The breast cancer awareness meets keep rolling in and the Cornell vs. University of Buffalo Breaststroke 4 Hope meet, sponsored by Speedo, proved that Buffalo is all the powerhouse they are cracked up to be. Though the meet remained scoreless, Buffalo showed dominance in all areas, especially the free events, while the Cornell freshman really stepped up to tackle this meet.
Brittney Kuras of Buffalo made her presence known in the short freestyle events. In the 200 Medley Relay, her free leg of a 23.24 helped nail the first place for her relay. While she didn’t swim the 50 free individually, her 100 free time individually was a 51.21 and another first place, while in the 400 Medley Relay her time just barely tipped over the 50 second mark with a 50.03 which gave another first place for the Buffalo relay.
Buffalo sophomore Tommy Steele made a splash in the short free events as well. The Buffalo 200 Medley Relay took first over a second and third place finish by Cornell. His 20.72 was the fastest freestyle split by almost a half second in the whole field. His streak didn’t stop there: the 200 freestyle took third with a 1:44.83 while his 100 free dominated again with a first place finish of 46.56. In the men’s 400 Free Relay in the end, he shaved off .3 seconds from his previous individual time.
As far as Buffalo distance is concerned, it seemed that Bill Caffee had things under control. In his first place finish in the 1000 free, he didn’t break 30 seconds on the whole race and left his competition feeling the hurt as he finished 18 seconds faster than second place with a time of 9:42.23. His talents don’t stop at distance freestyle though, his 2:12.10 200 Breaststroke time grabbed another first place finish for Buffalo.
The women Buffalo freestylers also made an impact in the 1000 free as Paula Stoddard takes two first place finishes in the 1000 free with a 10:29.24 and a 5:08.51 in the 500 freestyle. But right behind her with a time of 10:33.96 was Cornell freshman Currie Murch Elliot who had a great first meet as well.
Currie Murch Elliot not only took second for the Bears in the 1000 free but took first place in the 200 IM with a time of 2:09.90. Right behind her was twin sister Billy Murch Elliot with a time of 2:10.09. Billy seems to be more of a breaststroker, as she out split her sister by almost a full second on the breaststroke leg.
In the 200 fly, Buffalo showed its dominance by taking two first places as Brittney Walters takes first for the women with a 2:09.85 and Matthew Bitara takes first for the men in a 1:53.49. Cornell crashed the party in the 100 fly for the women as Katie Murphy snags first place with a time of 57.85.
Buffalo showed the swimming world early on in this meet that they mean business and don’t intend on letting up any time soon. The relay combinations they have made early on made a huge statement, but the Cornell freshman definitely pulled their weight and added a great team dynamic the Cornell team needed, hopefully they will prove to be a strong influence the rest of the season.
Go Buffalo! Very proud of my cousin’s son Tommy Steele. Fantastic job!