Sidelines

All-American

Turner Battle, the first UB basketball player ever to record 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 400 assists in a career, has also become the first UB basketball player to be named an All-American. For averaging 15.5 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, Battle was named All-America honorable mention by the Associated Press on Wednesday.

No other players from the Mid-American Conference were named All-Americans.

Only two other UB student-athletes have been named All-Americans since UB joined Division I athletics in 1991. The other two are Kyle Cerminara of the wrestling team who received the honors in 2004 and Shelly Hamilton of the women's outdoor track and field team who was an All-American in 1998.

In addition, Battle's 3.56 GPA makes him one of only two basketball players in the nation to be named both an All-American and an Academic All-American this year. The other is Wake Forest's Chris Paul.

Gotta have Faith

The Mid-American Conference has given out its first weekly award for the outdoor track and field season, and thrower Faith Thompson of UB has been named the MAC women's outdoor Field Athlete of the Week.

Thompson earned this award for her performance last week when she scored victories in the Bulls' season-opening event, the Seahawk Invitational in Wilmington, N.C. Thompson's tosses of 48-11.5 in the shot put and her 187-9 distance in the hammer throw qualified her for the NCAA East Regional meet in May.

Her distance in the hammer throw was just one inch shy of Sarah Fletcher's school record, which was recorded in 2002.

Tassy takes five

Buffalo's women's soccer team has gotten five students to sign National Letters of Intent to play soccer at UB starting in the fall. The five student-athletes are Jenessa Banwell, Amy Coron, Brooke McCalla, Julia Teskey, and Andrea Vescio. Of them, four are from Ontario, and three of them played in the Unionville-Milliken Soccer Club.