Bison Men Tabbed Second in Patriot League Track and Field Preseason Poll

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell men's track and field team was picked to finish second in the Patriot League Outdoor Preseason Poll. The Bison received 112 points and two first-place votes, while Navy was the unanimous favorite with 16 first-place votes and 128 points.

Rounding out the poll were Boston University (92), Army (89), Lehigh (78), Lafayette (53), Holy Cross (49), American (26) and Colgate (21).

Navy won last year's outdoor championships, as well as this season's indoor title. Bucknell was the runner-up at both events.

The Bison are led by last year's Track Athlete of the Meet, Christian Lupica. He won both the 110-meter and 400-meter hurdles at the outdoor championship. He is the school record holder in the 110-meter hurdles, and has top-10 times in the 200-meter dash and the 400-meter hurdles. He was also a member of record-setting relays in the 4x100 and the 4x400.

Bucknell also returns the Track Athlete of the Meet from this year's Patriot League Indoor Championships. Andrew Garcia-Garrison turned heads at with his performance at the meet, winning all four events in which he competed. He finished first in the 1,000-meter, the mile, the distance medley relay and the 4x800 relay. The 4x800 relay set a Patriot League record with a time of 7:28.36.

Lupica was also a winner at this year's indoor meet, repeating as the champion in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 8.03 seconds.

Brian Monahan earned Second Team All-Patriot League honors at last year's outdoor meet, joining Lupica and Garcia-Garrison as returning Bison to earn all-conference status in individual events. Monahan was second in the shot put with a toss of 54-1.

The Bison open the outdoor season at the Monmouth Invitational on Saturday, March 28.