UB Women's Swimming and Diving Announces Awards
BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo women's swimming and diving squad announced its team awards for the 2011 season. Head coach Andy Bashor and his staff made the following presentations: Marissa Murphy was named as Rookie of the Year; Emma Miller earned the Most Improved Award; Cat Scharf won the Leadership Award and Caroline Simmons was selected as the Most Valuable Performer.
Murphy was part of two UB record setting relay squads at the Mid-American Conference Championships, swimming the opening leg in the 200-, 400-yard freestyle relays and helping the Bulls to third-place finishes in both races. She also finished 12th in the 200-yard individual medley (2:04.47), turning in a season-best time of 2:04.40 in the preliminary round.
Miller, a sophomore distance freestyle specialist, set season-best times in all three of her races at the MAC Championships. Miller finished 20th in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:00.45, 21st in the 1,650-yard freestyle in 17:30.21 and 23rd in the 200-yard freestyle in 1:53.25.
Scharf, a sprint freestyler, completed her senior campaign by posting season bests in both the 50- and 100-yard freestyle races as an exhibition entrant at the MAC Championships. Scharf finished the 50-yard distance in 24.65 and the 100-yard race in 53.13.
Simmons finished her sophomore season by defending her MAC title in the 100-yard freestyle at the league championships, breaking her own school record and establishing a pool record. Simmons won the race in 49.67, breaking the mark she set in winning the 2010 MAC championship by two-hundredths of a second and earning a B cut. She also established B cuts in the 50- and 200-yard freestyle finals at the meet. At the MAC Championships, she set three UB school records in the 50- (22.79), 100- (49.67) and 200-yard freestyles (1:49.12) and anchored the 200- (1:32.47) and 400-yard freestyle relays (3:23.61) to school records. She was named to the first-team All-MAC squad and the CollegeSwimming.com Mid-Major All-American Team as an honorable mention recipient.
The Bulls finished fifth of eight teams at the MAC Championships held in Athens, OH.