April 29, 2008

LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell senior Erin Cranmer-Hart (Slippery Rock, Pa./Slippery Rock Area), a cross country track & field All-East performer and two-time Patriot League champion in the mile, 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.

Cranmer-Hart won the Edward W. Pangburn Award, presented to senior athletes "for sportsmanship, fellowship, and contribution to the University." Cranmer-Hart shared the award with Darren Mastropaolo of the men's basketball team.

In addition to Cranmer-Hart and Mastropaolo, 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.

Cranmer-Hart completed her Bison cross country career with two First Team All-Patriot League honors as a junior and senior after being named to the second team her sophomore season in 2005. She helped the squad capture the league title in three of her four years including 2007 when she was the runner-up at the Patriot League Championship meet.

She holds top-10 times in the Bucknell record books for the mile indoors (second) and the 1,500 outdoors (fifth) while also ranking in the top-10 as a part of four relays. She was All-East selection for her fourth-place finish in the mile at the ECAC Indoor Championships in 2007 and as a part of Bucknell's distance medley relay squad indoors in 2006 and the outdoor 4x800 relay in 2007.

A scorer at the Patriot League Track and Field Championships all four years, Cranmer-Hart captured indoor individual titles in the mile in 2007 and 2008 and contributed to Bucknell's seven indoor and outdoor championships over the past four years. She was a member of the winning Bison 4x800 relay outdoors in 2006 and 2007 and the first-place distance medley relay indoors in 2008 and has a total of four First Team All-League accolades to her credit. Cranmer-Hart garnered two Second Team All-League selections in both seasons as a junior as well, finishing as the runner-up in the 1,000 indoors and in the 1,500 outdoors in 2007.

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.