Update from Head Cross Country/Track & Field Coach Kevin Donner -- May 2024

Hello everyone:

As everyone knows, we hosted the Patriot League Outdoor Track and Field Championships this past weekend in Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium and our West Fields throws complex. Overall, I would say it was a success. Both the men’s and women’s teams finished in 4th place out of the 10 schools with Navy, Army, and Boston going 1-2-3 and Lehigh finishing 5th in both. Although we didn't quite reach our goal of a top-three finish, I was very proud of how our athletes competed in a much improved and strong Patriot League.

The stadium looked fantastic, and we were able to highlight the new Pascucci Team Center by holding our alumni receptions in the large conference room that overlooks the track in that facility. In addition, our video board provided fantastic live coverage of the action as well as immediate up-to-the-moment results throughout the meet. Our new throws area across Route 15 at the West Fields allowed the meet to run efficiently. All in all, I believe Bucknell put on a great show, and our facilities folks deserve a large thank you for their part in that.

It was great to see so many alumni of our program back on campus. I saw alums from every decade starting with the 70s and up to recent 2023 graduates. I hope everyone had a great time and enjoyed watching a great track and field meet. It was an honor to have many members of the 1973-74 squad back to celebrate their 50th anniversary of the very first conference cross country championship as well as the infamous track and field conference championship that was taken away due to a disqualification of the winning mile relay team because of excessive celebration. That adversity kickstarted the program, as Art Gulden's teams won numerous conference championships starting the following year. The group that returned from that team had a few different team functions including being introduced at the stadium before Saturday’s meet, handing out medals at the awards stand, and a few team meals as a group. It was great to have a huge part of our legacy back on campus.

Exams are winding down this week as we prepare for the postseason. We have a lot of people qualified and attending the IC4A-ECAC Championships at George Mason University this coming weekend May 11-12. We are expecting four women and maybe one male to qualify for the NCAA East Preliminaries in Lexington, Kentucky on May 22-25. Our program will graduate 37 seniors (25 women and 12 men) this Sunday, May 12, adding more alumni to our great Bucknell Cross Country and Track and Field empire.

If you have not already made a gift to the Spiked Shoe program or would like to contribute additional funds, you can still do so before the fiscal year ends on June 30 here. We did great with the One Herd One Day Challenge last month by raising more than $90,000, but we still have not yet reached our annual goal. In addition, we will have expenses for the upcoming postseason meets for the hospitality from the Patriot League Championship meet. As always, your support is very much appreciated!

Our next newsletter will highlight the postseason USATF meets (Paralympics, U-20 Championships, and USA Olympic Trials) in which we expect some Bison to be competing. We will also update our all-time top-10 lists for all events.

Go Bison!

Sincerely,
Kevin Donner

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

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