The Miami (Ohio) RedHawks won the 2002 MAC Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, coming from behind to pass Ohio for the championship in the final event. Eastern Michigan took third place followed by Toledo.
But on Saturday night in Ypsilanti, Mich., the UB women's swim team achieved something that no other Bulls team had done in the previous three years in the MAC. Buffalo turned in a fifth-place finish with 299 points at the championship, its best finish in league history.
Freshman Jennefer Brankovsky was involved in setting seven new records at the championships. Brankovsky swam the opening leg of the 800-meter free relay in which the Bulls set a new school mark of 7 minutes 39.48 seconds. She was also a major cog in the record-setting 200 free relay (1:36.47) and the 400 medley relay (3:31.54) squads.
Yet it was individually where Brankovsky stole the spotlight for UB. She set school marks for the 200 butterfly (2:04.08), the 200 individual medley (2:03.01), 400 IM (4:24.79) and the 200 freestyle (1:51.83). Brankovsky's mark in the 200 IM was good enough to earn her an NCAA "B" cut qualifying standard, which would give her a chance to compete in the National Meet in Austin, Texas.
Senior Carrie Quinlan's college career came to end over the weekend at the MAC championships. Her career was punctuated by four trips to the MAC finals in the 100 butterfly, capped off with one last trip to the finals in this year's championships.
The UB diving squad showed massive improvement from last year at the meet. To give just one example of how much the Bulls improved from last year, UB earned 61 points at this year's diving meet; in 2001 they only received a meager six. Such improvement does not go unnoticed as UB diving coach Kara Sixbury earned the title of MAC Diving Coach of the Year.
The diving squad placed three members among the scorers this year. In the three-meter competition, Kim LaHaye took home a third-place finish with 455.15 points. Tracy Hoover also put in an impressive outing, finishing in seventh place at 395.40 points. The only scorer from last year's event was Kristi Reynolds, and she came through once again this year in finishing in 12th place with 357.10 points.
The Bulls continued to show positive results in the one-meter board with LaHaye placing in fifth with 252.00 points, Hoover in sixth with at 242.55 and Reynolds in 16th at 197.05. The Bulls' 28 points as a team in the one-meter event was good enough for a second-place finish, right behind Miami who scored 32.
The NCAA Zone Diving Championships will be held next week in Annapolis, Md. Buffalo will be represented by LaHaye and Hoover.
