Update from Head Cross Country/Track & Field Coach Kevin Donner

Dear Alumni, Parents, and Friends,

I hope everyone had a great holiday season. The semester started on Jan. 17, however, we brought the track and field team back to campus on Jan. 7. We had 10 great days of a winter training camp for our student-athletes in preparation for the continuation of the indoor season.

As part of our camp, we were fortunate enough to welcome several great speakers to campus to meet with the team. Our first was actually a magician, Brent Kessler, who entertained our team with a very funny and fantastic show on Wednesday, Jan. 11. The very next day the team received a great talk on building a strong mindset and confidence from mental performance coach Nick Fuller. We rounded out that week with a great presentation from Steve Goodell '80, who spoke about his biking accident in 2016 and how to handle adversity that life can sometimes give us. I thought the student-athletes learned a lot from his speech. So the camp was a combination of great training, team bonding, and educational opportunities without the pressure of classwork.

We have competed in five indoor track and field meets so far this season: the Bison Opener on Dec. 2-3; the Nittany Lion Classic on Jan. 14; the Art Gulden Invitational on Jan. 21 (men 2nd of 7; women 1st of 8); and the Bison Open & Multi on Jan. 27-28, and the Penn State National Invitational, also on Jan. 27-28. If you missed any of the recaps of those competitions please visit BucknellBison.com.

Here is the remainder of our indoor track and field schedule:

Sat., Feb. 4 --- Scarlet and White Invitational at Boston University

Sat., Feb. 11 --- Big Apple Invitational at Ocean Breeze, Staten Island

Fri., Feb. 17 --- Bucknell Tune-Up (home)

Sat.-Sun., Feb. 25-26 --- Patriot League Championships at U.S. Naval Academy

Sat.-Sun., Mar., 4-5 --- IC4A-ECAC Championships at Boston University

I would love to see many of our alumni who live in the Boston or New York area come and watch us compete in those cities over the next two weekends (Feb. 4 and Feb. 11, respectively), and, of course, we always want a large crowd at the Patriot League Championships, which will be at Navy. There are no more COVID restrictions regarding attendance at these indoor meets.

Our next formal alumni gathering will be on Saturday-Sunday, April 15-16 when we host our annual Bison Outdoor Classic at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium. We will have a tailgate tent outside of the stadium that will be open throughout the meet for all of our former athletes and their families (1:00 p.m. -11:00 p.m. on Saturday, 10:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. on Sunday). Food and beverages will be available throughout the entire meet, including a bartender. Our coaching staff will take periodic breaks throughout the meet to stop by the tent to say hello. The meet is one of the largest and most competitive meets on the east coast that draws over 80 schools and post-collegiate athletes and clubs. Last year we had about 50 alumni attend following one month's notice. This spring I hope we can top 100 alums since I have been giving notice for this year's tailgate since the late summer.

Here are the recent additions to our all-time top-10 lists:

Women:
200 meters - Meghan Quinn - 24.73 - 4th
300 meters - Bridget Lalonde - 41.59 - 7th
300 meters - Ally Cooke - 41.79 - 9th
High Jump - Karen Hull - 5-7 - 4th
High Jump - Olivia Boyce - 5-5 - T10th

Men:
60 meters - Brandon Foust - 6.91 - 6th
60 meters - Cooper Hyken - 6.93 - 9th
Mile Run - Samuel Whittaker - 4:05.35 - 3rd
Heptathlon - Franco Perinotti - 4,655 - 7th
35 lb Wt. - Robert Feeney - 59-7 - 7th
35 lb Wt. - John Calisi - 57-10.25 - 9th
Pole Vault - Franco Perinotti - 16-00.75 - 5th

The top-10 list is the standard we shoot for and is a celebration of all those who came before -- but we know to win Patriot League Championships we need to have more performances like these.

I hope to see some of you at some upcoming indoor track and field meets as well as the Bison Outdoor Classic Tailgate Party the weekend of April 15-16.

In closing, we have a significant 24-hour period approaching for our program. The annual One Herd One Day 24-Hour Giving Challenge will be on March 28-29 from 10:00 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Our program has historically been very competitive with the sports across the athletic department during the challenge. I hope we can all come together in March to turn in another huge day for the Spiked Shoe program.

'ray Bucknell,

Kevin Donner
Head Cross Country/Track & Field Coach
Bucknell University
kdonner@bucknell.edu

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