Women's Track & Field Through the Decades, Presented by Geisinger

LEWISBURG, Pa. -- In the fall of 1976, Bucknell fielded a women's cross country team for the first time, and later in that academic year Bison women began attending varsity track and field meets. John Larner coached that first group, and in 1977-78 Diane Perry Ware took over. After one-year coaching stints from Cheryl Enyeart and Lou Ann Isenberg, the legendary Art Gulden assumed the reins, and the Bison were well on their way to becoming one of the top programs in the East.

Gulden's squad had a landmark year in 1988-89, when the Bison swept the East Coast Conference Indoor and Outdoor Championships for the first track and field league titles in program history. Bucknell won another ECC outdoor crown in 1990, and then the program shifted to the Patriot League, where it has captured 18 indoor and 16 outdoor championships in the 30 years since. The Bucknell program has produced several All-Americans, including current two-time All-America javelin thrower Maura Fiamoncini, and sent 18 greats into the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame.

Current head coach Kevin Donner is now Bucknell's longest-tenured women's track and field 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. Donner has been named Patriot League Coach of the Year an incredible 28 times -- 10 each in indoor and outdoor track and field and eight more in cross country. Over the course of this week, Donner will be joined by many of the top athletes who helped shape the history of the Bison women's track and field program. Special thanks to Geisinger for sponsoring the series.

1970s
We start our look back "Through the Decades" with the program's origin in the 1970s. Coach Donner and current student-athlete Michaela Bracken are joined by Mimi Wildeman '77, Suzanne Jardine '78 and Alison Baytop '81. Wildeman was Bucknell's very first women's track and field captain, and she was the only senior on Bucknell's first varsity team. She graduated with school records in the 100y and 200y dashes, as well as the 400y and 880y relays. Jardine was named the team's Most Improved athlete in 1977-78, and she graduated with the outdoor school record in the 440y dash as well as four relay records. Baytop was a versatile athlete for the Bison. She once held school records in both the indoor and outdoor shot put as well as three relay records.

1980s
Let's continue our look back Through the Decades with the 1980s, a decade then the program crowned its very first All-American in Lonnie Fertik, who finished fourth in the heptathlon at the AIAW Division II National Championships in 1982. Fertik, a 1994 Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame inductee, is one of four great alumnae joining us today, along with Heather Korhammer '89, Susan Rowland '89 and Jill Wise '89. Amazingly, Fertik still holds the school record in the helptathlon, some 38 years after her graduation, and she still ranks all-time sixth in the high jump. Indoors, she still ranks second in school history in the pentathlon and sixth in the high jump. Fertik was the EAIAW champion in the 60y hurdles in 1982 and she won ECC indoor and outdoor titles in the high jump in 1983. Korhammer won the ECC gold medal in the javelin throw all four years and was also an All-East honoree. Korhammer, who also played on the Bison women's basketball team, still held the school record in the javelin in 1998, when the record was retired with the transition to the new implement. Rowland was a first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee in 1999 after a brilliant career as a sprinter. She was a 14-time ECC champion, eight outdoors and six indoors, and was named the Outstanding Athlete at the 1989 ECC Indoor Championships. Her school record in the indoor 55m dash held up for 13 years. In 1988, Wise became the first Bucknell woman to compete in the NCAA Track & Field Championships when she qualified for the 1988 indoor meet. She went on to place 11th at NCAAs. Wise is still the Bucknell record-holder in the indoor and outdoor triple jump, and only two Bison since then have joined Wise in the 40-foot club. Wise captured three ECC outdoor championships in the triple jump and one in the long jump, and she was also a part of a gold-medal 4x100m relay. She was named the Outstanding Athlete of the Meet at the 1998 ECC Outdoor Championships. Indoors, Wise was a three-time league champion, winning twice in the triple jump and once in the long jump, and she was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2001.

