Track & Field Tackles Penn Relays, Maroon & Gold Invitational this Weekend

4/23/2014 5:16:00 PM | Women's Track and Field

By: TBD

Penn Relays website

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell track and field team will bring its talent to one of the most historic and prestigious meets in the country this weekend, traveling to Philadelphia to compete in the Penn Relays at the University of Pennsylvania's Franklin Field. The meet has been in existence since April 21, 1885, and has become the longest-running, uninterrupted college track meet in the country. The 120^th running of the event is scheduled for Thursday, April 24 through Saturday, April 26, and will provide a prime location for several of the Bison to prep for next weekend's Patriot League Championship meet

“We are taking a small contingent of people to the prestigious Penn Relays and everyone who will be competing has a good chance to place very highly in their respective events,” commented head coach Kevin Donner. “However, as it is the week before our conference meet and final exams, we intend to take a low-key approach to the competition and treat it as a tune-up for the league meet.”

The team traveling to Philadelphia will be comprised of a small group of thirteen Bison. On the men's side, juniors Jack Fellows and Brian Monahan will be competing in the men's discus and the Eastern shot put, where Donner feels that they will thrive on the competition. Junior Christian Lupica, who is developing into one of the nation's top hurdlers, will compete in the 100m hurdles in front of the hometown crowd, and will be joined on the track by a top-notch distance medley relay team that Donner believes has a chance to break the school record. Sophomore John Westwood is set to run the 1200m leg, classmate Ryan Johnson will tackle the 800m portion, junior Andrew Garcia-Garrison will test his endurance in the 1600m leg, and senior Dennis Logan will bring the group home with a 400m sprint. Rounding out the men's squad will be junior John Dugan and senior Tyler Erhard, both of whom will be eying qualification for the NCAA East Preliminary in the 3000m steeplechase this weekend.

On the women's side, sophomore Jenn Silvestri, junior Kim Nagotko, senior Jennifer Zymet and senior Hana Casalnova will come together to run the sprint medley relay. These four student-athletes are among the top runners on the women's team and all have program top-ten marks in their respective events.

While Bucknell will be represented by just a few team members at the Penn Relays, the rest of the team will also be in action this weekend, heading out to Bloomsburg on Saturday afternoon for a small, last-chance meet.

“The meet at Bloomsburg is a great tune-up and we will have a variety of missions,” added Donner. “For some, it will be their last meet of the season, others will be looking to solidify their league roster spot, and a few others will use it as a nice tune-up for the conference meet. We have had a lot of great performances at Bloomsburg in past years.”

Action in the Penn Relays, which will have more than 100,000 spectators will begin on Thursday and run through Saturday, and will be video streamed for a fee by FloTrack. Bloomsburg's Maroon and Gold Invite will take place all day on Saturday.