Jan. 19, 2010

Center Valley, Pa. - With the Patriot League Indoor Track and Field Championships a month away, all eight schools continued their seasons this past week, with several competitors achieving IC4A or ECAC qualifying times or marks.

Bucknell's track and field team secured three of the six awards this week. Jennifer Pierce secured the M-F Athletic Women's Track Athlete of the Week honor, while Chelsey Musante was honored with the Women's Field Athlete of the Week award and Robert Yamnicky won his first Male Rookie of the Week honor. Lehigh's Khalil Uqdah earned the Male Field Athlete of the Week award, Domonick Sylve of Army won the Male Track Athlete of the Week and Navy's Kristin Smith's impressive performance secured her the Female Rookie of the Week honor.

Patriot League Weekly Indoor Track And Field Release - 1.19.10

M-F Male Track Athlete of the Week

Domonick Sylve, Army Jr., Long Beach, Calif.
Sylve's time in the 60-meter hurdles (7.93) qualified for the IC4A Championships and missed the NCAA provisional mark by just .02 seconds.

M-F Female Track Athlete of the Week

Jennifer Pierce, Bucknell Sr., Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J.
Pierce took second in the 500-meter dash over the weekend in 1:15.94, which qualified her for ECACs and is also the seventh-best time in that event in Bison history.

M-F Male Field Athlete of the Week

Khalil Uqdah, Lehigh Sr., Baltimore, Md.
Uqdah's 16-9 effort in the pole vault over the weekend broke his own school record and improved his IC4A standing. The mark is also tied for 17th nationally.

M-F Female Field Athlete of the Week

Chelsey Musante, Bucknell Sr., Shelton, Conn.
Musante was the top Bison finisher in the shot put (44-7) and weight throw (56-6) at the Akron Quad, where she reaffirmed her ECAC standing in both events.

M-F Male Rookie of the Week

Robert Yamnicky, Bucknell Fr., Shelton, Conn.
Yamnicky ran the mile in 4:21.03 at Akron, improving his career-best in the event by more than five seconds.

M-F Female Rookie of the Week

Kristin Smith, Navy Fr., Harleysville, Pa.
Smith took first in the high jump at the Navy Invitational (5-7, 1.70 m), setting a Wesley A.Brown Field House record. The mark is second all-time in Navy history.

Honorable Mention Performances Last Week

Kyle Clayton, Lafayette Sr., Manasquan, N.J.
Clayton set a personal best in the 200-meter dash at the Armory Invitational and qualified for the IC4As.

Rob Arent, Bucknell So., New Providence, N.J.
Qualified for the IC4As in the 400-meter dash with a second-place finish at the Akron Quad.

Tiffany Reid, Holy Cross Sr., Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Finished second in the 55-meter dash, .05 seconds off the Crusader record.

Mark Van Orden, Navy Sr., Morris Plains, N.J.
Notched his third individual win in the weight throw while improving his IC4A standing.

Hallie Huggins, Army Jr., Wasilla, Alaska
Set a new Army record in the pole vault while qualifying for the ECACs.

Frederick Beebe, Army So., San Antonio, Texas
Qualified for the IC4As while setting a new personal-best in the triple jump by nearly a foot.

League Notebook

Youth In Revolt Of the 12 League award winners in the non-rookie categories, seven have been underclassmen. The trend did change somewhat on Tuesday, though, with three seniors earning the top four awards.

Army Men, Bucknell Women Picked First Army has been selected to successfully defend its men's League crown this season, while Bucknell has been voted as the top team in the women's poll. The voting was done by head coaches and sports information directors around the League. Army, who won its 13th men's Patriot League Championship last season and three of the last four, topped the preseason voting with 96 points and 12 first-place votes. The Bucknell women, who finished second at the Patriot League Championship last season behind Navy, received 11 first-place votes and 93 points. The Midshipmen received five first-place votes and finished second overall in the preseason voting with 89 points.

