Bucknell University Athletics
10/19/2020 5:24:00 PM | Women's Cross Country
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- In the fall of 1976, Bucknell fielded a women's cross country team for the first time. Under the guidance of legendary coach Art Gulden, the first women's squad consisted of just nine runners, but the team found plenty of early success. In that inaugural season, the Bison finished second in two invitationals and third in another, they easily swept Cornell and Yale in a tri-meet in Ithaca, and they finished a respectable seventh out of 20 teams at the EAIAW Regionals in Albany.Â
Gulden handed off the reins of the women's cross country program for a number of years -- to Diane Perry Ware from 1977-81, Cheryl Enyeart in 1982 and Lou Ann Isenburg in 1983 -- but the team quickly built a championship tradition. Bucknell won the inaugural East Coast Conference Championship in 1982, and then followed with seven more titles in succession with Gulden back in charge of the program.
The Bison moved to the Patriot League in 1990, and in the three decades since then they have claimed 12 more league titles and 10 runner-up finishes, they have finished in the top six at the Mid-Atlantic Regional eight times, and in 1999 they sent a full team to the NCAA Championship for the first time.Â
Current head coach Kevin Donner is now Bucknell's longest-tenured women's cross country coach. Donner, who took over after Gulden's passing in 2001 after a lengthy battle with cancer, is now in his 20th season at the helm. His eight Patriot League Coach of the Year honors in women's cross country are twice as many as any other coach in league history. Over the course of this week, Donner will be joined by many of the top runners who helped shape the history of the Bison women's cross country program. Special thanks to Geisinger for sponsoring the series.
1970s
In today's installment of Through the Decades, we go back to the earliest days of a varsity cross country team at Bucknell. As noted above, the program debuted in 1976 with a number of outstanding runners, and as recruiting and distance training improved, so did the program's fortunes. Ann Bischoff '80, who was a freshman on that inaugural team, finished fifth at the EAIAW Division II Eastern Cross Country Championship in 1979, which made her the first Bison woman to qualify for the AIAW National Championship. At nationals, she finished 33rd in a field of 179 competitors in Tallahassee, Florida. Bischoff is one of four alumnae joining head coach Kevin Donner and current student-athlete Kaitlin Ryan on today's panel. She is joined by Mary Rohrig '79, Susan Cluzel '79 and Beth Thomas '80. Rohrig was the team's top funner, finishing 80th overall, at the 1977 Eastern Championships, while Cluzel was the top Bison finisher at Easterns one year later.Â
1980s
Not many programs can say they won every championship during their tenure in a conference, but the Bison women's cross country team can make that claim about their time in the East Coast Conference. The ECC first sponsored a women's cross country championship in 1982, and from that year through 1989 Bucknell won all eight championships before moving to the Patriot League in 1990. They did so in dominant fashion, as well. With the exception of the 1988 meet where the Bison clipped Lafayette by a mere three points, Bucknell won every other ECC title by at least 15 points, and the 1987 squad just missed the minimum score with 17, while second-place Lafayette had 74. Two future Bucknell Athletics Hall of Famers won ECC individual titles, as Gabi Czaja finished first in 1984, and Judy Perry went back-to-back in 1986 and 1987. Czaja '85 and Perry '90 are two of the guests on today's panel, along with Kelly Hoskins '84 and Kelly Marsh '91. Hoskins finished ninth at the 1983 ECC Cross Country Championship, and she also claimed track and field gold medals in the 3,000 and 10,000 meters. Hoskins was also an ECC Scholar-Athlete in both cross country and outdoor track, and she claimed both CoSIDA Academic All-America honors and an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Czaja, a 2000 Hall of Fame inductee, won five ECC golds on the track in addition to her cross country title in 1984. Perry was inducted into the HOF in 2008 after winning eight conference titles, two in cross country, two in indoor track and four in outdoor track. She was also a three-time ECC Scholar-Athlete selection. Marsh was also a standout scholar and athlete. She was a two-time all-conference selection in cross country and won three individual titles in track. She earned Scholar-Athlete honors in both the ECC and the Patriot League, she was a two-time Academic All-American, and she received a NACDA/Disney Scholarship in 1991. Â
1990s
