Joe Meyer is just one example of the great work being done by Bison student-athletes both on the playing fields and in the classroom. After commencement, we will watch Joe and the rest of this year's senior class head into the workforce or off to graduate school.
On Feb. 16, three senior members of the Bucknell Bison Leadership Academy planned and organized a career networking event in the Terrace Room. A dozen former student-athletes braved some wintry weather and returned to campus to work with our Leadership Academy members on building business relationships. Each of the panelists spoke about how the lessons learned from being a student-athlete helped shape their careers.
The career networking event was the brainchild of women's basketball standout senior Shelby Romine, and swimmers Kristen Purdy and Kelly Pontecorvo handled the planning and logistics.
This has been a great year for the Bucknell Bison Leadership Academy. In addition to a number of beneficial seminars conducted in a classroom setting, Academy members are also encouraged to develop their own programming. The career networking event was one example, and another occurred this past weekend in Gerhard Fieldhouse, as Bison student-athletes hosted a Community Day open house for area youths. It was fun watching youngsters take a lap around the track with our runners, grapple with our wrestlers, or learn how to hold a lacrosse stick. The plan is for Academy members to build on these inaugural events in future years.
We also sent three student-athletes to the USNA Leadership Conference for the second year in a row and hosted a highly regarded speaker on the topic of healthy relationships and safe dating.
We are just beginning our spring round of student-athlete “thank-you” calls to all of our Bison Club donors. It is very important that our student-athletes understand that many of the amenities that they might take for granted – uniforms, equipment, hotel rooms, etc. – is only possible because of the financial support of our loyal Bison Club members. In that regard, we ask our student-athletes to take an hour of their time making personal calls to individuals who have donated in the past year. When you receive your call, I encourage you to engage the student-athlete in conversation and find out a little more about them. You will be impressed.
If you have not yet contributed to the Bison Club in 2014, there are many easy ways to do so, including an online credit card form. And please don't forget about the Bucknell Giving Challenge on April 24!
For more information, contact Todd Newcomb at 570-577-1771 or tnewcomb@bucknell.edu.
Thank you so much for all of your support … and GO BISON!
Sincerely,
John P. Hardt
Director of Athletics & Recreation
Bucknell University