To Gillis We Go The Patriot League's eight schools will converge on Army's Gillis Field House in West Point, N.Y., for the 2010 Patriot League Indoor Track and Field Championships on Friday-Sunday, February 19-21.

So What's The Standard? The latest qualifying standards for both the IC4A and ECAC championships for indoor track and field can be found in the sidebar on the right hand side of the track and field page at PatriotLeague.org

Team Notebooks

American The men took third and the women tenth at the Maryland Invitational on Jan. 16. The Eagles received five scoring runs in the men's 3,000-meter run, including a winning performance from Craig Brown. Rachel Forcino (3,000-meter) and Erin Koch (800-meter) turned in top-five efforts on the women's side, and Forcino's time of 10:29.71 was a new personal best. The Eagles have a weekend off before the George Mason Invitational Jan. 30 in Fairfax, Va.

Army Junior Hallie Huggins set an Academy record in the pole vault on her first try and took second overall at the Armory Invitational in New York, N.Y. on Saturday. Her 11-9 3/4 mark also qualifies her for the ECAC Championships. The women finished seventh overall. The men finished second and seven Black Knights qualified for the IC4A Championships, with Domonick Sylve falling just .02 short of the NCAA-qualifying standard in the 60-meter hurdles. The team is idle until the next Armory Invitational Jan. 30.

Bucknell The men finished second of three and the women fourth of four at the Akron Quad in Akron, Ohio on Friday. Eight men met or surpassed IC4A qualifying marks, including Isiah Bell in two events (60-meter hurdles, 200-meter dash). Sarah Moniz won the mile run, Chelsey Musante posted ECAC qualifying marks in the shot put and weight throw and Jennifer Pierce did the same in the 500-meter dash. The Bison host the Bucknell Heptagonal on Saturday.

Colgate Sophomore Graham Tooker notched personal bests in the 200-meter dash (22.57) and 400-meter dash (50.02) as the men's team participated in the Penn State Northeast Challenge on Saturday. The women had one first-place finish, seven top-three finishes and set a school record at the Syracuse Welcome Back Invitational on Saturday. Colgate competes in the Cornell Upstate Challenge on Saturday.

Holy Cross The Crusader men's team traveled east to the Harvard Invitational, where Chase Kennedy finished fifth in the 400-meter dash. At the Sorlien Memorial Invitational, Holy Cross grabbed a host of second-place finishes, including Tiffany Reid in the 55-meter dash and Olivia Pruszko in the 500-meter event. The Crusaders visit New Hampshire on Saturday.

Lafayette Defending Patriot League 60-meter dash champion Kyle Clayton set two career marks at the Armory Invitational in New York, N.Y. on Saturday, taking first in the 200-meter dash in an IC4A-qualifying 22.16, while also going 22-9 in the long jump. For the women, Kelly Clyde (60-meter dash), Megan Matusky and Adedayo Adu (400-meters) set a personal bests. The Leopards have the Great Dane Classic in New York, N.Y. on Friday and the Lehigh Covert Classic on Friday and Saturday.

Lehigh The men finished fourth of five and the women sixth of six at the Navy Invitational in Annapolis, Md. on Saturday. Khalil Uqdah improved on his own school record by notching an IC4A-qualifying16-9 (5.10 meters) in the pole vault. Brittany Pietrosh finished second in the 800-meter run, while Kaitlin Grimm also took runner-up in the 3,000-meter event. The Mountain Hawks host the 18th annual Lehigh Covert Classic on Friday and Saturday.

Navy The men and women both took first on Saturday at the Navy Invitational in Annapolis, Md. Mark Van Orden's 58-7.5 toss in the weight throw improved his IC4A standing, while Matt Evers qualified in the 500-meter event with a time of 1:04.72. Cody Rome also eclipsed the IC4A qualifying standard in the 1,000-meter run. In all the Navy men have 10 IC4A qualifiers. Freshman Kristin Smith shined, while LeShay Bernstein won the weight throw with a personal-best 48-8.25. The women are off until the Patriot Games in Fairfax, Va., on Jan. 30. The men host Rutgers, Temple and Maryland on Saturday.