March 16, 2012

AUBURN, AL – For the second consecutive day, University at Buffalo junior Brittney Kuras broke her own record as she competed in Friday's 200-yard freestyle preliminaries at the NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at the James E. Martin Aquatics Center.

Kuras finished the 200-yard distance in 1:45.87, slicing nearly a half-second off her 1:46.30 that she posted in winning the Mid-American Conference title in the event at the league championships in Akron, OH last month. She ended up finishing fourth in her heat and 24^th of 61 overall entrants. The top 18 finishers moved on to Friday night's finals.

Kuras led most of the way in her heat before being caught in the final few yards by Virginia's Rachel Naurath (1:45.57), who earned the second alternate spot with her 18^th-place overall finish.

She is UB's first women's swimmer invited for the national competition. Meili Carpenter competed in the diving portion of National Championships in 2009, 2010 and 2011. Kuras also lowered her UB record in Thursday's 200-yard individual medley with her 1:59.67 clocking, finishing 35^th overall.

"Brittney had another great swim today," said UB head coach Andy Bashor. "She was aggressive the first 100 and held on to go a best time and a school record. The way she was able to swim today is going to give her the confidence for tomorrow in the 100 free."

Kuras will race in the  100-yard freestyle on Saturday.