BUFFALO, NY - Three University at Buffalo track and field athletes were named to the 2004 Academic All-Mid-American Conference Outdoor Track and Field Team, as announced by the league office. The Academic All-MAC honor is for student-athletes who have excelled in both athletics and academics. To qualify, a student-athlete must have at least a 3.20 cumulative grade point average 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. The 15-person men's and women's Academic All-MAC Teams are voted on by faculty athletic representatives at MAC institutions.

Allison Laske

The Bulls placed two student-athletes on the women's Academic All-MAC Team, senior Allison Laske (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua Academy) and junior Jenny Koeppel (Amherst, NY/Amherst). Laske, a management major with a 3.336 GPA, earned an Olympic Trial B Cut in the 800-meters with a school-record setting 2:04.81 time at the Stanford Cardinal Invitational on April 30. She qualified for the NCAA East Regionals in both the 800-meters and the 1,500-meters, and she advanced to the NCAA Divison I Track and Field Championships for the first time in her career with a fourth-place finish in the 800-meters at the East Regional on Saturday in a time of 2:07.05. Laske also holds the school record in the 1,500-meters (4:24.67) and is part of the record-holding 4x800-meter relay (8:51.81) and sprint medley relay (3:54.64) teams.

Jenny Koeppel

Koeppel set a school record and qualified for the NCAA East Regionals in the 5,000-meters with a time of 16:52.83 at the Penn Relays on April 22. At the East Regionals, she placed 16th in a field of 39 in a time of 16:54.67. Koeppel also became UB's first MAC track event champion at the 2004 MAC Outdoor Championship meet when she won the 10,000-meter title in a time of 35:43.27, nearly 20 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. The clocking also broke UB's school record of 36:21.54 set by Stacey Strothmann in 1995, the second-oldest record remaining on the women's outdoor list. Prior to Koeppel's victory, all of UB's previous MAC champions had been in field or multi events. Koeppel is a mathematics major with a 3.666 GPA.

Bryan Weinstein

Junior Bryan Weinstein (Getzville, NY/Williamsville North) was named to the men's Academic All-MAC Team. Weinstein had the Bulls' top times in both the 100-meter dash (10.95 at the VCU Ram Invitational on March 20) and the 200-meter dash (21.53 at the MAC Championships on May 14) during the 2004 outdoor season. He won three events at the UB Open (400-meters, 4x100-meter relay and 4x400-meter relay) and won the 4x400-meter relay and finished second in the 200-meters at the Bucknell Bison Outdoor Classic. He is a management major and carries a 3.785 grade point average.