Women's Cross Country to Send Runners to Princeton and Penn State on Saturday

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell women's cross country team returns to action with two meets on Saturday. The Bison will send their top 10 runners to the Princeton Invitational, while the rest of the roster will make the short trip to compete at the Penn State Open.

The Princeton Invitational is run on a 6k course and is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Bucknell will compete at the event for the second straight year after taking fifth of 35 teams last year. Villanova won the team title over second-place Virginia Tech. Christine Bendzinski took 32^nd out of 278 runners and is the Bison's top returning finisher. Sarah Chandler (34^th), Kate Scott (53^rd) and Alison Billas (67^th) also helped the Bison finish in the top five.

This year's race will feature some of the best runners from the Mid-Atlantic Region. Eleven of the top 15 teams are listed among the expected competitors, including Duquesne, George Washington, Georgetown, Navy, Penn, Princeton, Pittsburgh, Rider, Rutgers and UMBC. In all, 25 teams are expected to attend.

“This is a very solid meet against a lot of the mid-level Mid-Atlantic schools on the regional course,” said Bucknell head coach Kevin Donner. “Most of the top teams have elected to run at Wisconsin or Pre-Nationals. The regional meet is a big one for many of our athletes and racing on the course will help us as we prepare for that meet in a month from now.”

The Penn State Open will also be run on a 6k course and is scheduled for an 11 a.m. start. It will be Bucknell's first regular season competition at Penn State since 2011.

“This is a great opportunity to give our women a chance to run on a quality course, and many of them are trying to solidify a spot in our championship lineup in the next two to four weeks,” Donner said.