Men's Cross Country Makes Season Debut at Patriot League Cross Country Championships

Friday, March 5

Bethlehem, Pa.

2 p.m.

Bucknell University

Patriot League Championships

Photo by: Marc Hagemeier

Men's Cross Country Makes Season Debut at Patriot League Cross Country Championships

3/4/2021 2:12:00 PM | Men's Cross Country

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- The Bucknell University men's cross country team will be making its season debut on Friday when it heads to the Patriot League Championships at the Goodman Campus of Lehigh University.

The race, which was moved from Lafayette over to a road course at Lehigh, will be Bucknell's first action since competing at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships on November 15, 2019.  Live results are available at this link.

"Assuming there is not another pause in athletics over the next day and a half, it looks like the race on Friday is a reality for the Bison," said Head Coach Kevin Donner. It's been a long time coming considering this will be our first race of the entire academic school year. We are obviously very excited, and although there will be a lot of question marks about our team, we are excited and fit. Our athletes did a wonderful job while training on their own throughout all the pauses, and our recent workouts have looked very good. There is obviously a difference between training and racing. Although it's obviously a major meet, we are also looking at this as the start of the outdoor track and field season with the Patriot League Championships in eight weeks. It sure has been a non-traditional type of year, and all of us are in uncharted territory when it comes to training and preparation."

About the Bison

Bucknell returns seven of its 11 participants at last season's Patriot League Championships, including two scoring runners.
The Bison finished fifth during last season's meet, but were only nine points off the mark from the top three. Bucknell posted a solid finish at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Meet two weeks later, finishing 10th after entering the meet ranked 12th. The top-ten finish secured Bucknell's fifth top-ten mark in the past six seasons.
Junior Brendan O'Toole (31st) sophomore Greg Eisenhower (35th) will both return as Bucknell's third and fourth runner from the Patriot League Championships last season. Also returning from the 2019 Patriot League Championship lineup for Bucknell will be seniors Evan Minor, Connor McMenamin, and Riley Gardner, along with sophomores Noah Martin and Samuel Whittaker.
Bucknell graduated its top two runners in 2019 in Drew Dorflinger and Jake Stupak, but will take some momentum from earning a top ten finish at the Mid-Atlantic Regional in its last competition of 2019.
McMenamin finished 61st at the Mid-Atlantic Regional meet, followed by O'Toole (78th), Minor (86th), and Whittaker (162nd) as Bucknell finished two spots higher than its ranking of 12th heading into the meet. Bucknell finished as the second-highest Patriot League team at the meet, two spots behind Navy.
McMenamin will bring three years of Patriot League Championship experience to the fold, and has finished in the top 30 in two of his three seasons at Bucknell. Fellow seniors Minor and Gardner also bring championship experience, with the former having competed in all three Patriot League Championships to date in his career. The trio comprised Bucknell's scoring runners at the Mid-Atlantic Regional sans Dorflinger and Stupak.
Team captains Owen Chase and Ben Littman both return to give depth to the Bison, along with junior Ryan Miele.
Also returning for the Bison are sophomores Domenic Campagna, Seth Hoffritz, Patrick Kilcooley, and Zachary Laird. Matt Cervon, Thomas Johnson, and Thomas Matsumura also are back as juniors on the 2021 roster.
Bucknell began its 2019 campaign with a second-place finish at the Pitt Panther Opener, with McMenamin (11th) leading the way for returning Bison.
Joining the Bison this spring will be eight newcomers in Christian Cadmus, Kieran Calderwood, Michael Donnelly, Asa Friedrich, Jeffrey Gibbs, Brendan Mellitt, Ben Morris, and Griffin Schlegel.
Bucknell last competed at Lehigh during the 2017 Championships, The Bison finished fifth overall at that meet, six points behind fourth-place American.