The decade of the 1990s began with a transition to the Patriot League, and the new affiliation was wide open at the onset. Four different schools won women's cross country titles in the league's first five years, until Army took control with four straight championships from 1994-97. But the Bison ended the Black Knights' run in 1998, at the same time igniting Bucknell's own streak of four in a row. Hall-of-Famer Julie Sweitzer won her second straight individual crown to lead the Bison to their first title in 1998, and a year later Bucknell turned in its best season ever. Becki Marshall, Andrea Beisser, Jennifer Hart, Carly Graytock and Theresa Dennis finished 1-2-3-5-6 in the most dominant Patriot League Championship performance in league history. Bucknell's 17 points in that meet remains a Patriot League record. The Bison went on to finish third at the Mid-Atlantic Regional, and then the team received one of the 13 at-large selections the NCAA Championship. Racing as a team at NCAAs for the first time in program history, the Bison finished 24th in a 31-team field in Bloomington, Indiana, finishing ahead of Duke, South Florida, Arizona, Boston College, Notre Dame, UCLA and Florida. Marshall, then just a sophomore, was Bucknell's top finisher in 94th place. in a field of more than 250 competitors. Joining us on today's chat are Kristen Opdyke '93, Jessica Wilhelm '95, Sweitzer '99, Graytock '00 and Annie Hamlin '00. Opdyke was a two-time All-Patriot League honoree in cross country, and in 1991 she became Bucknell's first individual champion at the ECAC Championship. She also won Patriot League track and field titles in the indoor 3,000 and outdoor 10,000. Three year's after Opdyke claimed the program's first ECAC cross county title, Wilhem repeated the feat at the 1994 meet. She was also runner-up at the Patriot League Championship that year. Sweitzer, who was inducted into the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011, was a two-time PL champion and an NCAA individual qualifier in 1997, where she placed 84th nationally. Sweitzer added 10 more PL gold medals in track, seven indoors and three outdoors, and she was also a CoSIDA Third Team Academic All-American as a senior. Graytock was a three-time All-PL runner and was a member of the 1999 NCAA squad. She also won three league titles in the 10,000 meters in outdoor track and was the 2000 PL Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Hamlin earned all-conference status in cross country in 1996 and 1997, and she finished as high as 10th at the ECAC Championship in 1996. Hamlin also won six PL gold medals in track, including a sweep of the 3,000 and 5,000 at the 1999 outdoor meet. Â
2000s
The decade of the 2000s began with two more Patriot League titles, the third and fourth in a run of four straight championships from 1998-2001. The 2000 crown would be the last under Hall-of-Fame coach Art Gulden, who passed away the following spring after a lengthy battle with cancer. Kevin Donner, who had built the Saint Francis (Pa.) program into a consistent winner, found immediate success in his first season at Bucknell, as the 2001 women's cross country team cruised to the Patriot League title behind a 1-2-3 finish from Becki Marshall, Chris Crowe and Theresa Dennis. The Bison went on to finish third at the Mid-Atlantic Regional meet, and Theresa Dennis (along with Greg Costello from the men's team), earned an individual bid to the NCAA Championship, where her 73rd-place finish was the best in team history. Bucknell came back to win four more conference titles in the 2000s -- in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009 -- and Leanna Nastase gave the Bison another NCAA qualifier in 2006 not long after she captured the Patriot League individual title. Marshall '01, Dennis '03 and Nastase '07 are three of the guests on today's chat, and they are joined by Katie Pfeifer '05 and Erin Cranmer-Hart '08. Marshall, a 2013 Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, won the Patriot League individual title three straight years and was a four-time First Team All-PL honoree. She finished 96th at the 1999 NCAA Championship and was a CoSIDA Academic All-America Third Team selection as a senior. Marshall earned six All-PL certificates in indoor and outdoor track and field, and in 2001 she was named the Patriot League Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year for all sports. Dennis joined Marshall in the Hall of Fame this year after a brilliant career that saw her earn four First Team All-PL honors, two All-East honors and two NCAA appearances in cross country. On the track, she was the Patriot League indoor champion in the 5,000 meters in 2004, and she later finished fourth in that event at the ECAC Championship. Pfeifer was a two-time All-PL honoree in cross country and once in outdoor track and field, and as a senior she earned the Alvin F. Jackson Jr. Memorial Scholar-Athlete Award. In addition to winning the league title in 2006, Nastase finished sixth the previous year to earn First Team All-PL honors. She also won a PL indoor title in the 5,000 meters as a senior. Cranmer-Hart was a three-time all-league competitor in cross country, including a pair of First Team honors, and she won back-to-back PL indoor titles in the mile.Â
