MEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING

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BUFFALO, NY - The first night of the Mid-American Conference Men's Swimming and Diving Championships were completed Thursday night with Eastern Michigan University opening up a commanding lead in the team competition and a pair of pool records set in the finals at the University at Buffalo's Alumni Arena Natatorium.

Patrick Lee

The Eagles comfortably lead the six-team competition with 316 points. A race for second has emerged with four teams in contention, Miami and Toledo are tied for second with 157 points each, while Ball State is third at 152 and Ohio is fifth with 137. Host Buffalo is sixth in the meet with 80 points.

Two pool records were scored in Thursday's finals as Toledo's Lorant Divald won the 500 freestyle in 4:24.81, establishing an NCAA "B" cut mark and eclipsing the eight-year old pool mark by nearly three seconds. The Eastern Michigan 400 medley relay team of Kevin Doak, John Bartlet, Doug Fleming and Jeff Luhn also broke a pool record to win in 3:18.47 to break the old mark set in 1990 by more than two seconds.

Jon Yarger

Other winners from Thursday included Toledo's J.P. VanZyl successfully defending his MAC title in the 50 freestyle, taking the race in 20.51. Justin Breitigam of Eastern Michigan won the 200 individual medley in 1:50.81. Eastern Michigan's Andrew Siebenick won the one-meter diving with a meet record 300.25 points. EMU's 200 free relay squad of Jeff Luhn, Doak, Ryan Meekins and Fleming was also victorious in 1:22.40.

UB's top mark Thursday night was established by Patrick Lee (North Tonawanda, NY/North Tonawanda) in the one-meter diving with 272.30 points to take fourth place. Other individual scorers for the Bulls included Jon Yarger (Centre Hill, PA/Penns Valley) recording a lifetime-best in the 500 freestyle with a 4:36.60 clocking to finish in 13th place. Mark Sy (Scarborough, Ontario/Mary Ward) took 16th in the same race in 4:40.49, after establishing his lifetime-best of 4:36.86 in the preliminaries. Sprint specialist Aviv Oren (Rishon Le-Zion, Israel/Makif A') also posted lifetime-bests in both sessions of the 50 freestyle, finishing the finals in 13th place in 21.48.

Competition continues through Saturday. Live results and audio play-by-play can be downloaded via the internet through the UB athletic website, www.buffalobulls.com.

Thursday's Champions

200 Free Relay Eastern Michigan 1:22.40

(Jeff Luhn, Kevin Doak, Ryan Meekins, Doug Fleming)

500 Freestyle Lorant Divald (Toledo) 4:24.81

200 Individual Medley Justin Breitigam (Eastern Michigan) 1:50.82

50 Freestyle J.P. VanZyl (Toledo) 20.61

1-Meter Diving Andrew Siebenick (Eastern Michigan) 300.25

400 Medley Relay Eastern Michigan 3:18.47

(Kevin Doak, John Bartlet, Doug Fleming, Jeff Luhn)