Men's Cross Country Set for Season Debut at Pitt Panther Opener

Friday, August 30

Pittsburgh, Pa.

6 p.m.

Bucknell University

Pitt Panther Opener

Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

Men's Cross Country Set for Season Debut at Pitt Panther Opener

8/28/2019 11:30:00 AM | Men's Cross Country

SETTING THE SCENE
What: Pitt Panther Opener
When: Friday, August 30, 6 p.m.
Where: Carrie Blast Furnace, Rankin, Pa.

Course Map

About the Bison

The Bison will open the season with a scheduled road meet for the first time since the 2009 season, heading to the Pitt Panther Opener on Friday evening.
Pitt, which took 13^th at last year's ACC Championships, will host a home meet for the first time in over 20 years.
The course will wrap around the iconic Carrie Blast Furnace in the industrial town of Rankin, Pa. approximately eight miles outside of Pittsburgh.
The Bison will return 19 letterwinners from 2018, including two Second Team All-League picks in Brian Dengler (12^th at Patriot League Championships) and Jake Stupak (13^th).
All-Patriot League Pick Chad Sussman (14^th) graduated, but the Bison return a large core of their Patriot League lineup with scorers Brendan O'Toole (21^st) and Connor McMenamin (28^th) coming back. Brendan McGill, Evan Minor, Matt Vira, Terryl Ferrell, Ben Littman, and Ryan Miele will also be back from the Patriot League Championships.
Drew Dorflinger also returns, after he missed the 2018 season due to injury. Dorflinger placed 17^th in 2017 edition of the Patriot League Championships, and is coming off a season on the track where he placed fifth in the 5k at the Patriot League Outdoor Championships.
McMenamin took seventh at the Bison Opener last season out of a field of 130, while Stupak was close behind in eighth in the 6k. Brendan O'Toole also turned in a solid performance in his collegiate debut, taking 27^th.

Up Next
The Bison will get a preview of the host site of the Patriot League Championships when the team travels to the Harry Lang Invite on Saturday, Sep. 7 at Colgate.

Men's Cross Country Looks to Build off Solid Postseason in 2019
After a strong Patriot League Championships in which the Bison posted their highest finish since the 2014 season, Head Coach Kevin Donner has now set his sights on looking to improve even further.

"Last year's third-place finish was kind of a moral victory for us after finishing fifth the previous two seasons," said Donner. With the majority of the men back, our goals are to improve off that and give Army and Boston U a good run for their money. We had a nice Patriot League Championships, but struggled during the Mid- Atlantic Regional Meet to close the season."

The Bison will have a deep team, with a nice mix of veterans and newcomers for 2019.

The six freshmen include Domenic Campagna, Greg Eisenhower, Patrick Kilcooley, Zachary Laird, Noah Martin, and Samuel Whittaker.

"We have a veteran team with the majority of our top men returning plus Drew Dorflinger is healthy and will be back," Donner said. We have six solid freshmen who were all in the 9:30-9:45 range for 3200 meters in high school. We will see how they handle the 8k-10k distance compared to the high school 5k distance."

Two of those veteran runners are Brian Dengler and Jake Stupak. Dengler was the highest-placing Bison at the Patriot League Championships, finishing 12^th. Stupak wasn't far behind, taking 13^th. Stupak enjoyed a terrific season on the track, qualifying for the NCAA Provisional Meet in the 1500.

Donner figures the two will be instrumental in helping the Bison continue to compete at a high level, especially after the graduation of All-League Pick Chad Sussman, who was 14^th at last season's meet.

"Dengler and Stupak are our leaders and captains," said Donner. They had tremendous seasons last year with both earning All-League Honors. Both battle the injury bug quite often along with Drew Dorflinger. We need these three seniors to come together at the right time and push each other more often in practice. It's been awhile since we have had the three of them together at once."

Returning senior Dorflinger will bring a boost to the team after returning from a long injury layoff. The native of Pleasantville, N.Y. finished fifth in the 5k at the 2018 Patriot League Outdoor Championships, and was the champion in the Indoor 5k in 2017. He also placed 17^th at the 2017 edition of the Patriot League Cross Country Championships.

With the graduation of Sussman, Donner is counting on several other members of the squad to step up, with Connor McMenamin and Brendan O'Toole both returning.

"Connor is a workhorse who over trained a bit last year and faded towards the end of the XC season, he had a great spring in the steeplechase and didn't overdo it with the training in the summer," Donner said. Being a junior, it's time for him to shine."

"Brendan O'Toole had a great freshman year, and he is ready to step things up as a sophomore," Donner added. "Brendan McGill is another senior that I expect to be fighting for a varsity spot after breaking out his junior year. Evan Minor broke 15 minutes for the 5k last spring, and being a junior, I believe he is ready to give us the depth that we need."

Also returning from the Bison Patriot League lineup include Matt Vira, Terryl Ferrell, Ben Littman, and Ryan Miele.

While Bucknell will not open the season at home for the first time since 2009, Donner isn't worried as much about the early meets, as his team will be training through them to peak later on in the season. The schedule also includes trips to the University of Virginia and at Penn State for national caliber competition. The meet at Pittsburgh to open the season will also give the many members of his team from Western Pennsylvania a chance to run near their home area.

The Patriot League Championships will be held at Colgate for the first time since 2015. After the Pitt Panther Opener, the Bison will get a chance to see the Championship course on September 7 at the Harry Lang Invite. The Patriot League Championships are set for Nov. 2 in Hamilton, N.Y.