MEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING

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Patrick Lee

YPSILANTI, MI - The University at Buffalo finished the 2004 Mid-American Conference Men's Swimming and Diving Championships in fifth place among the five teams. The Bulls scored 322 points in the three-day competition at Eastern Michigan University's Jones Natatorium. The host Eagles won the meet for the fifth consecutive time with 1,010 points. Miami (699), Ball State (592), Ohio (515) and UB completed the field.

Leading the Bulls on Saturday night was sophomore diver Patrick Lee (North Tonawanda, NY/North Tonawanda). Lee scored a season-best 468.40 points to place second in the three-meter diving competition, just 7.5 points shy of champion Robert Krichbaum of Ohio. Lee finished third in Thursday's one-meter competition. UB's Jim Taravella (Hamburg, NY/Orchard Park) placed 16th with 332.10 points in the preliminary round of competition. Only the top 11 divers competed in the finals.

Mark Sy

The only other Bull to earn points in the championship round on Saturday was Mark Sy (Scarborough, Ontario/Mary Ward CSS). Sy placed seventh in the 200 butterfly in 1:53.05 after clocking a 1:53.81 in the preliminary heat to make the finals as the eighth championship finalist. Aaron Moessinger (Elma, NY/Iroquois) was 14th in the event in 1:57.72, cutting nearly three seconds off his lifetime best while Kevin Gatley (Charlton, NY/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake) was 16th, finishing in 2:00.05

In the 1650 freestyle, a timed final, UB's Jon Yarger (Centre Hills, PA/Penns Valley) placed 13th in 17:06.52 while Dustin Hui (Gardner, MA/Gardner) was 14th in 17:12.42.

UB placed four swimmers in the consolation round of the 200 backstroke with each improving his time from the preliminary round. Jeff Hurst (Rochester, NY/Greece-Athena) finished 11th in 1:55.08 with Luke Adams (Quinnesec, MI/Kingsford) 12th in 1:56.06, Evan McCormack (Webster, NY/Webster) 13th in 1:57.95 and Kurt Bessel (Mexico, NY/Mexico Academy) 14th in 1:59.89.

In the 200 breaststroke, Geoff Wells (Waterville, OH/Anthony Wayne), the consolation champion in the 100-yard distance, finished second (10th overall) in 2:07.79, just three-tenths of a second behind Miami's Mike Pater. Erik Schwarz (Fairport, NY/Fairport) finished 12th in 2:09.79, a lifetime best.