1980s WOMEN
Not many programs can say they won every championship during their tenure in a conference, but the Bison women's cross country team can make that claim about their time in the East Coast Conference.
The ECC first sponsored a women's cross country championship in 1982, and from that year through 1989 Bucknell won all eight championships before moving to the Patriot League in 1990. They did so in dominant fashion, as well. With the exception of the 1988 meet where the Bison clipped Lafayette by a mere three points, Bucknell won every other ECC title by at least 15 points, and the 1987 squad just missed the minimum score with 17, while second-place Lafayette had 74. Two future Bucknell Athletics Hall of Famers won ECC individual titles, as Gabi Czaja finished first in 1984, and Judy Perry went back-to-back in 1986 and 1987. Czaja '85 and Perry '90 are two of the guests on today's panel, along with Kelly Hoskins '84 and Kelly Marsh '91.
Hoskins finished ninth at the 1983 ECC Cross Country Championship, and she also claimed track and field gold medals in the 3,000 and 10,000 meters. Hoskins was also an ECC Scholar-Athlete in both cross country and outdoor track, and she claimed both CoSIDA Academic All-America honors and an NCAA Postgraduate Scholarship. Czaja, a 2000 Hall of Fame inductee, won five ECC golds on the track in addition to her cross country title in 1984. Perry was inducted into the HOF in 2008 after winning eight conference titles, two in cross country, two in indoor track and four in outdoor track. She was also a three-time ECC Scholar-Athlete selection. Marsh was also a standout scholar and athlete. She was a two-time all-conference selection in cross country and won three individual titles in track. She earned Scholar-Athlete honors in both the ECC and the Patriot League, she was a two-time Academic All-American, and she received a NACDA/Disney Scholarship in 1991.
