MEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING

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Swim Teams Kickstart Season With WNY Invite

BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo's men's and women's swim teams opened the 2007-08 campaign on Saturday by hosting the WNY Invitational at the Alumni Arena Natatorium. There was no team scoring in the meet that also included men's and women's squads from Canisius, Niagara, St. Bonaventure and Binghamton.

Jessica Ballard

The UB women won 10 of the 15 events on Saturday, highlighted by five individual and a relay victory by sophomore Andrea Lehner (Lockport, NY/Orchard Park). Lehner, who swam at Maryland last season, impressed in her first individual race, winning the 500-yard freestyle in 4:58.93, just one second off the UB school record set by Jennefer Brankovsky in 2004. Lehner also scored first place finishes in the two other distance freestyle races. In the 200-yard freestyle, she took first place in 1:56.24 and won the 1,000-yard freestyle in 10:15.36. Lehner also won the 200-yard individual medley in 2:08.25 and the 200-yard backstroke in 2:05.43. The backstroke time was also a second off the UB school record.

Lehner opened the meet by swimming the opening leg of UB's winning 200-yard medley relay. The foursome of Lehner, Ashley Schaffert (Lockport, NY/Lockport), Jessie Koltz (Chenango Bridge, NY/Chenango Valley) and Sam Palma (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) won in 1:49.43, holding off St. Bonaventure's top squad by three-tenths of a second.

Connor Vander Zalm

Koltz also was victorious in the 50-yard freestyle, turning a time of 25.07. Sam Eckert (Eden, NY/Eden) won the 100-yard butterfly in 58.52. Jessica Ballard (Montreal, Quebec/Academic Magnet) took the 400-yard individual medley by the slimmest of margins. Ballard turned in a time of 4:39.99, touching out St. Bonaventure's Kara Small by four-hundredths of a second.

The Bulls completed the meet with another relay victory in the 200-yard freestyle relay as the squad of Meghan Lafferty (East Aurora, NY/East Aurora), Palma, Koltz and Andrea Scharf (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford) touched the wall in 1:41.06, a second ahead of another UB foursome.

The UB men were led by sophomore Connor Vander Zalm (Kelowna, British Columbia/Kelowna) in the distance freestyle races. Vander Zalm won the 500-yard freestyle in 4:48.85. He later scored a victory in the 1,000-yard freestyle in 10:01.30. Vander Zalm also placed second overall in the 400-yard individual medley in 4:23.24.

Both squads host Duquesne in the first dual meet of the season on Friday, October 19 at Alumni Arena Natatorium starting at 4:00 pm.