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Bulls Stroke By Dukes, 129-107

Connor Vander Zalm

BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo's men's swimming and diving team earned its first dual-meet victory of the season on Friday afternoon at the Alumni Arena Natatorium as the Bulls defeated visiting Duquesne, 129-107.

The Bulls won seven of the 13 events on Friday as sophomore Connor Vander Zalm (Kelowna, British Columbia/Kelowna) won both distance freestyle races for the second consecutive week to lead the team to victory.

Vander Zalm, named the Mid-American Conference's Men's Swimmer of the Week on Wednesday, lowered his time from last week's Western New York Invitational to take the 1,000-yard freestyle race in 9:51.41, 10 seconds better than his mark last Saturday. Vander Zalm also scored a win in the 500-yard freestyle in 4:50.38.

Michael McDowell

Michael McDowell (Rush, NY/Rush Henrietta) set two new school records in winning both the one- and three-meter competitions. McDowell scored 325.88 points on the one-meter board, bettering his own mark from last season by two points. McDowell came back to claim the three-meter victory, extending his existing school record, with a total of 356.92 for the six-dive program. McDowell scored a previous school-record 338.80 last season as a freshman.

The most exciting race of the day was the 100-yard butterfly as junior Kevin Schuster (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena) held on down the stretch to defeat Duquesne's Jim O'Hara by one-hundredth of a second. Schuster edged out O'Hara by touching first in 52.73 to O'Hara's 52.74.

Zach Ruske (Superior, CO/Monarch) led the Bulls to a one-two-three finish in the 200-yard individual medley. Ruske won the race in 2:00.24. Andrew Tamchyna (Newmarket, Ontario/Newmarket) was second in 2:01.26 and Mike Hurst (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena) was third in 2:04.81. Tamchyna later won the 100-yard backstroke in 53.82, posting the Bulls' fastest time of the year in the event.

The UB men are idle until November 9 when they host MAC champion Eastern Michigan.