Bucknell University Athletics
Bison Men's Cross Country Through the Decades, Presented by Geisinger
10/5/2020 3:10:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
LEWISBURG, Pa. -- While the sport of track and field has roots dating all the way back to the 1890s here at Bucknell, the notion of a fall cross country season is a much more modern venture. Bucknell officially awarded varsity letters for cross country for the first time in 1966. The inaugural squad finished 0-3-1 with the draw coming against Bloomsburg in the very first meet ever held on the Bucknell campus, and the team was coached by Kirk Randall, who was also in charge of the Bison soccer team at the very same time. Bucknell had a difficult time fielding a cross country team over the next three years, that is until a young, enthusiastic coach named Arthur Gulden arrived in Lewisburg in 1970. Despite not having much experience coaching cross country, Art Gulden quickly built a program that was the envy of the East. His initial 1970 squad finished 9-1 in dual meets, from 1970-74 his teams posted a 60-7 dual record, and the 1973 squad tied Lehigh for the Middle Atlantic Conference championship and then went on to finish first at the IC4A College Division Championship. On Oct. 5, 1974, the Bison finished behind Lehigh in a quad meet that also included Saint Joseph's and Temple. The loss dropped the team's record to 6-3, and that is notable because it would be Bucknell's last dual setback for 16 years! In one of the most impressive winning streaks in college sports history, the Bison men's cross country team won 167 straight duals, and from 1975-92 the team won 18 straight conference titles.Â
"I didn't really know much about cross country," the late Gulden once said of his early days at Bucknell. "The athletes and I learned the sport together. Of course, I knew physiology, but I was not very well versed in specific training methods. Most of the runners we had in those days were also not very experienced, so we went through the learning process together."
Needless to say, Gulden grew into the job, and he went on to become one of the most respected coaches of men's and women's distance runners in the country. In the ensuing years, the Bucknell men's cross country program produced many national-level teams and athletes. Nine of Gulden's teams -- and many other individuals -- attended NCAA Championship meets, including the 1982 squad that finished a best-ever 12th in the nation. This year Mike Deckert '84, who was a key member of that '82 squad, became the 14th men's cross country student-athlete to be elected to the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame.
After Art Gulden's passing in 2001 following a lengthy battle with cancer, Kevin Donner took over the head coaching reins, and the Bison have continued to field a strong program over the last two decades. That's right, in 50 years, Bucknell has had only two head coaches. Over the course of this week, we will take a look back through the decades and hear from many of the top runners who helped shape the history of the Bison men's cross country program. Special thanks to Geisinger for sponsoring the series.
1970s
We wrap up the week with a look back at the 1970s, when Art Gulden really began to shape the Bucknell men's cross country team into a powerhouse. Of course it helped to have great runners, and we have four of them back with us on today's discussion. Dan Davis '76 P'03 is joined by three Hall-of-Famers from the Class of 1979: Bob Bickel, George Buckheit and Lee Edmonds. Davis was the 1975 East Coast Conference cross country champion. He was a two-time All-East performer, highlighted by a second-place finish in 1975, and that year he placed seventh at the USTFF Championship. Bickel, Buckheit and Edmonds were all part of the first Bucknell team to qualify for the NCAA Championship in 1978. The Bison finished 17th nationally that year in what would become the first of five straight NCAA appearances. Bickel was also a two-time NCAA qualifier in track and field, where he also won three ECC gold medals. Buckheit ran at three NCAA Cross Country Championships, qualifying as an individual as a sophomore and junior before the Bison qualified as a team in 1978. Buckheit and Robert Braile were the first two Bison to run in the NCAA meet in 1976. Buckheit also captured eight ECC titles in track and field and was an All-American in both indoor and outdoor track. He was a three-time NCAA qualifier outdoors and earned All-America honors with a 10th-place finish in the 10,000 meters in 1979. Earlier that year he finished third in the 3-mile at NCAA Indoors. In addition to his stellar cross country career, Edmonds was a two-time NCAA qualifier in track and field, and he won two ECC titles each in the outdoor 10K and indoor 3-mile. Â