2010s
What a star-studded panel to kick off the week! Coach Donner and current junior Ashlyn Ramos are joined by five of Bucknell's all-time great distance runners, all from the most recent decade of the 2010s. Joining us are Stephanie Fulmer '12, Caroline Tolli '13, Sarah Chandler '17, Christine Bendzinski '18 and Colleen Buckley '19. These four competitors combined for 15 All-Patriot League citations in cross country alone. Fulmer is one of only seven four-time All-Patriot League honorees in women's cross country in league history, and she was Bucknell's top finisher on the 2009 Patriot League championship team. Winner of the Christy Mathewson Award as the top athlete in her class, Fulmer was the Patriot League Rookie of the Meet at the 2009 indoor track and field championship after winning the mile, and she was a three-time PL champion outdoors. Tolli won a pair of All-PL honors in cross country, and she was a five-time individual champion in indoor and outdoor track and field. She was also a seven-time Academic All-PL selection, and at the 2013 Senior Awards Dinner she claimed both the Christy Mathewson Award and the Alvin F. Jackson Jr. Memorial Scholar-Athlete Award. Chandler earned three All-PL certificates in cross country, including First Team honors in 2015 and 2016 as the Bison won their first two out of four straight league titles. Chandler won seven PL gold medals in indoor track, including three with the 4x800 relay. Outdoors, she claimed two more league titles and in 2017 was runner-up in the steeplechase at the ECAC Championships before competing in the NCAA Regionals in that event. Chandler is still the Bucknell record-holder in the steeplechase, by more than 13 seconds over the next-closest runner on the list. Bendzinski was the Patriot League cross country individual champion in both 2016 and 2017, leading the Bison to team titles in both years. She was a three-time First Team All-PL honoree in cross country as well as an NCAA qualifier in 2017. Bendzinski won another 12 PL gold medals in indoor and outdoor track, including four straight indoor titles in both the mile and 4x800 relay. She has two silver medals at ECAC Championships and was a four-time NCAA Regional qualifier. Bendzinski was also a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American, she was the 2017 PL Scholar-Athlete in women's cross country, she holds school records in five different individual events, and she won the Christy Mathewson Award as the top athlete in her class. After the two straight PL cross country titles, Bendzinski passed the torch to Buckley, who won it in 2018 as the Bison splashed to another memorable team title, this time on their home course in a driving rainstorm. Buckley also claimed both the 3,000 and 5,000 titles at the 2018 PL Indoor Championships, leading to Athlete of the Meet honors. She was a three-time gold medalist outdoors, she was a two-time NCAA Regional qualifier, she is the school record-holder in the 10,000 meters, and she was the 2018 PL Scholar-Athlete of the Year for women's cross country.  Â
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Gulden handed off the reins of the women's cross country program for a number of years -- to Diane Perry Ware from 1977-81, Cheryl Enyeart in 1982 and Lou Ann Isenburg in 1983 -- but the team quickly built a championship tradition. Bucknell won the inaugural East Coast Conference Championship in 1982, and then followed with seven more titles in succession with Gulden back in charge of the program.
The Bison moved to the Patriot League in 1990, and in the three decades since then they have claimed 12 more league titles and 10 runner-up finishes, they have finished in the top six at the Mid-Atlantic Regional eight times, and in 1999 they sent a full team to the NCAA Championship for the first time.Â
Current head coach Kevin Donner is now Bucknell's longest-tenured women's cross country coach. Donner, who took over after Gulden's passing in 2001 after a lengthy battle with cancer, is now in his 20th season at the helm. His eight Patriot League Coach of the Year honors in women's cross country are twice as many as any other coach in league history. Over the course of this week, Donner will be joined by many of the top runners who helped shape the history of the Bison women's cross country program. Special thanks to Geisinger for sponsoring the series.