1990s
As we move into the Patriot League era, it's time to bring out some serious speed! We have five amazing alumnae with us for this discussion, four of whom are in the Hall of Fame and if you looked away for a moment at a Bucknell track meet in the '90s, you might have missed them. Back with us today are Tricia Plasko '92, Tameka Hinton '95, Norine Nadeau '96, Jess Quintana '99 and Yetunde Daniels '00. Plasko, a 2018 Hall of Fame inductee, was a dominant sprinter under Art Gulden. She earned 10 conference gold medals and graduated with school records in the 100m and 200m dashes and 4x100m and 4x200m relays. Her time of 12.07 seconds in the 100m dash held up as the Bucknell record for 23 years, outlasting three more Hall of Fame sprinters, and her record of 24.74 in the 200 stood for eight years before being eclipsed by fellow Hall-of-Famer Daniels. In 1991, Plasko won four events, including the 100, 200 and two relays, to help Bucknell capture the team title at the inaugural Patriot League Outdoor Championships. The Christy Mathewson Award Winner as the top athlete in her class, Plasko was also nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year award. Hinton was a first-ballot Hall-of-Famer in 2005 and was quite simply one of the top woman athletes in school and Patriot League history. She graduated with a whopping 19 conference track and field gold medals, including four straight in the 55m dash, 100m dash and 200m dash. Proving her versatility and incredible athleticism, she also earned two league titles in the shot put. Hinton was named Outstanding Performer of the Patriot League Championships three times and was elected to the Patriot League All-Decade Team and 25th Anniversary Team. Hinton holds the now-retired school record in the indoor 55m dash (7.12) (the shortest sprint is now run at 60m), and she also graduated with indoor school marks in the 200m dash (24.95), the 300m dash (41.54) and sprint medley relay (4:08.7). Outdoors, Hinton ranked second at graduation in the 100m (12.09) and 200m (24.85), trailing only Plasko, and at one time she held the No. 6 spot in the shot put (42-10 ¼). Hinton captured the 1995 Christy Mathewson Award as the top athlete in her class. Nadeau, a 2019 Hall of Fame inductee, was a versatile athlete during her days with the Bucknell track and field squad. In one of the finest single meets in program history, Nadeau was named the Most Outstanding Performer at the 1996 Patriot League Outdoor Championships after winning league titles in the high jump and long jump while scoring in six different events (also runner-up in the javelin, third in the 100m hurdles, fifth in the 200m dash and second in the 4x400m relay) in her final home meet at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. She outscored two other teams all by herself that weekend. All told, Nadeau won five career Patriot League outdoor gold medals and one more indoors. She placed fifth in the heptathlon at Penn Relays, Bucknell's best finish at that prestigious meet. Nadeau, who was a Christy Mathewson Award winner, graduated as the school-record holder in the outdoor high jump, and her personal best of 4,807 points in the heptathlon ranked second all-time to fellow Hall-of-Famer Lonnie Fertik. When she departed Bucknell, her name appeared on top-10 lists in nine different individual events. Quintana was a three-time All-Patriot League honoree both indoors and outdoors, and she owns four PL gold medals with 4x400m relay units, three indoors and one outdoors. Another of the top women sprinters in Bucknell history, Daniels graduated from Bucknell with six school records and 16 Patriot League gold medals. A member of the Patriot League All-Decade Team, Daniels was named the Athlete of the Meet at the 1997 Patriot League Indoor Championships. Outdoors, she won Patriot League championships in the 200m dash all four years, and she won the 400m dash twice. Indoors, she won three titles each in the 200m and 400m and captured three more championships in the 4x400m relay. The co-winner of the 2000 Christy Mathewson Award as the top athlete in her class, Daniels held Bucknell records in the indoor 200, 400 and 4x400 relay as well as the outdoor 200, 400 and sprint medley relay. As a senior, Daniels broke Hinton's school record in the indoor 200 by one-hundredth of a second. She was enshrined in the Hall of Fame in 2012.

