This Wednesday to Saturday, the swimming and diving team will be competing in Mid-American Conference championships. The track and field team will be competing in the indoor MAC championship Friday and Saturday.
Both teams will participate in individual and team events during the meets with results used for a cumulative score to pick a team winner for the championship. Each team is looking to qualify athletes for each sport’s respective NCAA championships, which is earned with a win at the MAC championship.
Swimming and Diving
The Bulls (8-0, 4-0 MAC) are heading into the MAC championship in Athens, Ohio off a stellar team season. Besides being unbeaten as a team, the Bulls had strong seasons from several swimmers and divers.
Expect senior swimmer Megan Burns to look for first in the 50-freestyle, 100-freestyle and 200-freestyle in her final MAC meet. Burns comes into the event having earned swimmer-of-the-meet honors at last year’s MAC championship where she won three events. The Bulls placed in third at last year's championship.
Freshman swimmer Nicole Roitenberg came in first in multiple events this season. Senior swimmer Hannah Miller is the favorite to win the 500-freestyle and the 1650-freestyle going into the event.
The team has broken all the women’s program relay race records this season along with several individual records. The Bulls look primed to have strong results as head coach Andy Bashor continues to find conference success. Bashor sent swimmers and divers to the NCAA before.
Buffalo will compete each day in a set of preliminary races, then final races. Competing at the event will be the Akron Zips, the Ball State Cardinals, the Bowling Green Falcons, the Eastern Michigan Eagles, the Miami (OH) Redhawks, the Ohio Bobcats and the Toledo Rockets. The event will include both men’s and women’s swimming and diving.
Track and Field
The Bulls had several strong performances across multiple events on both the men’s and women’s team.
Sophomore distance runner Stephanie Ward broke the school record in the 5,000-meter event this season. Junior high jumper Selina Von Jackowski won multiple long-jump events in several meets. Freshman distance runner Christopher Nowak came in first in several 800-meter races throughout the season.
The Bulls had a successful MAC season, with three wins at the Akron Zips’ invite in their last meet. This will be the first of two MAC championships the Bulls will compete in this semester. The NCAA tournament will be in March while the second MAC and NCAA tournaments will start in May.
The Bulls will compete in multiple events at the championship with many team members participating in more than one event. The meet is set to start at 10 a.m. on Friday.
The sports desk can be reached at sports@ubspectrum.com.
