University at Buffalo
Men''s MAC Championships
Records fall on Day 3 of MAC Championships
3/4/2016 12:00:00 AM | Swimming and Diving
YPSILANTI, MI - Buffalo continued to shine at the 2016 men's swimming and diving MAC Championships on Friday. In total three UB school records fell on Thursday night during the finals session. With one day of action remaining, the Bulls currently sit in third place overall.
Mason Miller won his second individual event of the conference championship. This time he broke the school record in the 100 fly with a time of 47.07. Miller's performance broke the previous record of 47.32, which was set by Mike Dugan during the 2013-14 season.
Itai De La Vega broke the 100 breaststroke school record twice on Thursday. In the preliminary round he swam the four-lap event in 54.03 before winning the finals heat with a time of 53.69. As a result, he not only earned 20 team points for Buffalo, but also broke the MAC, MAC Champs, and pool record in addition to being the current record holder at UB. Additionally, a time of 53.69 is two seconds faster than the NCAA B Cut time and currently ranks him tied-61st across all of Division 1.
The record-setting performances didn't stop at two events as the Bulls broke another relay record. This time the 400 medley relay team consisting of Hudson Carroll, De La Vega, Miller, and Antonio Lanzi set a new school record with a time of 3:12.72 and broke a three-season old record.
Earlier on the night, Carroll finished fourth in the backstroke to earn 15 team points with a time of 48.81, which was .06 seconds slower than his preliminary time.
Scott Huang also reached the podium in the 100 breaststroke by placing sixth. He swam the event in 54.81, while Garrett Clarke won the consolation finals heat in a time of 54.45. Both times are an "NCAA B Cut".
Buffalo had three swimmers in the top-16 of the 400 yard IM. Charles Barry led the way with a fourth-place finish with a time of 3:51.43, while Billy Patrum and Reid Zyniecki finished 10th and 12th, respectively, and swam the event in 3:55.43 and 3:57.05 in the consolation finals heat.
After earning 57 points in the one-meter diving event, Buffalo qualified three individuals for finals and two for the consolation finals. The later took place during the swimming finals session on Thursday night. Derek Linebaugh won the consolation finals heat with a score of 3:45.80. His time is not only an improvement of more than 40 points over his preliminary score, but also qualified him for NCAA Zones. Kristian Santos also improved from the prelims to earn a finals score of 3:31.30 for 11th place.
The three-meter diving finals will take place on Saturday night. As a result, the team score does not include any points from the three-meter consolation finals, but will be added in at the conclusion of Day 4's events.
UB currently sits in third with 404 points and only trails second-place Missouri State by 35. MSU does not have diving, so the Bulls have a scoring advantage over them heading into Saturday's prelims and finals sessions.
Preliminaries will begin at 11am, while the consolation finals heat of the 1650 freestyle is set to start at 5:00 pm EST. The championship heat of the 1650 will follow senior recognition, which is currently scheduled to begin at 6:45pm EST. In addition to the 1650, there will be five other swimming events during Saturday's finals session in addition to the three-meter diving finals.
