WEEK of: MARCH 30-APRIL 5, 2009
Freshman
BRIAN BUCKNOR (Irvington, NJ/St. Benedict’s Prep) has been named the NJCU Men's Athlete of the Week for the second time in his career and also the
New Jersey Athletic Conference Outdoor Rookie of the Week for week three of the 2009 spring season after winning the 400-meter dash, leading off the winning 4x100-meter relay team and opening for the second place 4x400 relay at the season opening Osprey Open, at Richard Stockton College’s G. Larry James Stadium in Pomona, NJ on April 4.
Bucknor earned the NJAC Outdoor Rookie of the Week award for the first time in his career. During the winter season he was the NJAC Indoor Rookie of the Week during week nine on March 2.
The 2009 NJAC Indoor champion in the 400-meter dash, Bucknor showed he will be equally as difficult to beat during the spring season. Despite running into a strong headwind as the entire meet was contested under gusty winds from this weekend’s storms, Bucknor blew away the field of 37 athletes in the 400-meters, timing 49.28 seconds—21/100th of a second faster than the event’s runner-up. It easily surpassed the ECAC Championship qualifying standard of 50.20 seconds.
Bucknor led off the 4x100 relay team which crushed the field of 12 squads in 42.21 seconds to easily surpass the ECAC qualifying mark of 44.00, while narrowly missing the NCAA provisional standard of 41.90. NJCU had a winning margin of 71/100th of a second over the second place team.
With his 400-meter abilities, Bucknor also led off the 4x400-meter relay, which finished second of 18 teams and first among college relay squads in 3:20.98. The Knights were just 23/100th of a second behind the first-place club team and nearly six seconds better than the ECAC standard of 3:26.50.
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