Buckley Leads Women's Cross Country at Loaded Boston College Meet

Friday, September 21

Jamaica Plain, Mass.

3 p.m.

Bucknell University

Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown

Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

Buckley Leads Women's Cross Country at Loaded Boston College Meet

9/21/2018 4:58:00 PM | Women's Cross Country

The Senior Was 24th Out of 218 in Her Season Debut

RESULTS

JAMAICA PLAIN, Mass. – Colleen Buckley made her 2018 debut Friday and was the top runner for the Bucknell women's cross country team at the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown, hosted by Boston College at the Franklin Park course. Buckley finished 24^th out of 218 runners in a loaded field that included five nationally-ranked teams.

Bucknell finished 17^th out of 24 in the team standings, finishing as the best of the three Patriot League teams. Pitt was one spot ahead of the Bison, while the teams coming in behind them were Lehigh, UMass Lowell, Boston University, Quinnipiac, Northeastern, UMass Amherst, and New Hampshire.
Ole Miss won the team title with a score of 102, edging runner-up Georgia Tech (105). The field also included No. 11 Providence, No. 22 Syracuse, No. 24 Minnesota, No. 27 Dartmouth, and No. 1 Johns Hopkins (DIII).

"It was a solid effort, but I don't think it was a great team race," Bucknell head coach Kevin Donner said. "These type of meets that are large and very competitive split up packs more so than smaller races. That definitely happened. I thought we got some valuable experience and even though I was hoping for a lower score and a better team place, I believe this type of competition will make us a better team in the future."

Providence junior Abbey Wheeler won the 5k race with a time of 17:10. Rounding out the top five runners were Bethany Hasz (Minnesota), Abigail Green (Virginia), Sydney Meyers (Eastern Michigan), and Megan Hasz (Minnesota). Ole Miss used a balanced effort to get the team win, with all five of its scored runners finishing between 10^th and 33^rd.

After sitting out the first two races of the season, Buckley crossed the line in 17:50. The senior is a two-time First Team All-Patriot League runner and is expected to be one of the top runners in the league this season. She was the fastest Patriot League runner at the meet on Friday, finishing four spots ahead of Boston University's Jessica Kellar.

Senior Margaret Thomson joined Buckley in the top 100 with a 78^th-place finish. Rounding out Bucknell's scored runners were sophomore Payton Capes (101^st), sophomore Ashley Blair (128^th), and freshman Nora Bennett (137^th).

"We will get back to work Sunday and get ready for Penn State in three weeks and the league meet in five weeks," Donner said. "It's great to have Colleen back. She looked very solid for her first race."

The Bison will next run on Saturday, Sept. 29, when they compete at the Paul Short Run. The event is hosted by Lehigh on the Goodman Campus Cross Country Course.