Â
1980s
Today we bring you one of the most star-studded editions of the Through the Decades series. Coach Kevin Donner welcomes five guests for today's chat, and all five are members of the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame: Rick Sayre '82, Mark Hulme '83, Bill Reifsnyder '84, Brian Harshman '85 and Charles Cole '88. Sayre was a three-time NCAA qualifier with a top finish of 69th in 1979, and he also finished 12th at the IC4A Championship in 1980. Sayre won five East Coast Conference gold medals in track and field, and in 1981 he earned All-America honors in the steeplechase with a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Championships. Sayre was also a two-time ECC Scholar-Athlete and received an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Hulme was a three-time All-East honoree and four-time NCAA qualifier in cross country. He grabbed four ECC gold medals in track, and he was named the Outstanding Athlete of the Meet at the 1983 indoor championships. Hulme was also an NCAA qualifier in the mile as a junior. Reifsnyder is Bucknell's most accomplished distance runner. He won ECC individual championships and ran in the NCAAs all four years, and he was a three-time All-American with a top national finish of 15th in 1983. Reifsnyder captured eight ECC titles in track, four indoors and four outdoors, and he captured All-America honors in the outdoor 10K in 1982 and the indoor 3K in 1984. Harshman was a two-time All-East cross country runner and an NCAA qualifier in 1982. In outdoor track and field he won an ECC title in the 1,500 meters and was an NCAA qualifier in the 5,000. Indoors, he claimed five ECC titles and was the league's Outstanding Athlete of the Meet in 1985. Cole was the ECC cross country champion in 1986 and 1987, and he was a three-time NCAA qualifier. He added three more ECC gold medals on the track, one each in the 3K, 5K and 10K. With all of that firepower, it's no wonder that the Bison men's cross country teams of the 1980s were so dominant. The Bison won the league title every year in the '80s, they they won the IC4A crown in 1980, they won NCAA District II championships in 1982 and 1986, and they made six NCAA team appearances. The 1982 squad's 12th-place NCAA finish is the highest in school history. And then there was the dual-meet streak. Bucknell was 103-0 in duals during the 1980s, as part of that incredible 167-meet winning streak.
  Â
1990s
The decade of the 1990s brought about a new conference affiliation for Bucknell, as the Patriot League debuted as an all-sports conference during the 1990-91 academic year. The Bison men's cross country team, which brought that historic dual-meet winning streak into its new league, quickly established itself as the class of the Patriot League. The Bison captured league titles in each of their first three seasons in the PL, scoring the minimum 15 points in each of the first two Patriot League Championship meets. After four straight runner-up finishes behind Army from 1993-96, Bucknell came back with another three-year championship run from 1997-99. Norbert Berenyi was the very first Patriot League champion in 1990, and then a year later the 1991 squad will go down as one of the finest in program history. The '91 Bison qualified as a team for the NCAA Championship -- the most recent Bucknell team to do so -- and their 13th-place NCAA finish is the second-highest in team annals. Hall-of-Famer Matt Deardorff won the Patriot League title that year, and Tom Wuchenich was the first Bucknell runner across the finish line at NCAAs. The Bison placed four in the top 100, and Wuchenich's 52nd-place finish is the best team history among all Bison not named Bill Reifsnyder, who placed 38th, 20th and 15th in the final three of his four NCAA appearances in the early 1980s. Steve Clarke earned an NCAA berth as an individual in 1994, and the Bison closed out the decade with another Patriot League champion in David Bronfenbrenner. As for that dual streak, it did come to an end with a loss to UConn in 1990, but Bucknell did post a not-too-shabby 89-5 dual record during the decade. All three of Bucknell's conference champions -- Berenyi '91, Deardorff '92 and Bronfenbrenner '00 -- appear on this edition of Through the Decades, and they are joined by Wally Dietrich '99. Berenyi's indiviual league title in 1990 was actually his second in a row, as he also won the final cross country gold medal in the East Coast Conference in 1989. He also won five conference titles in track and field. Deardorff, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2019, was a five-time league champion in track, and he was also a two-time First Team Academic All-American as well as an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient. Dietrich was a two-time All-Patriot League honoree in cross country, thanks to a fifth-place finish in 1996 and a third-place showing in 1999. He was also a Patriot League champion in the 10,000 meters. In addition to his league title in 1999, Bronfenbrenner placed sixth in 1997 and eighth in 1998, making him a three-time All-PL runner. He was also a two-time league champion in the steeplechase.   Â
