Update from Head Cross Country/Track & Field Coach Kevin Donner -- October 2023

Hello everyone:

It is now October and the fall colors are slowly coming out as we are now midway through the cross country season. We have one regular-season cross country meet left on Friday, Oct. 13 with the IC4A-ECAC Championships at the historic Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, N.Y. The championship part of the season begins with the Patriot League Championships on Saturday, Oct. 28 at Colgate, followed by the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championships at Lehigh on Friday, Nov. 10. It would be great to see some nice crowds of Bison fans at any or all of these meets.

The track and field athletes are presently in their preseason conditioning phase and after the university fall break early next week, the official track and field season for our 20-hour work weeks will begin. We will host our annual Orange vs. Blue Intrasquad Scrimmage on Sunday, Nov. 12 starting at 1 p.m. in Gerhard Fieldhouse. Our first official meet is the Bison Opener on Fri.-Sat., Dec. 1-2 in Gerhard Fieldhouse. So as you can see, things are going to start heating up later this month.

As you know, we will be holding two alumni functions this year with our first one being in the Denver, Colorado area on Tuesday, Dec. 12 in the evening at a site TBD. We did the same thing last year while my staff was at the USTFCCCA Convention and had 19 alumni in attendance plus some spouses, so we decided to do it again this year since the convention is back in Denver. More information with details will be sent out in the November newsletter.

As you may also know, we will be hosting the Patriot League Outdoor Track and Field Championships at the Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium on Friday-Saturday, May 3-4, and we plan to have a weekend-long tailgate outside the stadium for all alumni and their families. You will have access to go in and out of the stadium to watch the meet throughout the entire weekend. I am really hoping to have a great crowd in attendance for that weekend to cheer the Bison on.

Fundraising is going to be very important for our program this year. As you know, inflation has caused the price of buses, gas, hotels, and food to be higher than ever and we want to continue to run a high-quality, Division I program that gives our top people opportunities to compete at a high level while at the same time allowing our entire team opportunities to compete at meets on the road. We also want to have top-of-the-line equipment available to our student-athletes. We need to have a big year and the plan is to shatter our yearly record and hope to come close to $300,000. We will need everyone's help this year, so please consider a gift to the program.

I look forward to a great 2023-24 academic and athletics school year as all four teams (Men’s and Women’s Cross Country/Track and Field) look improved compared to last year.

’ray Bucknell!

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

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