1970s
In today's installment of Through the Decades, we go back to the earliest days of a varsity cross country team at Bucknell. As noted above, the program debuted in 1976 with a number of outstanding runners, and as recruiting and distance training improved, so did the program's fortunes. Ann Bischoff '80, who was a freshman on that inaugural team, finished fifth at the EAIAW Division II Eastern Cross Country Championship in 1979, which made her the first Bison woman to qualify for the AIAW National Championship. At nationals, she finished 33rd in a field of 179 competitors in Tallahassee, Florida. Bischoff is one of four alumnae joining head coach Kevin Donner and current student-athlete Kaitlin Ryan on today's panel. She is joined by Mary Rohrig '79, Susan Cluzel '79 and Beth Thomas '80. Rohrig was the team's top funner, finishing 80th overall, at the 1977 Eastern Championships, while Cluzel was the top Bison finisher at Easterns one year later.Â
1980s
Not many programs can say they won every championship during their tenure in a conference, but the Bison women's cross country team can make that claim about their time in the East Coast Conference. The ECC first sponsored a women's cross country championship in 1982, and from that year through 1989 Bucknell won all eight championships before moving to the Patriot League in 1990. They did so in dominant fashion, as well. With the exception of the 1988 meet where the Bison clipped Lafayette by a mere three points, Bucknell won every other ECC title by at least 15 points, and the 1987 squad just missed the minimum score with 17, while second-place Lafayette had 74. Two future Bucknell Athletics Hall of Famers won ECC individual titles, as Gabi Czaja finished first in 1984, and Judy Perry went back-to-back in 1986 and 1987. Czaja '85 and Perry '90 are two of the guests on today's panel, along with Kelly Hoskins '84 and Kelly Marsh '91. Hoskins finished ninth at the 1983 ECC Cross Country Championship, and she also claimed track and field gold medals in the 3,000 and 10,000 meters. Hoskins was also an ECC Scholar-Athlete in both cross country and outdoor track, and she claimed both CoSIDA Academic All-America honors and an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Czaja, a 2000 Hall of Fame inductee, won five ECC golds on the track in addition to her cross country title in 1984. Perry was inducted into the HOF in 2008 after winning eight conference titles, two in cross country, two in indoor track and four in outdoor track. She was also a three-time ECC Scholar-Athlete selection. Marsh was also a standout scholar and athlete. She was a two-time all-conference selection in cross country and won three individual titles in track. She earned Scholar-Athlete honors in both the ECC and the Patriot League, she was a two-time Academic All-American, and she received a NACDA/Disney Scholarship in 1991. Â
1990s
The decade of the 1990s began with a transition to the Patriot League, and the new affiliation was wide open at the onset. Four different schools won women's cross country titles in the league's first five years, until Army took control with four straight championships from 1994-97. But the Bison ended the Black Knights' run in 1998, at the same time igniting Bucknell's own streak of four in a row. Hall-of-Famer Julie Sweitzer won her second straight individual crown to lead the Bison to their first title in 1998, and a year later Bucknell turned in its best season ever. Becki Marshall, Andrea Beisser, Jennifer Hart, Carly Graytock and Theresa Dennis finished 1-2-3-5-6 in the most dominant Patriot League Championship performance in league history. Bucknell's 17 points in that meet remains a Patriot League record. The Bison went on to finish third at the Mid-Atlantic Regional, and then the team received one of the 13 at-large selections the NCAA Championship. Racing as a team at NCAAs for the first time in program history, the Bison finished 24th in a 31-team field in Bloomington, Indiana, finishing ahead of Duke, South Florida, Arizona, Boston College, Notre Dame, UCLA and Florida. Marshall, then just a sophomore, was Bucknell's top finisher in 94th place. in a field of more than 250 competitors. Joining us on today's chat are Kristen Opdyke '93, Jessica Wilhelm '95, Sweitzer '99, Graytock '00 and Annie Hamlin '00. Opdyke was a two-time All-Patriot League honoree in cross country, and in 1991 she became Bucknell's first individual champion at the ECAC Championship. She also won Patriot League track and field titles in the indoor 3,000 and outdoor 10,000. Three year's after Opdyke claimed the program's first ECAC cross county title, Wilhem repeated the feat at the 1994 meet. She was also runner-up at the Patriot League Championship that year. Sweitzer, who was inducted into the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame in 2011, was a two-time PL champion and an NCAA individual qualifier in 1997, where she placed 84th nationally. Sweitzer added 10 more PL gold medals in track, seven indoors and three outdoors, and she was also a CoSIDA Third Team Academic All-American as a senior. Graytock was a three-time All-PL runner and was a member of the 1999 NCAA squad. She also won three league titles in the 10,000 meters in outdoor track and was the 2000 PL Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Hamlin earned all-conference status in cross country in 1996 and 1997, and she finished as high as 10th at the ECAC Championship in 1996. Hamlin also won six PL gold medals in track, including a sweep of the 3,000 and 5,000 at the 1999 outdoor meet. Â
2000s