2000s
Bucknell started out the decade of the 2000s with back-to-back runner-up finishes at the Patriot League Championship, and then in 2002 Bryan Johnston capped off a terrific career by becoming the fourth Bison to win a Patriot League individual title. Johnston took home the gold medal on the challenging West Point course, and he was later named the Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a Second Team Academic All-American. Bucknell claimed two NCAA qualifiers during the 2000s: Greg Costello in 2001 and Matt Forys in 2006. Forys turned in a 75th-place finish in Terre Haute, Ind., the best national placement for a Bison runner since 1991. Costello '03 and Forys '07 are two of the guests on today's panel, along with Wallace Campbell '08 and Andrew Huebner '10. In addition to his NCAA appearance, Costello was a three-time All-Patriot Leaguer in cross country and a Patriot League track and field champion in the 3K, 5K and 10K. Forys also won PL track titles in the 3K, 5K and 10K during his career. He was the 2007 Patriot League Indoor Track Athlete of the Meet after sweeping both the 3K and 5K, and he also won an IC4A title in the 3K in 2007. Campbell earned two All-Patriot League citations in cross country, finishing as high as sixth in the conference, as well as two in outdoor track and one more in indoor track. Huebner finished fifth at the PL meet in 2009, helping the Bison to a third-place team finish. He was also a Patriot League champion and two-time NCAA Regionals qualifier in the steeplechase.   Â
Â
2010s
We start our look back through the decades with the 2010s, and we are joined by five recent members of the team: Dave Brown '12, John Dugan '15, Andrew Garcia-Garrison '15, Michael McGowan '15 and Will Bordash '18. Head coach Kevin Donner and current junior Brendan O'Toole facilitate the discussion. All five guests were All-Patriot League honorees in cross country. Brown was a Second Team selection in 2011. Dugan was a three-time All-Patriot League finisher and a First Team choice in 2012 after finishing third at the league meet. Garcia-Garrison's career was marked by incredible improvement in both cross country and track and field over his four years at Bucknell. He finished third at the 2014 Patriot League Cross Country Championship, helping the Bison to a second-place team finish. He was also a five-time PL champion in track, he was named the 2015 Patriot League Indoor Track Athlete of the Meet, and his 4:00.51 mile remains the school record. McGowan was runner-up at the 2014 PL Cross Country Championship, finishing one spot ahead of Garcia-Garrison, and McGowan also earned First Team All-Patriot League honors in 2013 with a fifth-place finish. Bordash was a two-time All-PL honoree in cross country, earning First Team honors with a seventh-place finish in 2017. Â
Â
"I didn't really know much about cross country," the late Gulden once said of his early days at Bucknell. "The athletes and I learned the sport together. Of course, I knew physiology, but I was not very well versed in specific training methods. Most of the runners we had in those days were also not very experienced, so we went through the learning process together."
Needless to say, Gulden grew into the job, and he went on to become one of the most respected coaches of men's and women's distance runners in the country. In the ensuing years, the Bucknell men's cross country program produced many national-level teams and athletes. Nine of Gulden's teams -- and many other individuals -- attended NCAA Championship meets, including the 1982 squad that finished a best-ever 12th in the nation. This year Mike Deckert '84, who was a key member of that '82 squad, became the 14th men's cross country student-athlete to be elected to the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame.
After Art Gulden's passing in 2001 following a lengthy battle with cancer, Kevin Donner took over the head coaching reins, and the Bison have continued to field a strong program over the last two decades. That's right, in 50 years, Bucknell has had only two head coaches. Over the course of this week, we will take a look back through the decades and hear from many of the top runners who helped shape the history of the Bison men's cross country program. Special thanks to Geisinger for sponsoring the series.
