February 1, 2013

BUFFALO, NY – The University at Buffalo men's and women's swimming and diving teams will host Big Four rival St. Bonaventure in the final regular season dual meet next Saturday at 1:00 pm at Alunni Arena Natatorium. The teams will conduct their Senior Day festivities prior to the meet where the lower classes honor their senior teammates.

Marking their final regular season meet for the men's team include Paul Garman, Shawn Hoffman, Matt Hogan, Josh Meints, Christian Muller, Zach Rice, Matt Schwippert, Ryan Smrekar and Cory Zorsch. Representing the women's senior class are Dani Adank, Emma Miller, Karly Moore, Mallory Morrell and Alex Swies.

The class of 2013 has helped produce close to a .750 winning percentage and both teams achieved their highest finishes in the Mid-American Conference Championships during their time in Buffalo. Included in these achievements are a men's league title in 2011 and a pair of second-place finishes. The women's team has vaulted from a sixth-place finish in 2009 to a fourth-place showing in 2012. And with the MAC Women's Championship slated for Alumni Arena Natatorium February 28-March 2, the Bulls could finish even higher.

Collectively, UB's men's senior class has produced six individual and five relay records. Hogan set individual records in the 100-yard freestyle (43.45), 200-yard freestyle (1:35.60) and 200-yard individual medley (1:46.76) in 2012 and his name is on all five relay records.

Morrell in the 50-yard freestyle (22.59), Adank in the 200-yard butterfly (2:02.53) and Miller as part of the 800-yard freestyle relay (7:27.06) have made their mark on the UB women's record book.  

Several seniors expressed their feelings about Saturday's contest being their last dual meet of their careers.

"There's a lot of hard work that came into this," said Schwippert. "We've spent countless number of hours here and having come to an end is surreal."

"It's a little bittersweet because I've been doing this my whole life," said Morrell. "To see it come to an end is sad but at the same time we've been working hard and I'm excited for it."

"To have an entire guys' class make it the whole way to the end is pretty impressive, we're all really close," stated Meints.

The Bulls will also look to extend their current four-meet winning streaks over the Bonnies. A men's win would mark the longest win streak in the history of the series, eclipsing the four straight wins during the 1996-97 through 1999-2000 seasons under head coach Budd Termin. The current women's streak in the series is the longest in UB's favor.