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Sports Recap

Published: May 29, 2008

Track and Field

Bulls prepare for regionals

Five UB student-athletes will compete this weekend at the NCAA East Regional Championships in Tallahassee, Fla., in hopes of securing a spot in the NCAA National Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

Competing for the UB women will be long jumper Fatimah Hill, pole vaulter Tiffany Maskulinski and javelin throwers Vanessa Roelofsen and Katie Weston. Shot putter Alex Stamatakis will represent the Bulls in the men's regional.

Hill, a junior, earned her first outdoor regional bid with her record-setting long jump at the Raleigh Relays on March 29. She cleared 19-8.25 (6.00m), bettering her own record by two inches, to meet the minimum qualifying distance. She currently ranks 28th in the East Region and 108th nationally, according to Trackshark.com.

Maskulinski, a sophomore, earned her first outdoor regional bid on April 19 when she won the pole vault competition at the UB Invitational with a height of 12-8.75 (3.88m). Maskulinski ranks ninth among vaulters in the East Region and 64th nationally.

Roelofsen, a senior, met the regional qualifying distance in the javelin in the season-opening meet at North Carolina-Wilmington in March and has improved on the distance throughout the season. The two-time Mid American Conference champion in the event, she posted a season-best throw of 163-8 (49.88m) to win the javelin at the Akron Campbell/Wright Open on May 10. She ranks fourth in the East Region and 16th nationally. She will be making her fourth consecutive appearance at the regional meet after earning All-East honors in 2006 and 2007. She finished second at the 2006 regional and holds the UB javelin record at 169-8 (51.71m).

Weston, a freshman, gives the Bulls a second javelin thrower in the regional. She set her best mark of 154-1 (46.97m) at the UB Invitational. She ranks 11th in the region and 43rd nationally in the event.

Stamatakis, a junior, earned his first regional appearance after his shot put performance at the MAC Championships on May 16. He made the regional field with a throw of 55-2 (16.81m), one centimeter above the cutoff mark. He ranks 23rd in the East Region and 102nd nationally in the event.

The East Regional Championships at Florida State University is one of four regional meets that will determine competitors for the NCAA National Championships, to be held in Des Moines, Iowa, beginning June 11. Fayetteville, Ark. (Mideast), Lincoln, Neb. (Midwest) and Northridge, Calif. (West) are the other regional sites. The top five finishers in each event in each regional earn spots in the NCAA National Championship field.

Baseball

Stangroom named to All-MAC Second Team

Junior pitcher Mike Stangroom has been named to the All-Mid-American Conference Second Team. The selections were chosen by a vote of the league's head coaches.

In his first season at UB after transferring from Ursinus College, Stangroom led the Bulls’ pitching staff with a 3.06 earned run average, the second-lowest ERA in the conference. In 14 appearances, the junior right-hander held opposing hitters to a batting average of just .245, the fifth-best mark among MAC pitchers. Stangroom tied for the team lead in strikeouts with 49, while walking just 16 batters in 67.2 innings of work.

Stangroom made nine starts for the Bulls, all during conference play—he was one of just nine pitchers in the MAC to make a start on each weekend of conference play. In those starts, he had a 2.84 ERA. During a six-game stretch in April and May, he allowed just four earned runs in 30.2 innings pitched.

This summer, Stangroom will compete in the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League for the Maryland Redbirds.

Athletic News

Six student-athletes named SUNY Chancellor’s Award winners

Six UB student-athletes have been selected as SUNY Chancellor’s Scholar-Athlete Award winners for 2007-08.

The Chancellor’s Scholar-Athlete Award was created in 2003-04 to recognize SUNY students who combine academic excellence and outstanding athletic achievement at the Division I, Division III and NJCAA levels. One award winner was selected in each sport at each of the three athletic levels—a total of 78 students in 20 different sports from 31 SUNY campuses.

