Bona women clip Buffalo in last home meet :: Total team effort pushes women past Bulls

Feb. 6, 2008

ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y. - The red-hot Bona women narrowly defeated the University of Buffalo, 125-112, for their seventh consecutive win Wednesday evening at the Reilly Center.

In their last home meet of the season, the Bonnies pulled out a victory in the meet's final event. Sophomore Allison Smith, senior Taryn Ahern, senior Meghan King and junior Kaitlyn Heller edged Buffalo's relay squad, touching first with a time of 1:39.66 in the meet's deciding 200-yard freestyle relay.

The team further benefited from many individual winners on the evening. Freshman Natalya Ghostlaw, freshman Kathryne Valentine, junior Allison Whalen, senior Anneli Johnson and Ahern all chipped in with one win a piece.

Ghostlaw has performed well toward the end of the Bonnies' season and picked up her second win in four meets Wednesday night. In the 200-yard freestyle, the freshman paced the competition with a time of 1:55.84. Ghostlaw also captured critical second-place points in the 200-yard butterfly (2:14.27), finishing behind Whalen's first-place time of 2:08.95.

Valentine contributed to the Bonnies' triumph by taking the 200-yard backstroke (2:10.53), while Johnson streaked past opponents in the 200-yard breaststroke (2:20.91). Ahern set the team's season-best time in the 1,000-yard freestyle (10:35.69) en route to grabbing gold in that event.

Freshman Morgan Ribar, sophomore Kara Small, Smith, Heller and King notched crucial silver finishes in the Brown and White's win. In the 200-yard backstroke and 500-yard freestyle, Ribar and Small both captured second place with respective times of 2:13.27 and 5:13.62.

Smith touched for second in the 1,000-yard freestyle with a time of 10:45.80 and Heller swam to second in the 200-yard IM with a time of 2:14.74. King not only placed second in the 100-yard freestyle, she also posted the team's third-best time of the season (53.65).

The Bona women's other relay team enjoyed success too. In the 400-yard medley relay, Valentine, Johnson, Whalen and King recorded a first-place time of 3:55.97.

On the boards, sophomore Gina Hendrickson managed two third-place finishes. In her bronze performances, Hendrickson tallied 181.63 points in the one-meter dive and scored 184.42 points in the three-meter event.

With the win, the Bonnies finish their regular season 9-2 (2-0), accomplishing three more wins than the 2006-2007 squad.

The women's swimming and diving team will head to the Queen city to face-off in the Atlantic 10 Swimming and Diving Championships on Wednesday, Feb. 20 at the Burt Flickinger Athletic Center.