Men's Track and Field Wins Team Title at Gulden Invite

Saturday, January 25

Lewisburg, Pa.

Bucknell University

Gulden Invitational

Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

Men's Track and Field Wins Team Title at Gulden Invite

1/25/2020 7:50:00 PM | Men's Track and Field

LEWISBURG, Pa. – The Bucknell University men's track and field team won its second consecutive meet after taking the team title at the Gulden Invitational on Saturday. The Bison won the meet with 199 points over second-place Shippensburg (117). East Stroudsburg (90) Mount St. Mary's (50), Saint Francis (Pa.) (50), Johns Hopkins (38), and Bloomsburg (13) rounded out the seven-team field. The Bison earned five wins overall.

Results

"Today was a very solid team effort," said Head Coach Kevin Donner. "It's always nice to win home meets, and we had some nice early season marks. We were hoping for a few more individual wins than we got, but we did have to hold out quite a few guys due to injuries and sickness, and the competition was good. We're going to have to get some guys back if we want to be ready to score some major points at leagues."

Nicholas Marino, the Patriot League Field Athlete of the Week two weeks prior, continued his strong start with a new personal-best in the pole vault indoors. The junior from Horsham, Pa. tied his own personal-best two weeks ago at the Angry Birds Invite (16-4.75), and eclipsed that mark at Gerhard Fieldhouse by four inches (16-8.75) to take first place in the pole vault by a comfortable margin over teammate David Kelly (15-3). Marino improved on his mark that continues to rank third in the Bucknell record books behind Bucknell Hall-of-Famer Dave Pomfret (17-3) and 2019 graduate Matt Fay (17-4.5).

C.J. Falcioni earned a win in the weight throw (60-03), improving on his personal-best in that event set in 2018 (59-11) at the Patriot League Championships. The senior threw a personal-best in the shot put two weeks ago at the Angry Birds Challenge (52-4.5), and continued his solid run of form to start the season by improving on his mark that continues to rank sixth in the Bucknell record books.

Zach Ruiz (52-04.00) earned a place in the Bucknell top ten in the shot put in placing second. The senior now moves ahead of Stephen Koullias in the all-time rankings in ninth, just behind Falcioni, who moved into that spot in the rankings two weeks prior at the Angry Birds Challenge.

Brendan Bodisch (49.74) just beat out teammate Steve Rizio (49.76) in the 400 in a new personal-best time for the former.   Both times are IC4A standards. Bodisch also contributed points to the cause after finishing runner-up in the long jump (22-06.5), and running the anchor leg on Bucknell's second-place and IC4A qualifying 4x400 squad (3:20.04). Rizio was also a member of the 4x400 squad, along with Alex Dessoye and Robert Dessoye.

A. Dessoye also added a win in the 500 (1:06.23) to finish in front of his twin brother (1:06.55) and qualify for IC4As. Sophomore Owen Chase took the win in the 1000 (2:32.17) over teammate Sean Conway, edging Conway by .01 at the finish. Chase was also a member of the Bucknell 4x800 squad along with Michael Gertz, Connor McMenamin, and Dylan LoPresti, (8:05.05) that finished second.

In the 200, Bucknell track and field newcomer Stefone Moore-Green, a wide receiver for the Bucknell football team in the fall, earned IC4A qualification in the event after finishing second (22.03) in a field that featured six athletes who eclipsed the IC4A standard. Moore-Green's time is .03 shy of tying Isaih Bell and Malachi Bostic-Wattley for a place on Bucknell's top ten list in just his second career race. Jeff Brown (third, 22.05), also qualified for IC4As out of the 200, while adding a third-place finish in the 60 (6.85).

Brendan O'Toole improved by five seconds on the dot from his mile-winning performance at last year's Gulden Invite in placing second (4:18.59), just shy of earning IC4A qualification.   Matt Vira (9:02.23) also added a runner-up finish in the 3000, while freshman Domenic Campagna was second in the 5000 (15:33.38).

Aaron Arp of Shippensburg was named the Track Athlete of the Meet, while Darnell Randall of East Stroudsburg earned Field Athlete of the Meet honors.

The Bison will return to action next weekend at Penn State National Open and the Bison Open and Multi.

Gallery: (1/25/2020) Track and Field at the Gulden Invite