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Bison Men's Track and Field Travels to League Outdoor Championship This Weekend
April 28, 2004 LEWISBURG, Pa. - The Patriot League Track and Field Championships are Friday and Saturday, April 30-May 1 at Army's Shea Stadium, part of a five-championship weekend for Bucknell's athletic squads. Winning a title would be nothing new to either the men's or the women's squad, as the women have won four of the last five league crowns and the men have been the only team other than Army to win a league title. The Black Knights have a 12-year hold on the Patriot League Championship, while the Bison won in 1991 before Army became part of the conference in the sport. But the Bison men have assembled a team up to the task of unseating the Black Knights as the longtime incumbent champs. Bucknell's sprint corps is headed by the incomparable Noel Powell, who is the back-to-back gold medalist in the 100 after taking the silver as a freshman. As a sophomore, he won the 200 as well after taking the bronze in the event his rookie year. Powell is also Bucknell's lead long jumper as he holds the school record and is a three-time medalist at the league meet, having won the last two golds and a silver as a freshman. Ryan Newberger is also a likely scorer in the springs, as Newberger is 10th on the Bucknell 100 list and second, behind only Powell, in the 200. Also on the school's top-10 list in the 400, Newberger scored in the 200 and 400 at last year's league meet. The Bison men will rely on Kevin Walsh, Aaron Hanlon and Tom Prochilo in the mid-distance events, a portion of the competition that did not produce points for Bucknell last year. All three have had times within two seconds of the finish needed to score in last year's 800. The Bucknell distance team, however, has the potential to score plentiful points this weekend. It is led by Greg Costello, a member of the Bucknell 5K top-10 list, as well as Wes Reinhardt and Dan Lounsbury, both of whom scored in last year's league outdoor meet. Costello missed last season with an injury, but has since rebounded to enter his name on Bucknell's indoor distance lists and qualify for outdoor IC4As. Field events will also be a potentially large source of points for the Bison. While Powell will hold down the long jump, Bucknell has four potential scorers in the triple jump, including Mike Mellas, Drew Folk, Tyler Palumbo and Nick Novotny, all of whom have recorded distances this season that would have scored in last year's meet. Folk will be the lead high jumper with a top leap of 6'4" this season, good enough to score in last year's league meet. Dan Frake will be Bucknell's top hammer and shot put thrower, as the sophomore entered the eighth spot on Bucknell's all-time list in the hammer just last week and has recorded scoring distances in both events this year. Justin McKnight and Josh Kaehler, both of whom are on Bucknell's top-10 list in the javelin, have recorded scoring tosses this year as well. In addition to his triple jump abilities, Mellas will be important to the Bison on both hurdle events, as his fastest 110-meter hurdle this season was 15.38, good enough to score last year, and he is also a member of Bucknell's top-10 list in the 400. He will also be Bucknell's lead decathlete, having qualified for IC4A competition via Bucknell's Outdoor Classic meet earlier this year. The Bison men will also count on their relay teams for points, as Bucknell squads have qualified twice this year for IC4A competition in the 4x100. The fastest time in that event this year for a Bison squad was 41.93 seconds, turned in at the Bucknell Five-Way on Feb. 17, short of the 41.63 Bucknell's silver-medal team recorded last year. Bucknell will likely run Novotny, Newberger, Powell, and Justin Crane in the event. The top 4x400 run this year was 3:20.06 at the Duke meet. Crane, Chris Edwards, Matt Bonelli and Matt Corbetta are the candidates for Bucknell's squad in that event, while Hanlon, Walsh, Prochilo and Koran Evans will likely run the 4x800.
The meet gets underway on Friday at 1 p.m. with the decathlon and continues until Saturday, when the trophies will be handed out in the early evening.
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