April 12, 2005

For the third-straight week Army junior Philip Sakala (Las Cruces, N.M./Onate) has captured Male Track Athlete of the Week honors. The Bucknell women picked up a pair of awards as sophomore Christa Sawko (Montoursville, Pa./Montoursville) was named Female Track Athlete of the Week and sophomore Marjorie Grap (Van Etten, N.Y./Spencer-Van Etten) Female Field Athlete of the Week. Navy senior Ralph Lufkin (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) took home the final award of the week as the Male Field Athlete honoree.

Sakala ran to a first place finish in the 800-m race at the Sam Howell Invitational hosted by Princeton. His gold medal time of 1:50.25 qualified him for NCAA Regionals, for his second qualifying event of the year. His 1,500-m time from the Indiana Relays two weekends ago was also an NCAA qualifier. His time in the 800-m was a personal best and moved him up to sixth place on the Academy's all-time list. The junior runner was honored by the ECAC last week for his performance at the Indiana Relays.

Sawko came away with an eighth place finish at a very competitive Duke Invitational in Durham, N.C. Her 2:09.90 finish time was the second-best mark all-time at Bucknell in the event. Her time was also a personal best, an ECAC qualifier and .10 seconds off the NCAA Regional standard. Other teams at the Duke Invitational were Duke, Georgetown, Michigan, North Carolina-Chapel Hill, North Carolina State, Seton Hall, Virginia and West Virginia.

Lufkin threw the hammer 187'6'' for ninth place, first in his flight, at the Texas Relays in Austin, Texas. His mark was an NCAA qualifier. His competitors hailed from Arkansas, Baylor, Florida, LSU, Mississippi State, Okalahoma and Texas.

Grap competed in three events at the Duke Invitational with her best finish coming in the discus, placing second with a 150'6'' toss. She also came in seventh in the shot put (43' 1/4'') and eighth in the hammer (162'11''). Her marks in the discus and hammer were both ECAC qualifiers, while her discus throw was the second-best all-time at Bucknell.