CROSS COUNTRY

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BUFFALO, NY - Four University at Buffalo cross country student-athletes have been named to the Academic All-Mid-American Conference teams for the 2004 season. The league announced the recipients as voted by faculty athletic representatives at MAC institutions this week.

Seven men's athletes were honored while 16 women's athletes made the list. The number of honorees on the Academic All-MAC Team is set for the specific sport or is 33 percent of the number of nominees, whichever is greater. There were 19 men's athletes and 44 women's athletes nominated by MAC institutions.

UB placed four athletes on the two teams, second only to Kent State, which placed five athletes. Senior Ben Cady (Buffalo, NY/City Honors) earned a spot on the men's team while juniors Jennie Donofrio (Penfield, NY/Penfield), Jen Jezorski (Elmira, NY/Elmira Southside) and senior Jenny Koeppel (Amherst, NY/Amherst) gained women's honors.

Ben Cady

Cady, an English major with a 3.763 cumulative GPA, turned in a top 8K time of 26:18.00 at Lehigh University's Paul Short Invitational on September 25. He posted a 26:47.60 clocking at the MAC Championships in Toledo on October 30 to finish 38th of 82 runners, UB's second top finisher. Additionally, Cady serves as the managing editor and columnist for UB's student newspaper, The Spectrum.

Jennie Donofrio

Donofrio, an exercise science major with a 3.986 GPA, set a season-best 5K time with her sixth-place finish at the UB Open on October 9 in 19:21.91. She also had sub-20-minute times on the same course at Toledo's Central Collegiate Invitational (19:25) and MAC Championships (19:38.95).

Jen Jezorski

Jezorski, a speech and hearing science major with a 3.611 GPA, scored four top 10 finishes in her seven races this season, including a second-place at the UB Open (18:25.84) and fourth-place at the Central Collegiate Invitational (a 5K best time of 18:13). She also finished 25th among 107 runners at the MAC Championships.

Jenny Koeppel

Koeppel, a mathematics major with a 3.630 GPA, has been UB's most consistent runner this season, earning first-team All-MAC honors with her victory at the MAC Championships in 17:51.70, the first MAC individual title for a UB cross country athlete. The time was just two seconds off her career-best mark of 17:49 set on the same Toledo course earlier in the season. Koeppel has also been honored as the MAC's Women's Runner of the Week four times this season, the most of any MAC athlete in any sport in 2004. She also had first-place finishes in three other meets this season, the Tommy Evans Invitational, the Central Collegiate Invitational and the UB Open, and a second-place finish at the LaSalle Invitational. Koeppel also earned Academic All-MAC honors in cross country in 2003 and outdoor track and field in 2004.

The Academic All-MAC honor is for a student-athlete who has excelled in athletics and academics. To qualify, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.20 cumulative GPA and have participated in at least 50 percent of the contests for that particular sport. First-year students and junior college transfers in their first year of residence are not eligible for the award.

UB's cross country teams will compete this weekend at the NCAA's Northeast Regionals. The meet will be held at Van Cortlandt Park in New York.