2000s
Incredibly, the Bison women's track and field program batted .800 when it came to winning Patriot League titles in the decade of the 2000s. The Bison won eight of the 10 indoor crowns and eight of the 10 outdoor championships while producing some of the finest athletes in school history. Six of them join us on today's panel: Stephanie Bango '02, Maria Garcia '04, Rehana Lanewala '05, Melanie Buczko '07, Christa Sawko '07 and Amy Mantush '10. A 2012 inductee into the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame, Bango is one of the most decorated track and field athletes in program history. She graduated with a whopping 21 Patriot League gold medals, the most in program history, and in eight career indoor and outdoor conference championship meets, she led her team to seven titles and one runner-up finish. Of Bango's 21 conference championships, 15 came while running the grueling distance of 800 meters. She won four straight league titles in the indoor 800 meters and went 3-for-4 in the outdoor 800. In addition she was a part of 4x800-meter relay teams that captured every league race, indoors and outdoors, in her career. Bango also won a championship in the indoor 400 meters, as well as three more in the indoor 4x400 relay and one each in the distance medley relay and the outdoor 4x400. Bango broke the six-year-old indoor school record in the 800 meters by more than four seconds and also set the outdoor 800 mark. Bango also put her name at the top of the Bucknell record board in five different relays. A six-time All-East performer, Bango was named to the Patriot League All-Decade Team and was the recipient of the Christy Mathewson Award as the top Bison athlete in her class. A 2017 Hall of Fame inductee, Garcia made her mark as the top hammer thrower in Bucknell history and the first Bison ever to top 200 feet. Her top mark of 202 feet, 8 inches was the school record by more than 29 feet when she graduated, and she captured Patriot League gold medals in the hammer throw in each of her four years at Bucknell. Garcia was named Patriot League Field Athlete of the Meet as a senior in the spring of 2004, and then she went on to place eighth at the NCAA Regionals and 20th at the NCAA Championships in Austin, Texas. During one incredible run in during her senior year, Garcia broke the school record in the hammer throw at five consecutive meets. Earlier that year, she also shattered the school mark in the indoor 35-pound weight throw. She finished second, third and fourth in the weight throw at the Patriot League Indoor Championships. A member of the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team, Garcia came close to making the 2004 Olympic Team from her native Dominican Republic. Lanewala owns PL gold medals in the indoor 200m and 4x400m relay in 2002. She ranked in the top 10 in school history in the 200m and 400m as well as three different relays. Buczko completed the rare double of winning Patriot League gold medals in the pole vault and 60m hurdles. Best known as Bucknell's all-time greatest woman pole vaulter, Buczko captured three indoor and two outdoor championships in the event. Her top marks of 13 feet, 5.5 inches indoors and 13-3.5 outdoors eclipsed the school records by a wide margin, and they were also Patriot League records at the time. She became the first Bison ever to clear 13 feet (only two other Bison in history had ever even topped 12 feet at the time), and her indoor record was by 14 inches over the next-best performer. A six-time All-East performer, Buczko won a pair of ECAC Championship titles in the pole vault, outdoors in 2004 and indoors in 2005. She qualified for the NCAA Championships in both of those seasons, placing 11th at the 2004 outdoor and 14th at the 2005 indoor national championship meet. In addition to her pole-vaulting prowess, Buczko set the school record in the 60m hurdles (8.89). She later became a member of the Patriot League 25th Anniversary Team and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017. Sawko in 2020 became the third member of the Class of 2007 to be elected to the Hall of Fame, joining Buczko and thrower Marjorie Grap. Sawko, one of the top middle-distance runners in school history, graduated with a whopping 14 Patriot League gold medals, seven indoors and seven outdoors, and she was an eight-time All-East selection and two-time NCAA Regional qualifier. Sawko won at least one individual gold medal in seven of her eight Patriot League Championships appearances, missing out only at her freshman-year outdoor meet. In her indoor career, she won the 800m title as a freshman, the 1,000 as a sophomore, and then exploded as a junior, claiming Track Athlete of the Meet honors after winning the 1,000 and the 4x400 and 4x800 relays. She helped shatter the conference record in the 4x800, and then as a senior she won both the 800 and 4x800 titles. Sawko was also a four-time All-East honoree indoors, highlighted by a runner-up finish in the 4x800 relay as a junior and a third-place finish in the open 800 as a senior. Outdoors, Sawko captured both the 800 and 4x800 Patriot League titles in each of her final three seasons, and she added the 1,500-meter title to the list in 2007. Sawko also qualified for the NCAA Regionals in the 800 as both a junior and senior, finishing as high as 14th. Sawko's name appeared all over the top of the Bucknell record board when she graduated, and many of those school records held up for many years. She owned the school record in the outdoor 800 (2:08.98) for 11 years and both the indoor 1,000 (2:53.90) and outdoor 1,500 (4:28.28) for seven years. She also helped break school records in the 4x800, distance medley and sprint medley relays. Her top indoor 800 time of 2:09.18 ranked second only to Bango. Mantush was named the Field Athlete of the Meet at the 2010 Patriot League Indoor Championships, and she captured a total of seven PL gold medals. Outdoors, she won two league titles in the high jump and one each in the long jump and triple jump. Indoors, she won twice in the high jump and once in the pentathlon. A two-time NCAA Regional qualifier in the high jump, she remains the Bucknell record-holder in that event.

2010s
Today we wrap up our trip back "Through the Decades" with a conversation with some recent graduates from the 2010s. Joining coach Kevin Donner and All-America javelin thrower Maura Fiamoncini are Jamie Leacock '11, Jenni Zymet '14, Sophia Nnadi '16, Jen Silvestri '16 and Katie Salisbury '20. Leacock was a terrific hurdler for the Bison. She was the Patriot League champion in the 400m hurdles in both 2009 and 2011, and she is among Bucknell's top-10 performers in both the 110m high hurdles and the 400m intermediates. Zymet is the owner of seven Patriot League gold medals, three of them coming in the outdoor 400m dash. She also won twice with the outdoor 4x100m relay, and indoors she won league titles in the the 500m and 4x400m relay. She is ranked in the top 10 in Bison history in numerous events and is still the school-record-holder in the indoor 500m. As a senior she also broke the school records in the indoor and outdoor 400m, and she now ranks second to Jess Bridle. Zymet also holds the school record in the 4x400m relay and won the Christy Mathewson Award as the top senior athlete in her class. Nnadi was a dominant thrower with the Bison. She has five Patriot League individual titles, including two in the outdoor shot put and one each in the hammer throw, 20-pound weight throw and indoor shot put. Nnadi holds the school record in the shot put and was an NCAA Regional qualifier in that event in 2015. She was also the Patriot League Track & Field Scholar-Athlete of the Year in both 2015 and 2016. Silvestri captured Patriot League titles in the outdoor 400m hurdles and the indoor 500m and 4x400m relay during her Bucknell days. She broke the 15-year-old school record in the 400m hurdles and also was part of the record-setting 4x400m relay team. Salisbury won the Christy Mathewson Award last year after a brilliant career as a sprinter and jumper. She owns the school records in the outdoor 100m dash and long jump, and in the infoor 60m dash and long jump. She is also third all-time in the triple jump. Salisbury won three Patriot League titles and an ECAC gold in the 60m dash.

Bucknell University Athletics

Women's Track & Field Through the Decades, Presented by Geisinger

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