Sidelines

Awards for Battle

Turner Battle of the men's basketball team was named a 2005 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-American for the first time.

The College Sports Information Directors of America named Battle to the second team Academic All-American team.

Also receiving these honors are Erik Benzel of Denver, Craig Forth from Syracuse, Dan Grunfeld of Stanford and Neil Plankk of Illinois State. Battle has received a lot of recognition recently, and has been nominated for the Mid-American Conference's Most Valuable Player award.

With Battle's help, the Bulls have reached the 18-win mark for only the second time since the Bulls' return to Division I in 1991.

Battle leads the Bulls in scoring with 15.6 points per game, assists with 4.38 assists per game and 3-point field goal percentage with 40.2 percent.

There has been only one other UB athlete since 1991 to be named an Academic All-American; former football player Dan Poulsen received that honor in 1998.

Adams honored

Luke Adams, a swimmer for UB's men's swimming and diving team has been named the Mid-American Conference's Men's Swimmer of the Week. The league office in Cleveland announced the award on Wednesday night.

Setting two new career bests for himself at last weekend's ECAC Championships in Pittsburgh, Adams scored a sixth place finish in the 100-yard backstroke with a time of 52.53, after beating his career best time in the preliminary heats for that event with a time of 52.32.

Adams also finished sixth in the 200-yard backstroke, again setting a new career-best time in the qualifying heats with a time of 1:52.69.

Strong performances from Adams and other UB swimmers and divers spurred the Bulls to a 12th place finish out of 24 teams at the ECAC Championships.

UB will be in action again when the Bulls take part in the MAC championships, which conclude on Saturday.