UB men's and women's swimming weekly release
Men Place Second, Women Take Third at Zippy Meet
The University at Buffalo's swimming and diving teams spent the weekend at Akron's Zippy Invitational with top results. The UB men placed second with 1,550 points while the women finished third with 960.5 points. The UB men claimed 11 victories over the three-day meet, including four of the five relays and finished second to first-time invitee Army. The UB women finished third among 14 schools trailing only Mid-American Conference foes Ohio (1,442) and Toledo (1,343) as the Bulls finished the meet with two event championships.
Relay Teams Shine
The Bulls won four men's and one women's relay at the meet. UB's women claimed the 200-yard freestyle relay as the foursome of Marissa Murphy, Brittney Kuras, Taylor Steffl and Mallory Morrell won the final in 1:32.94, cutting two seconds off the previous season best and just missing the meet record by .02 seconds. The UB men's foursome of Josh Meints, Cory Zorsch, Mike Dugan and Jared Heine set a meet and pool record with their finish of 1:22.46 in the 200-yard freestyle relay. Phil Aronica, Matt Hogan, Matt Schwippert and Dugan won the 400-yard medley relay title in 3:18.70, again setting meet and pool records. UB's men's 200-yard medley relay posted a meet and pool record of 1:29.68 in winning the timed final as Aronica, Meints, Schwippert and Heine also earned an NCAA B cut for their finish. The men's 400-yard freestyle relay of Heine, Dugan, Cory Zorsch and Hogan won in 3:02.02, breaking another meet record.
Individuals Take Seven Titles
UB swimmers won seven individual titles. Matt Hogan won three events with victories in the 100-yard freestyle (44.60, meet and pool record), the 200-yard freestyle (1:37.96, meet and pool record and B cut) and the 200-yard individual medley (1:50.84). Matt Schwippert swept the backstroke races, winning the 100-yard event in 49.66 and the 200-yard event in 1:48.73. Josh Meints won the 100-yard breaststroke in a meet record of 56.54. For the women, Mallory Morrell won the 50-yard freestyle in 23.29, setting a season-best mark.
Patrican Leads Divers to Top Finishes
On the diving boards, the Bulls were also impressive. Colin Patrican broke the meet and facility record on his way to winning the men's three-meter diving event. Patrican set the records with his 348.80 points for his six dives in the preliminary round and finished Friday's final with a total score of 317.25, easily outdistancing second-place finisher Ian O'Rourke of Niagara (288.60). Chris Iafrati finished sixth with 252.20 points in the final round. Patrican finished second in the one-meter springboard with 290.50 points with Iafrati third at 257.50. Ava Giachino finished third in the women's three-meter competition with 269.45 points and sixth on the one-meter springboard with 230.50 points.
Steffl Breaks Brankovsky's Mark
Besides the many meet and pool records that the Bulls set in Akron, one school record was broken. Freshman Taylor Steffl set the school record in the women's 100-yard butterfly in winning the B final to finish ninth overall in 55.11 to break the 2003 mark set by Jennefer Brankovsky of 55.38.