April 29, 2008

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell senior Victoria Gilbert (Bethlehem, Pa./Freedom), an All-East and All-Patriot League track and field performer, received a special award at the University's annual Senior Athletic Awards Banquet, sponsored by the Bison Club and held in Sojka Pavilion on April 29.

Gilbert won the Ronald J. "Pete" Pedrick Award, presented to senior athletes "in recognition of demonstrated improvement and special contributions to Bucknell athletics over a four-year period." Gilbert shared the award with James Meyer of the men's track and field team.

In addition to Gilbert and Meyer, several other student-athletes were honored at the banquet, including the winners of the Christy Mathewson Award, given to the most outstanding athletes in the senior class. Rowing All-American Katherine Brewster-Duffy, won the women's Mathewson Award, while four-time All-Patriot League honoree Jason Buursma of the baseball team won the men's Mathewson Award.

After not scoring at the Patriot League Championships as a freshman, Gilbert just missed a scoring finish in the 800, taking eighth indoors as a sophomore. That same season, she earned First Team All-Patriot League recognition as a member of Bucknell's league champion indoor 4x800 relay squad and captured All-East honors as well, helping the 4x800 team to a second-place showing at the ECAC Indoor Championship in 2006.

She followed up by improving once again as a junior as she finished in the top-10 for the 800 in every indoor meet she competed in, placing third at the Patriot League Championships with a career best and maintaining the No. 10 spot on Bucknell's top-10 list at the time (2:15.96).

This year as a senior, Gilbert was named the Patriot League Track Athlete of the Week on Jan. 22 for her part in Bucknell's first-place finish at the Bucknell Heptagonal as she won the 800 and ran the second leg of the first-place 4x800 relay team. At the 2008 PL indoor meet, Gilbert helped the Bison claim their seventh consecutive and 12th overall Patriot League indoor title as a part of the squad's first-place 4x800 and distance medley relay teams, while also earning Second Team All-Patriot League recognition as the runner-up in the 800.

Bucknell is a highly-selective, privately endowed liberal arts institution with an enrollment of approximately 3,400 undergraduate students. Bucknell competes in NCAA Division I as a member of the Patriot League and has full membership along with American, Army, Colgate, Holy Cross, Lafayette, Lehigh and Navy. Bucknell has won the Presidents' Cup, signifying the Patriot League's all-sports champion, in 13 of 17 years, including nine of the last 10.

Recently, 17 Bison programs - the seventh-most in Division I - earned NCAA Public Recognition for having Academic Performance Rates in the top 10 percent nationally in their respective sport. In addition, Bucknell ranks fifth in Division I in the total number of CoSIDA Academic All-America selections, with 114 national Academic All-Americans since 1970.