Bison Kick Off 2015 Men's Cross Country Season Friday at Home

9/3/2015 1:45:00 PM | Men's Cross Country

By: TBD

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell men's cross country team opens the 2015 season with a pair of events this weekend. Some runners will kick off the year on their home course at the Bison Open on Friday, while others will head to Hamilton, N.Y. for Colgate's Harry Lang Invitational on Saturday.

Many of the Bucknell runners will see their first collegiate competition as the Bison welcome Susquehanna and Juniata for the Bison Open. The women's race is scheduled for 6 p.m. and will be followed by the men's race at 6:40 p.m. Saturday's race at Colgate, host of this year's Patriot League Championships, is slated for an 11:30 a.m. start.

“We are training through both of these meets,” said Bucknell head coach Kevin Donner. “However, I am excited to see how our athletes have handled the training the past three weeks and to see who steps up and helps the team. We are running 10 veterans at Colgate on Saturday to see the Patriot League course and everyone else will be racing at home on Friday. I am looking at this meet as more of a set-up meet for next week's races at Penn State.”

The Bison were picked to finish fourth in the Patriot League this season by a vote of the league's coaches and sports information directors. They are also ranked 10th in the Mid-Atlantic Region, coming in right behind Duquesne and Saint Joseph's, and ahead of Lehigh, Pittsburgh and Temple.

Bucknell took 10 of the top 11 spots in its home event last season. Senior Andrew Kuchta is the defending champion, winning the race by six seconds. Junior Louis Tobias and sophomore Will Bordash finished in the top five, while senior John Westwood, junior Ross Pirnie, junior Luke Giugliano, senior John Kirna and sophomore Zach Williams were in the top 10.

The Bison will compete at the Harry Lang Invitational for the first time since 2012 when they took fifth out of 11 teams.

After the two events this weekend, the Bison will turn their attention to Penn State's Harry Groves Spiked Shoe Invitational. That race is scheduled for 4 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 11.