UB men's and women's swimming weekly release

Women Place Fifth at MACs, Take Seven Events

Hosting the 2013 Mid-American Conference Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, the University at Buffalo won seven events and finished fifth among eight schools. Junior Brittney Kuras was named the league's Outstanding Swimmer for the second consecutive season as she won three individual events and three relay races. Kuras, Mallory Morrell and Jessica Powers all earned All-MAC First Team honors.

Kuras Defends MAC Titles in Three Races

Brittney Kuras repeated her 2012 success by defending her league titles in all three of her individual races. Kuras opened the meet on Thursday with a win in the 200-yard individual medley as she broke the MAC, MAC meet, UB and pool records at 1:59.17. On Friday, Kuras successfully defended her title in the 200-yard freestyle as the Bulls went one-two in the championship final. Kuras established an NCAA B qualifying time of 1:47.83 to win the race. Jessica Powers finished second in a lifetime-best mark of 1:48.27. It was another one-two finish on Saturday as Kuras and Mallory Morrell took the top two spots in the 100-yard freestyle. Kuras established a new MAC meet and pool record with her victory in 48.89 seconds as Morrell touched second in 49.47 as both swimmers earned NCAA B qualifying standards. 

Morrell Wins 50 Freestyle Title

Mallory Morrell opened her MAC meet on Thursday as she broke her pool, UB, MAC and MAC meet records in winning the 50-yard freestyle in 22.24 seconds. She had earlier broken all four marks in the morning heats when she finished in 22.29 earning an NCAA B qualifying mark and breaking her own UB record by .30 seconds. 

Relayers Take Three Victories

The Bulls won three of the five relays at the meet. They opened on Thursday with a victory in the 200-yard freestyle relay as the foursome of Kuras, Marissa Murphy, Karly Moore and Morrell broke the pool record with a 1:30.46 clocking. The time was .01 seconds off of the school record set at the 2012 MAC Championships. The time also earned the foursome an NCAA B qualifying mark. On Friday, an exciting finish highlighted UB's win in the 800-yard freestyle relay. UB rallied from third place in the final 25 yards to win the race, setting a new school record of 7:22.04, shaving five seconds off the previous record. The foursome included Powers, Paula Stoddard, Becky Evangelista and Kuras. Kuras tracked down Miami and Bowling Green swimmers on the final turn of the race and touched both opponents to win by a second and a half. Saturday, the Bulls finished the meet with a win in the final event of the meet, the 400-yard freestyle relay in a pool record time of 3:20.24. The foursome included Morrell, Murphy, Moore and Kuras. 

Powers, Ragen Set School Records

Two additional school records were set by the Bulls in the three-day meet. In the 1,650-yard freestyle, Jessica Powers set the UB record of 16:24.96 to place third overall while Paula Stoddard finished fifth in 16:54.24. Powers cut more than 20 seconds off Jordan Deren's previous mark. Rachael Ragen set the school record to win consolation final of the 200-yard butterfly, placing ninth overall, in 2:02.16, .37 seconds better than Dani Adank's 2011 record.