Men's Track and Field Set for Penn Relays, Bloomsburg Invite

Thursday, April 25

Philadelphia, PA

10 a.m.

Bucknell University

Penn Relays

Men's Track and Field Set for Penn Relays, Bloomsburg Invite

4/24/2019 12:22:00 PM | Men's Track and Field

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell University men's track and field team will compete in two meets this weekend after a strong performance at the Bucknell Team Challenge on Saturday.

SETTING THE SCENE
What: Penn Relays
Where: Franklin Field, Philadelphia, Pa.
When: Thursday, April 25- Saturday, April 27
Meet Schedule
Live Stream Info

"We generally take a low key approach to the Penn Relays because of our league meet being a week later and final exams starting next week," said Head Coach Kevin Donner. "We must make sure we do not compromise anyone academically and we want to make sure we remain healthy for leagues so we do not take any risks. With that said, we are taking a few worthy field event women that are ready for some big marks and two male relay teams that will represent us well. Our 4 x 100 relay made the Eastern final last year and took 2nd. This is the first time in many years that Bucknell is represented in a Championship of America section in the DMR and this team is very excited to run on the big stage. All four men are running as well as they ever have and we plan to represent Bucknell and prove that we belong."

A small group of Bison will compete at the prestigious Penn Relays on Friday, with the 4x100 and the distance medley relay both scheduled to compete.
The 4x100 team will compete in the college men's trials beginning at 12:30 p.m., with Ryquan Harris, Steve Rizio, Jeff Brown, and Billy Melchionni taking part in that race.
The distance medley squad will be comprised of Scott Guilizio (1200), Melchionni (400), Robert Dessoye (800), and Jake Stupak (1600).
The Championship of America section of the distance medley relay will have 13 schools competing, including Duke, Indiana, Wisconsin, Virginia Tech, and Boston College.
Bucknell is one of only six teams from a non-power five conference in the field.
The Bison will have momentum going into the meet after several solid marks from the team in winning the Bucknell Team Challenge on Saturday, April 20.
R. Dessoye placed second in the 400 (48.62), and moved into the tenth spot on Bucknell's all-time list, just edging out his brother Alex, who finished third in the event (48.72), and previously held the tenth-best time at 48.63.
Micah Sims posted a personal-best in the long jump in a win while also qualifying for IC4As
Brown swept the short sprints in the 100 and 200 over the weekend, qualifying for IC4As in the 200 (22.0). Brown was also a part of the winning 4x100 team (41.94) that will look to improve on that mark at the Penn Relays.
Matt Fay won the pole vault (16-8.75), C.J. Falcioni took first in the shot put (50-8.25), and Terryl Ferrell in the steeplechase (9:29.71) also earned event wins.
Will Briggs also took first in the discus (157-1).
At last year's Penn Relays, the 4x100 team finished second overall and posted the fifth-fastest mark in Bucknell history at the time (41.22) The squad was largely the same, with Harris, Brown, and Melchionni all taking part, with Alex Dessoye the only outlier from this year's unit.