For the fourth time in five years, UB led the way with six student-athletes:

  • Meili Carpenter, women's swimming and diving, 3.772 GPA, chemistry. Carpenter was named second-team All-MAC and represented the Bulls at the NCAA Championships. She finished second at the MAC Championships in the three-meter competition and fifth in the one-meter competition. She also was an Academic All-MAC selection and was named to the Mid-Major All-America Team.

  • Denise Harijanto, women's tennis, 3.809 GPA, management. Harijanto was named second-team All-MAC for the second-straight season and also made her first appearance on the Academic All-MAC team this year. She finished with a 21-11 singles record and a 20-9 doubles mark in helping to lead the Bulls to their first-ever MAC Championship and an appearance in the NCAA Championships.

  • Michael McDowell, men's swimming and diving, 3.586 GPA, mathematics. A second-team All-MAC selection, McDowell represented the Bulls in the NCAA Championships after a stellar performance at the NCAA Zone Diving meet. He earned a third-place finish on the one-meter board and a fifth-place finish on the three-meter at the MAC/Sun Belt Conference Championships. He also was an Academic All-MAC selection and was named to the Mid-Major All-America Team.

  • Jeff Parker, wrestling, 3.354 GPA, environmental design. Parker was an Academic All-MAC selection after finishing the season with a 27-15 record in the heavyweight division. He was a co-captain for the Bulls this season and finished third at the MAC Championships. He finished with a dual meet mark of 11-6, including 3-2 in the MAC.

  • Jamey Richard, football, 3.296 GPA, management. Richard was the anchor of an offensive line that led the Bulls to their first-ever MAC East co-championship. The Bulls finished the season with a 5-3 conference record and Richard was selected to the All-MAC Second Team and the Academic All-MAC Team. He also was named a Pro Football Weekly All-American and played in the Hula Bowl. He was selected in the seventh round of the NFL draft by the Indianapolis Colts.

  • Mary Veith, women's cross country, 3.736 GPA, chemistry. Veith was named to the All-MAC First Team after her third-place finish at the Mid-American Conference Championships. She also was named to the Academic All-MAC squad. UB's top runner on the season, she claimed a victory at the UB Stampede Invite. During the indoor track season, Veith also had UB's top times in the mile and the 3,000-meter run. In the outdoor season, she had the top times in the 1,500-meter run and the 5,000-meter run.

UB football and basketball to air on WECK-AM

The Division of Athletics has announced a two-year agreement with WECK (1230 AM) and WLVL (1340 AM) to air Bulls' athletic events, including football and men's and women's basketball games, and select other UB events. The deal places all UB sports on the same family of locally owned stations for the first time in the university’s Division I-A era (1999-present).

WECK, one of Buffalo's oldest and most recognized stations, recently changed formats to a news-and-sports-talk lineup that features many familiar voices from Buffalo radio, including sports show host Brad Riter. Riter will anchor call-in shows with UB coaches Turner Gill and Reggie Witherspoon during their respective seasons, while other Bulls' coaches and student-athletes will be regulars as well. All UB games will be Web-streamed for free on WECK and WLVL's online sites, in addition to the Bulls' home at www.buffalobulls.com.

The UB women's basketball program again will make sister station WLVL (1340 AM) its home, but WECK also will air a minimum of five games. Those games, as well as play-by-play and analyst teams for the UB programs, will be announced at a later date.

‘Bullseye’ wins Telly Award

"Bullseye," UB's weekly show devoted to athletics, has won its first-ever

Telly award. Produced by the Center for the Arts this past season, it gave fans an in-depth look at Bulls football and men's and women's basketball, as well as profiling other UB sports.

Each episode aired at least three times on Time Warner Cable 13 and each show has been archived on www.buffalobulls.com and can be accessed through the multimedia center. The show featured interviews with head coaches and student athletes from each of UB's 20 intercollegiate sports.

Founded in 1978, the Telly Awards is the premier award honoring outstanding local, regional and cable TV commercials and programs, as well as the finest video and film productions.