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The beginning of February rings in possibly the busiest time of the year for UB athletics. Since you're here, you're almost certainly aware of the basketball road win against Central Michigan yesterday. The women's team dropped their game in McGuirk this afternoon.
For those eager to see Buffalo represented in a national championship, Tim takes a look at the Club Hockey team's chances here. And Bull Run's newest contributor John McWhinnie breaks down Coach Stutzman's 100th career win on the mats.
But there's way more than that. Maybe you already knew that Baseball is getting started more quickly than you can say "pitchers and catchers report". But Tennis continues its strong start. Swimming and Diving is barreling full speed towards the MAC championships, and Softball, well, they're doing ok.
We'll start with Softball, who are the hottest team in Amherst right now. Playing under a new coach (not that much of a surprise, on the balance), they're setting school records in their first week on the diamond, which is a little more of a surprise. Their first two games featured 10-1 and 19-5 victories over Southern. Those 19 runs are a school record.
Also a school record? The team's now-6-0 record after going a perfect 4-0 at the 2014 Lion Classic in Hammond, LA this weekend. Never before in the modern era has UB softball gotten off to such a great start, and all six wins are against southern programs that have the geographic benefit of year-round outdoor practices.
New Coach Trena Peel was an All-American at LSU, and it seems that she has big plans in store for the Bulls. As we learned from the Volleyball team, a hot start doesn't always mean everything, but Softball has certainly caught my attention.
Men's Tennis made waves recently by earning a national ranking for the first time ever. They followed up this weekend with a loss to Dartmouth, but then an historic 4-3 victory over Penn in Philadelphia. It was the school's first-ever victory over the Quakers. Pablo Alvarez was a part of two doubles victories on the weekend and iced the come-from-behind win over Penn with a 4-6, 6-5, 6-4 come from behind decision himself.
The Track and Field teams spent the weekend in State College, PA at the Sykes-Sabock Invitational. Among an eight team field, the women took 2nd while the men finished 3rd. The story of the event for UB was a school record 4:08.73 in the mile from sophomore Brian Crimmins.
That's, uh, fast, ladies and gents. RT @UB_XCTF: New school record for Brian Crimmins in the mile! 4:08.73!
— Bull Run (@UBBullRun) February 8, 2014
Swimming and Diving spent the weekend in Columbus, OH at the Ohio State Winter Invite in their final competition before the MAC Championships, which are three weeks away for the women, four weeks away for the men. I can't find results from this weekend yet, but let's assume they done good. On the season the men have only lost to Eastern Michigan and Penn State in dual settings, while the women as a team have a more middling record in duals but feature arguably the top swimmer in the conference in Senior Brittney Kuras.
Looking ahead, three UB teams next compete on Valentine's Day:
Wrestling hosts Binghamton at 7, Track and Field is in Geneva, OH, and Baseball will play Davidson at 6:00. As mentioned above, the Swimming and Diving teams have a few weeks until MAC Championships, and both Tennis teams take on Duqesne on Saturday at 1:00.