WOMEN'S SWIMMING & DIVING

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Lehner Wins MAC Women's Swimmer of the Week Award

Andrea Lehner

BUFFALO, NY – For the third time this season, the Mid-American Conference has named University at Buffalo sophomore Andrea Lehner (Lockport, NY/Orchard Park) as the league's Women's Swimmer of the Week.

Lehner had an impressive performance at last weekend's Zippy Invitational at the University of Akron, scoring three individual wins and being a part of two relay victors. She also set two UB records and four meet records at the three-day meet.

On the meet's first day, Lehner set a new meet record in winning the 200-yard individual medley in 2:04.37, breaking the mark of 2:04.69 set by Akron’s Danielle Beland at the 2005 meet. She also helped the Bulls to a new school and meet record in the 200-yard freestyle relay in 1:35.33, cutting nearly a second off the previous meet record (1:36.25) and more than a second off the old UB mark (1:36.47, set in 2002). Lehner was followed by Sam Palma (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster), Meghan Lafferty (East Aurora, NY/East Aurora) and Jessie Koltz (Chenango Bridge, NY/Chenango Valley).

On Saturday, she shattered the school mark in winning the 100-yard backstroke in 56.27, eclipsing Inger Rooneem’s 1998 UB backstroke mark of 56.83 and the meet record of 57.34. Lehner also led off the Bulls’ victorious 200-yard medley relay team as UB narrowly missed setting another school record, as the foursome finished in 1:46.20, just four-hundredths of a second shy of the UB school record set in 2000. Lehner also took the grueling 1,650-yard freestyle on Sunday in 17:08.78, eight seconds better than Ohio’s Stacey Huber (17:16.53).

She also set UB and meet records for her 200-yard opening leg of the 800-yard freestyle relay. Lehner went 1:50.90 on her leg of the race, bettering Duquesne senior Melissa Johnson's mark of 1:50.95 in winning the 200-yard freestyle earlier in the night. In relay races, the first swimmer of the four relayers can have their time used for an individual distance. Therefore, in an 800-yard freestyle, Lehner's opening leg of 200 yards can be counted toward her top time in the event, even though she didn't swim in the individual race earlier in the night. The Bulls finished second to Ohio in the relay.

This is the third time this season that Lehner has been recognized by the league as its Women's Swimmer of the Week. She also won the award on October 16 and November 13. Between its men's and women's teams, UB has won the MAC's Swimmer of the Week award seven times this season.