Men's Cross Country Ready for Two Meets this Weekend

Friday, October 12

University Park, Pa.

11 a.m.

Bucknell University

Penn State National Open

Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

Men's Cross Country Ready for Two Meets this Weekend

10/10/2018 2:57:00 PM | Men's Cross Country

The Bison Will Run at Penn State Friday and Gettysburg Saturday

Setting the Scene
(Friday, Oct. 12 – 11 a.m.)
What: Penn State National Open
Where: Blue-White Golf Course (University Park, Pa.) – 5.2 mile
Bucknell Runners: Landin Delaney, Brian Dengler, Ben Littman, Brendan McGill, Connor McMenamin, Ryan Miele, Even Minor, Brendan O'Toole, Joseph Stark, Jacob Stupak, Chad Sussman

(Saturday, Oct. 13 – 10:30 a.m.)
What: Gettysburg Invitational
Where: Gettysburg College Cross Country Course (Gettysburg, Pa.) – 8k
Bucknell Runners – Brian Babyak, Matt Cervon, Terryl Ferrell, Riley Gardner, Andrew Gargiulo, Scott Gulizio, Quenton Long, Nick Pacelli, Ben Siciliano, Matthew Vira

About the Bison
• Bucknell will send 11 runners to the Penn State National Open on Friday and 10 runners to the Gettysburg Invitational on Saturday.
• The Bison took seventh out of 13 teams at the Penn State National Open last season, finishing ahead of Lehigh, North Carolina, Duquesne, Kent State, UC Davis, and Loyola.
• Drew Dorflinger was Bucknell's top runner at Penn State last season, taking 14^th out of 128 runners. Also finishing in the top half of the field were Chad Sussman (29^th), Jacob Stupak (54^th), and Brian Dengler (60^th).
• Bucknell last competed at the Gettysburg Invitational in 2014. The Bison won the title in a field of 34 teams.
• The Bison's last competition was the Paul Short Run on Sept. 29. Matt Vira was the team's top runner in 81^st.

About the Penn State National Open
• The participating teams are Akron, Arkansas, Brown, Bucknell, Charleston Southern, Dartmouth, Duquesne, Eastern Kentucky, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Iona, Kentucky, Michigan State, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio University, Penn, Penn State, Pitt, Rutgers, Virginia, and Virginia Tech.
• The field will include six nationally-ranked teams – No. 16 Arkansas, No. 18 Eastern Kentucky, No.19 Virginia, No. 27 Iona, No. 29 Georgetown, and No. 30 Virginia Tech. Additionally, Michigan State is receiving votes in the national poll.
• Oklahoma State won the team title last year. The Cowboys' Hassan Abdi was the individual champion.

Bucknell Head Coach Kevin Donner Quotes
• On Penn State – "This meet may be one of the most competitive regular season meets we have ever been to, and we are excited to see how we handle this type of pressure. We are running our top 11, so this will also determine our league roster."
• On Gettysburg – "This is a great opportunity for our developmental runners to get some valuable experience on a course similar to our league course, and some of these runners will be trying to make the league roster."

Up Next
• Bucknell will host the Bison Tuneup on Friday, Oct. 19.