1970s
We wrap up the week with a look back at the 1970s, when Art Gulden really began to shape the Bucknell men's cross country team into a powerhouse. Of course it helped to have great runners, and we have four of them back with us on today's discussion. Dan Davis '76 P'03 is joined by three Hall-of-Famers from the Class of 1979: Bob Bickel, George Buckheit and Lee Edmonds. Davis was the 1975 East Coast Conference cross country champion. He was a two-time All-East performer, highlighted by a second-place finish in 1975, and that year he placed seventh at the USTFF Championship. Bickel, Buckheit and Edmonds were all part of the first Bucknell team to qualify for the NCAA Championship in 1978. The Bison finished 17th nationally that year in what would become the first of five straight NCAA appearances. Bickel was also a two-time NCAA qualifier in track and field, where he also won three ECC gold medals. Buckheit ran at three NCAA Cross Country Championships, qualifying as an individual as a sophomore and junior before the Bison qualified as a team in 1978. Buckheit and Robert Braile were the first two Bison to run in the NCAA meet in 1976. Buckheit also captured eight ECC titles in track and field and was an All-American in both indoor and outdoor track. He was a three-time NCAA qualifier outdoors and earned All-America honors with a 10th-place finish in the 10,000 meters in 1979. Earlier that year he finished third in the 3-mile at NCAA Indoors. In addition to his stellar cross country career, Edmonds was a two-time NCAA qualifier in track and field, and he won two ECC titles each in the outdoor 10K and indoor 3-mile. Â
Â
1980s
Today we bring you one of the most star-studded editions of the Through the Decades series. Coach Kevin Donner welcomes five guests for today's chat, and all five are members of the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame: Rick Sayre '82, Mark Hulme '83, Bill Reifsnyder '84, Brian Harshman '85 and Charles Cole '88. Sayre was a three-time NCAA qualifier with a top finish of 69th in 1979, and he also finished 12th at the IC4A Championship in 1980. Sayre won five East Coast Conference gold medals in track and field, and in 1981 he earned All-America honors in the steeplechase with a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Championships. Sayre was also a two-time ECC Scholar-Athlete and received an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Hulme was a three-time All-East honoree and four-time NCAA qualifier in cross country. He grabbed four ECC gold medals in track, and he was named the Outstanding Athlete of the Meet at the 1983 indoor championships. Hulme was also an NCAA qualifier in the mile as a junior. Reifsnyder is Bucknell's most accomplished distance runner. He won ECC individual championships and ran in the NCAAs all four years, and he was a three-time All-American with a top national finish of 15th in 1983. Reifsnyder captured eight ECC titles in track, four indoors and four outdoors, and he captured All-America honors in the outdoor 10K in 1982 and the indoor 3K in 1984. Harshman was a two-time All-East cross country runner and an NCAA qualifier in 1982. In outdoor track and field he won an ECC title in the 1,500 meters and was an NCAA qualifier in the 5,000. Indoors, he claimed five ECC titles and was the league's Outstanding Athlete of the Meet in 1985. Cole was the ECC cross country champion in 1986 and 1987, and he was a three-time NCAA qualifier. He added three more ECC gold medals on the track, one each in the 3K, 5K and 10K. With all of that firepower, it's no wonder that the Bison men's cross country teams of the 1980s were so dominant. The Bison won the league title every year in the '80s, they they won the IC4A crown in 1980, they won NCAA District II championships in 1982 and 1986, and they made six NCAA team appearances. The 1982 squad's 12th-place NCAA finish is the highest in school history. And then there was the dual-meet streak. Bucknell was 103-0 in duals during the 1980s, as part of that incredible 167-meet winning streak.
