The Bucknell Men open the fall racing season at home with the Bucknell Fall Invitational on October 5th in Shamokin Dam, PA on the Susquehanna River – competing against crews from Drexel University and Lehigh University.
This was the second year in a row that Bucknell has run this race with Drexel and Lehigh, and the style of racing is unusual for the fall, with various boat classes racing different distances and starting at the same time, with the Varsity 8+’s racing the furthest (approx. 5.5k) and the 2nd and 3rd freshman boats racing the shortest (approx. 5k). With 12 8+’s starting at once, racing becomes competitive between all crews, as Varsity 8’s start catching 2V’s, and freshman crews trying to hold off varsity crews. The Bucknell Varsity got some great early season competition from a traditionally strong Drexel team. Drexel went on to finish in 19:11, with Bucknell finishing in 19:45, with Lehigh trailing with a 20:32.
The Bucknell 2V faced tough competition from the Drexel 2V crew, finishing 2nd ahead of Lehigh with a final time of 19:46, 1:11 off of the winning time set by the Drexel 2V and 1:06 ahead of 3rd place Lehigh.
The Bison Freshman 8+ performed very well by jumping out ahead of the other freshman crews to a substantial lead in the first 500m and not looking back to finish in 19:07, 57 seconds ahead of the 2nd place Lehigh crew.
The Bucknell 2nd and 3rd freshman crews, filled mostly with novice rowers, trailed the Lehigh freshman boats and finished 4th and 5th respectively in the freshman race.
The Bison men will be in action again when they compete at the Head of the Charles Regatta on October 18-19 in Boston, MA on the Charles River.