By Colin Fields

Staff Writer

The men’s track team, the defending Indoor and Outdoor Patriot League champion, racked up 12 individual victories at the Bucknell Team Challenge at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium last weekend. The Bison compiled 292.5 points, just under the rest of the field combined, in one of their best performances of the year.

The Orange and Blue throwers have been stellar all year long and Saturday was no different. Luke Webster ’13 came just six inches short of the school discus record that has stood for nearly 35 years with a toss of 168’ 6’’. Webster’s toss put him in both second in the meet and second in the school record books. Tom Barr ’12 also performed well in the discus; the shot put record holder put up a toss of 162’ 3’’, breaking the 160-foot mark for the first time in his career in the discus. Barr also posted a career best in the hammer throw, with a toss of 182’ 11’’. He was bested by teammate Leonard Joseph ’13 whose toss of 204’ 5’’ moved him to third place in Bison history.

“I would say that the start our team has had is encouraging because most of our athletes, if not all, are not peaking yet, but they are performing extremely well. Having two consecutive home meets allows us to capitalize on a familiar environment as well as a larger audience than we typically have,” Joseph said.

Jason Brown ’13, Nathaniel Witter ’14 and Alex Prieto ’14 picked up wins in the high jump, pole vault and the long jump. Andrew Powell ’12 and Kevin Keller ’15 also picked up second-place finishes for the Bison.

Christian Lupica ’15 took first in the 110 meter hurdles with a time of 14.7 seconds and teammates Robert Arent ’12, Dan Mularz ’12 and Powell helped fill four of the top five spots in the event.

“Being able to have our two meets at home is definitely a nice perk. We train on the track every day so we are familiar with running on it, and not having to worry about travel time and living out of a hotel makes it a lot easier to have a flexible routine and eat/sleep/warm-up in a way that is best for you,” Lupica said.

Several Bison will compete this weekend in the Penn Relays in Philadelphia, while the test of the team will travel today to Bloomsburg for the Maroon & Gold Invitational. These are the last events for the Bison until the Patriot League Outdoor Championships on May 4-5 in Worcester, Mass.