  Â
1990s
The decade of the 1990s brought about a new conference affiliation for Bucknell, as the Patriot League debuted as an all-sports conference during the 1990-91 academic year. The Bison men's cross country team, which brought that historic dual-meet winning streak into its new league, quickly established itself as the class of the Patriot League. The Bison captured league titles in each of their first three seasons in the PL, scoring the minimum 15 points in each of the first two Patriot League Championship meets. After four straight runner-up finishes behind Army from 1993-96, Bucknell came back with another three-year championship run from 1997-99. Norbert Berenyi was the very first Patriot League champion in 1990, and then a year later the 1991 squad will go down as one of the finest in program history. The '91 Bison qualified as a team for the NCAA Championship -- the most recent Bucknell team to do so -- and their 13th-place NCAA finish is the second-highest in team annals. Hall-of-Famer Matt Deardorff won the Patriot League title that year, and Tom Wuchenich was the first Bucknell runner across the finish line at NCAAs. The Bison placed four in the top 100, and Wuchenich's 52nd-place finish is the best team history among all Bison not named Bill Reifsnyder, who placed 38th, 20th and 15th in the final three of his four NCAA appearances in the early 1980s. Steve Clarke earned an NCAA berth as an individual in 1994, and the Bison closed out the decade with another Patriot League champion in David Bronfenbrenner. As for that dual streak, it did come to an end with a loss to UConn in 1990, but Bucknell did post a not-too-shabby 89-5 dual record during the decade. All three of Bucknell's conference champions -- Berenyi '91, Deardorff '92 and Bronfenbrenner '00 -- appear on this edition of Through the Decades, and they are joined by Wally Dietrich '99. Berenyi's indiviual league title in 1990 was actually his second in a row, as he also won the final cross country gold medal in the East Coast Conference in 1989. He also won five conference titles in track and field. Deardorff, who was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2019, was a five-time league champion in track, and he was also a two-time First Team Academic All-American as well as an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship recipient. Dietrich was a two-time All-Patriot League honoree in cross country, thanks to a fifth-place finish in 1996 and a third-place showing in 1999. He was also a Patriot League champion in the 10,000 meters. In addition to his league title in 1999, Bronfenbrenner placed sixth in 1997 and eighth in 1998, making him a three-time All-PL runner. He was also a two-time league champion in the steeplechase.   Â
2000s
Bucknell started out the decade of the 2000s with back-to-back runner-up finishes at the Patriot League Championship, and then in 2002 Bryan Johnston capped off a terrific career by becoming the fourth Bison to win a Patriot League individual title. Johnston took home the gold medal on the challenging West Point course, and he was later named the Patriot League Scholar-Athlete of the Year and a Second Team Academic All-American. Bucknell claimed two NCAA qualifiers during the 2000s: Greg Costello in 2001 and Matt Forys in 2006. Forys turned in a 75th-place finish in Terre Haute, Ind., the best national placement for a Bison runner since 1991. Costello '03 and Forys '07 are two of the guests on today's panel, along with Wallace Campbell '08 and Andrew Huebner '10. In addition to his NCAA appearance, Costello was a three-time All-Patriot Leaguer in cross country and a Patriot League track and field champion in the 3K, 5K and 10K. Forys also won PL track titles in the 3K, 5K and 10K during his career. He was the 2007 Patriot League Indoor Track Athlete of the Meet after sweeping both the 3K and 5K, and he also won an IC4A title in the 3K in 2007. Campbell earned two All-Patriot League citations in cross country, finishing as high as sixth in the conference, as well as two in outdoor track and one more in indoor track. Huebner finished fifth at the PL meet in 2009, helping the Bison to a third-place team finish. He was also a Patriot League champion and two-time NCAA Regionals qualifier in the steeplechase.   Â
Â
2010s
We start our look back through the decades with the 2010s, and we are joined by five recent members of the team: Dave Brown '12, John Dugan '15, Andrew Garcia-Garrison '15, Michael McGowan '15 and Will Bordash '18. Head coach Kevin Donner and current junior Brendan O'Toole facilitate the discussion. All five guests were All-Patriot League honorees in cross country. Brown was a Second Team selection in 2011. Dugan was a three-time All-Patriot League finisher and a First Team choice in 2012 after finishing third at the league meet. Garcia-Garrison's career was marked by incredible improvement in both cross country and track and field over his four years at Bucknell. He finished third at the 2014 Patriot League Cross Country Championship, helping the Bison to a second-place team finish. He was also a five-time PL champion in track, he was named the 2015 Patriot League Indoor Track Athlete of the Meet, and his 4:00.51 mile remains the school record. McGowan was runner-up at the 2014 PL Cross Country Championship, finishing one spot ahead of Garcia-Garrison, and McGowan also earned First Team All-Patriot League honors in 2013 with a fifth-place finish. Bordash was a two-time All-PL honoree in cross country, earning First Team honors with a seventh-place finish in 2017. Â
Â
.jpg&height=340&type=webp)
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Cross Country
Bucknell Men's Basketball Post Game: Patriot League Tournament 1st Round vs Navy
Wednesday, March 04
In The Herd: Patriot League Opening Round Game Preview And Achile Spadone Feature
Monday, March 02
In The Herd: EIWA Championships Preview And Dillon Bechtold Feature
Monday, March 02
ECAC OPEN SWIMMING & DIVING CHAMPIONSHIPS (3/01/26 - Sunday Finals Session)
Monday, March 02