Vaulting to the hall
TEMPE, Ariz — Melanie Buczko Lincoln looks back at her time at Bucknell University with fondness.
The Butler graduate had a lot to be proud of as a member of the Bison women's track and field team.
She is the only women's pole vaulter in school history to clear 13 feet and her indoor record in the event is 14 inches better than the next-best performer.
She won three indoor and two outdoor Patriot League championships in the pole vault and accomplished the rare feat of winning the gold medal in both the pole vault and the 60-meter hurdles in the conference.
But her biggest honor will come this fall when he joins five others inducted into the Bucknell Athletics Hall of Fame.
“It was really surprising; I wasn't expecting that at all,” Lincoln said. “They induct five to six a year and I started to think about how many athletes who have done great things at Bucknell. It was really humbling.”
The Bucknell website calls Lincoln, a 2007 graduate, “Bucknell's greatest woman pole vaulter.”
Lincoln, who is also a member of the Butler High School athletic hall of fame, advanced to the NCAA Division I championships in the pole vault during her freshman outdoor season and during her sophomore indoor season.
“It was amazing to be there with all those great athletes who were competing at such a high level,” she said.
But it's the personal relationships with her teammates she said she remembers the most.
“We were together a lot, on long road trips, and we became the closest of friends,” Lincoln said.
Lincoln joins a class that features athletes who all graduated between 2004 and 2007 — Lectie Altman (06), Kevin Bettencourt (06), Maria Garcia Harkley (04), Chris McNaughton (07) and Charles Lee (06).
Lincoln said that speaks to the level Bucknell athletics reached in the mid-2000s.
She said she was honored to be among them.
“Maria (a hammer thrower) was a senior when I was a freshman and we went to the NCAAs together,” Lincoln said. “The three basketball guys (Bettencourt, McNaughton and Lee) I knew through my roommate, who dated Charles. It was a fun time to be there.”
Lincoln is still involved in sports.
She works for the Hunt Construction Group that is currently renovating the Arizona State University football stadium.
It's been a painstaking process, one that will take two and a half years to complete.
Her husband, Matt, is a cross country coach and Lincoln helps him with the team from time to time.
She has also entered several half-marathons to stoke her athletic fires.
“It's not like you can continue to pole vault and run the hurdles after college,” Lincoln said. “It was important to me to stay healthy and active when I graduated.”
Lincoln doesn't run much these days. She and her husband are expecting their first child in early October.
Lincoln is hoping the addition to the family comes early enough for her to attend the Bucknell induction ceremony, which is slated for Nov. 3.
“It's kind of bad timing, but you can't really time these things,” she said. “I hope I can make it.”