The decade of the 2000s began with two more Patriot League titles, the third and fourth in a run of four straight championships from 1998-2001. The 2000 crown would be the last under Hall-of-Fame coach Art Gulden, who passed away the following spring after a lengthy battle with cancer. Kevin Donner, who had built the Saint Francis (Pa.) program into a consistent winner, found immediate success in his first season at Bucknell, as the 2001 women's cross country team cruised to the Patriot League title behind a 1-2-3 finish from Becki Marshall, Chris Crowe and Theresa Dennis. The Bison went on to finish third at the Mid-Atlantic Regional meet, and Theresa Dennis (along with Greg Costello from the men's team), earned an individual bid to the NCAA Championship, where her 73rd-place finish was the best in team history. Bucknell came back to win four more conference titles in the 2000s -- in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009 -- and Leanna Nastase gave the Bison another NCAA qualifier in 2006 not long after she captured the Patriot League individual title. Marshall '01, Dennis '03 and Nastase '07 are three of the guests on today's chat, and they are joined by Katie Pfeifer '05 and Erin Cranmer-Hart '08. Marshall, a 2013 Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, won the Patriot League individual title three straight years and was a four-time First Team All-PL honoree. She finished 96th at the 1999 NCAA Championship and was a CoSIDA Academic All-America Third Team selection as a senior. Marshall earned six All-PL certificates in indoor and outdoor track and field, and in 2001 she was named the Patriot League Female Scholar-Athlete of the Year for all sports. Dennis joined Marshall in the Hall of Fame this year after a brilliant career that saw her earn four First Team All-PL honors, two All-East honors and two NCAA appearances in cross country. On the track, she was the Patriot League indoor champion in the 5,000 meters in 2004, and she later finished fourth in that event at the ECAC Championship. Pfeifer was a two-time All-PL honoree in cross country and once in outdoor track and field, and as a senior she earned the Alvin F. Jackson Jr. Memorial Scholar-Athlete Award. In addition to winning the league title in 2006, Nastase finished sixth the previous year to earn First Team All-PL honors. She also won a PL indoor title in the 5,000 meters as a senior. Cranmer-Hart was a three-time all-league competitor in cross country, including a pair of First Team honors, and she won back-to-back PL indoor titles in the mile.Â
2010s
What a star-studded panel to kick off the week! Coach Donner and current junior Ashlyn Ramos are joined by five of Bucknell's all-time great distance runners, all from the most recent decade of the 2010s. Joining us are Stephanie Fulmer '12, Caroline Tolli '13, Sarah Chandler '17, Christine Bendzinski '18 and Colleen Buckley '19. These four competitors combined for 15 All-Patriot League citations in cross country alone. Fulmer is one of only seven four-time All-Patriot League honorees in women's cross country in league history, and she was Bucknell's top finisher on the 2009 Patriot League championship team. Winner of the Christy Mathewson Award as the top athlete in her class, Fulmer was the Patriot League Rookie of the Meet at the 2009 indoor track and field championship after winning the mile, and she was a three-time PL champion outdoors. Tolli won a pair of All-PL honors in cross country, and she was a five-time individual champion in indoor and outdoor track and field. She was also a seven-time Academic All-PL selection, and at the 2013 Senior Awards Dinner she claimed both the Christy Mathewson Award and the Alvin F. Jackson Jr. Memorial Scholar-Athlete Award. Chandler earned three All-PL certificates in cross country, including First Team honors in 2015 and 2016 as the Bison won their first two out of four straight league titles. Chandler won seven PL gold medals in indoor track, including three with the 4x800 relay. Outdoors, she claimed two more league titles and in 2017 was runner-up in the steeplechase at the ECAC Championships before competing in the NCAA Regionals in that event. Chandler is still the Bucknell record-holder in the steeplechase, by more than 13 seconds over the next-closest runner on the list. Bendzinski was the Patriot League cross country individual champion in both 2016 and 2017, leading the Bison to team titles in both years. She was a three-time First Team All-PL honoree in cross country as well as an NCAA qualifier in 2017. Bendzinski won another 12 PL gold medals in indoor and outdoor track, including four straight indoor titles in both the mile and 4x800 relay. She has two silver medals at ECAC Championships and was a four-time NCAA Regional qualifier. Bendzinski was also a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American, she was the 2017 PL Scholar-Athlete in women's cross country, she holds school records in five different individual events, and she won the Christy Mathewson Award as the top athlete in her class. After the two straight PL cross country titles, Bendzinski passed the torch to Buckley, who won it in 2018 as the Bison splashed to another memorable team title, this time on their home course in a driving rainstorm. Buckley also claimed both the 3,000 and 5,000 titles at the 2018 PL Indoor Championships, leading to Athlete of the Meet honors. She was a three-time gold medalist outdoors, she was a two-time NCAA Regional qualifier, she is the school record-holder in the 10,000 meters, and she was the 2018 PL Scholar-Athlete of the Year for women's cross country.  Â
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