Men's Track and Field Set for Patriot League Championships at Navy

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell men's track and field team is set to compete in the three-day Patriot League Championships, to be held at Navy's Wesley A. Brown Field House from Friday-Sunday.

The All-Patriot League teams are determined by the results from the championship meet, with the winners in each event, including relays, earning First Team honors and the second-place finishers taking home Second Team accolades.

Bucknell owns the season's top marks in four events. Individually, Christian Lupica (60m hurdles), Joseph Breen (shot put) and Ben Burgess (heptathlon) enter the championships as the top seed, as does the school's record-setting distance medley relay team. Additionally, the Bison have the second-best marks in five events, including Andrew Garcia-Garrison in both the 1,000m and the mile. He is joined by Nicholas Lombardo (long jump, Brian Monahan (shot put) and the 4x400 relay team.

Garcia-Garrison will compete in one of the more highly anticipated events of the meet when he challenges Boston University's Rich Peters in the mile. The Bucknell senior holds the school record in the event with a time of 4:02.35 and has his sights set on a sub-four time before his college career is over, while Peters ran an impressive 3:59.58 in a home meet last weekend.

Lupica returns as the defending champ in the 60-meter hurdles, winning last year's title with a time of 7.95. He is the Bucknell record holder in the event with a time of 7.82, which was set during the regular season last year.

“Our men are very excited with the challenge that we believe Navy and Boston will provide,” said Bucknell head coach Kevin Donner. “Navy at home will be extremely tough and they have great depth. Boston is much improved this year and has great balance and a few big sticks. We anticipate a close meet.”

Navy is the defending conference champion with 201.83 points, while Bucknell was second with 173. Army, Boston and Lehigh rounded out the top five finishers.

Bucknell received three first-place votes and was picked to finish second in the Patriot League Preseason Poll. Navy tallied 15 first-place votes and was picked to repeat as conference champions, while Boston University finished behind the Bison in third.