Women's Cross Country to Race at Lehigh on Friday, Louisville on Saturday

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell women's cross country team has two events on the schedule this weekend. The Bison will send a large group of runners to Lehigh's Paul Short Run on Friday and will be represented by 10 of its top runners in a challenging field at the Greater Louisville Classic on Saturday.

The Greater Louisville Classic will be one of the nation's marquee running events Saturday. The 34-team field includes six nationally-ranked teams in No. 6 Iowa State, No. 8 Michigan, No. 11 Wisconsin, No. 13 West Virginia, No. 19 Penn State and No. 23 Minnesota, as well as two teams – Lipscomb and SMU – that are listed among the teams receiving votes. Nineteen teams are recognized in their respective regional rankings, including Bucknell at No. 7 in the Mid-Atlantic. The race is scheduled for a 10:15 a.m. start.

“Although we took our team to Pre-Nationals at Louisville in 2012, we have never competed at the Greater Louisville Classic, which will be run on the NCAA Championships course,” said Bucknell head coach Kevin Donner. “This will be our first major test of the year, and I am interested to see how we stack up against some top-ranked teams. We will need to be a little more aggressive than previous meets and will need to really hold our mental focus in the later stages of the race.”

The Greater Louisville Classic is held on a 5k course at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park. Wisconsin is the defending champion, beating out runner-up West Virginia.

Bucknell is coming off its second win in as many events, as Kate Scott won the individual race to lead the Bison to the title on the 4k course at the Dickinson Long-Short Invitational. They took eight of the top 10 spots, including top-five finishes from Sarah Chandler, Christine Bendzinski and Deanna Godby. Scott was named the Patriot League Female Runner of the Week for the second time this season following her individual win.

Bucknell looks to defend its title in the Brown Race at the Paul Short Run, which will start at 1 p.m. on Friday. The Bison took first out of 40 teams last year, with Marist and Holy Cross finishing second and third, respectively. Bendzinski, Scott and Godby are Bucknell's top three returning finishers, but all three will be competing at Louisville this weekend.